ماته ياد شی اے وطنه
ماته ياد شی او وطنه ----------------همه تېر زاړۀ وختونه
زما زړه باندې پراتۀ دی------------- هغه ډېر خواږۀ يادونه
هغه زۀ چې يو ماشوم وم
زۀ به پروت وم پۀ ځانګو کښې
پۀ ځولۍ کښې کله ترخ کښې
ډېر پۀ ناز او پۀ نخرو کښې
ماته مور به الله هو وې
دَ اواز خوږو چپو کښې
خور او ورور للې للو وې
ترنم او پۀ نغمو کښې
لۀ دې پس شوم پۀ خپوړو
او بيا ساه راغے پاپو کښې
ما وهلې به بيا منډې
ستا پۀ پولو پۀ پټو کښې
پۀ تکل دَ تاروګو به
ګرځېدمه پۀ واخو کښې
يا مشغول به ووم پۀ لوبو
چرته ګټو پۀ ټيکرو کښې
چې رابره به سپوږمۍ شوه-------- ماغوښتل به ترې ممونه
پټ پټوڼی نه دَ ستورو ------------اخستل به مې خوندونه
ماته ياد شی اے وطنه --------------همه تېر زاړۀ وختونه
زما زړۀ باندې پراتۀ دی ------------هغه ډېر خواږۀ يادونه
ستا پۀ کلو پۀ بانډو کښې
هلکان چې به ټولګی وو
پۀ رنګ رنګ له هغه لوبې
ښۀ پۀ درز به ماښامی وو
يا به لوبه وه دَ سيو
ښۀ تاو شوی به لنډی وو
يا به لوبه مو دَ پاڼې
يا انګۍ کښې به ملی وو
يا جور کړی ې وادونه
دَ ګوډۍ او ګوډاګی وو
هم ې لوبې دَ موسَيّو
پۀ چيندرو کؤې الګوډی وو
يا داوونه پۀ ميرګاټو
''يا ونی'' او ''دووَنی''
چې به جوړ شو پۀ حجره کښې --------دَزلمو دوه طرفونه
يا دَ مخې ګوزارونه ---------------يا ټيکونه، اکوړونه
ماته ياد شی اے وطنه -------------همه تېر زاړۀ وختونه
زما زړۀ باندې پراتۀ دی ------------هغه ډېر خواږۀ يادونه
هغه ستا پۀ للمو،دشتو
چې به راغلۀ بهارونه
ټوکېدلی به غانټول وو
او لاله هم سرۀ مخونه
کله شين کله باران به
ځانله ځانله ې خوندونه
کۀ به جوړ دَ بودۍ ټال شو
دَ قدرت؛جمع رنګونه
هم اباد دې ګودرونه
مستې جونه قطارونه
پۀ ترخونو کښې منګی ئې
پۀ يو بل باندې ټېلونه
يا پۀ سيند کښې شازلميانو
چې پۀ مټ به کړۀ جالونه
پۀ مهيانو پسې چَړ کښې
پۀ څپياکو ګوزارونه
چې سيند غاړې ته پۀ اوړی-----------اچول به مو سپرونه
پۀ چپو کښې به تارۍ وې------------ تش بازو او شنازونه
ماته ياد شی اے وطنه ---------------همه تېر زاړۀ وختونه
زما زړۀ باندې پراتۀ دی -------------هغه ډېر خواږۀ يادونه هر ماښام هغه مابڼ ته
دَ مارغانو تلۀ سېلونه
پۀ اسمان کښې به روانې
هغه زاڼې قطارونه
پۀ بېلو کښې سرخابانو
چې به ونيؤل ناوُونه
پۀ ميره کښې چې به خراړو
راچېړل دَ زيل سُرونه
دَ طوطيانو،ښاروګانو
پۀ هر بڼ کښې اوازونه
دَ زرکانو ،طاؤسانو
هغه کړيکې او چړَ کونه
يا لۀ جاړو ترنګؤل چې
تاروګانو خپل تارونه
پۀ نارو به وُو تنزری
دَ مړز پِچ پړَ کونه
چې نغمې وې دَ بلبلو----------دَکوئل خواږۀ کُوکُونه
څنګه ډک وُو لۀ سروده-----------سحرونه،ماښامونه
ماته ياد شی اے وطنه----------هغه تېر زاړۀ وختونه
زما زړۀ باندې پراتۀ دی--------هغه ډېر خواږۀ يادونه
هغه دنګ او اوچت غرونه
تر اسمانه ئې سَرونه
پۀ لمن کښې ئې غوزان وُو
پۀ سرونو نخترونه
ګرځېدل ئې سردرو کښې
دَ زمريانو کنډکونه
دانګېدلې غرڅنۍ به
شړړېدل به ابشارونه
پۀ هوا شيکری،باښې وې
پۀ غوټو به وُو بازونه
خزندو او درندو نه
سوړې ډکې هم غارونه
دمه شپه کښې راؤښکل به
شرمخانو اوازونه
پړقېدۀ به اورَ کی-هم
دَ پېريانو لاټينونه
چې جهان پرې ښائېسته وو-----------دَفطرت بلا رانګونه
زما سترګو کښې ځَلېږی-----------دَ حيات واړه عکسونه
ماته ياد شی اے وطنه--------------همه تېر زاړۀ وختونه
زما زړۀ باندې پراتۀ دی------------هغه ډېر خواږۀ يادونه
هغه موج اماج دَ زمکو
دَ هرچا زميندارې وې
پرې اباد وُو ارټونه
دَ هرچا قلبې،جوړې وې
دَ اسانو او غويانو
جوړ زغلونه او مېلې وې
ښۀ چيکار چيکار کندوان وو
ښې پرېوانه به غلې وې
وو محدود ضرورتونه
پۀ توڼۍ کښې څو توښې وې
بې ضَرر دَ خاورو لوښی
کۀ دوڼۍ،کټوۍ،کاسې وې
يو توشک،يوه شړۍ وه
کڼاوې وې او پڼې وې
دَ ژوندون اوږې وې سپکې
ملازې وې نۀ نخرې وې
چې پۀ لو او پۀ غوبل به----------------لګېدلی اشرونه
دَ يو بل پۀ کار راتلۀ به------------وُو دا هسې عالمونه
ماته ياد شی اے وطنه------------همه تېر زاړۀ وختونه
زما زړۀ باندې پراتۀ دی----------هغه ډېر خواږۀ يادونه
هغه ډکه به حجره وه
سره ټول درانۀ پګونه
ښې درَنې درَنې کاټۍ وې
ښۀ دراز دراز قدونه
پۀ پټکو کښې شملې لکې
پۀ څنګ تورې،ټوپکونه
ګرځېدل به تاو برېتونه
دَ غَيرت او ننګ مړونه
پۀ جرګو هَوارَول ئې
ټول خندونه، جنجالونه
لاس پۀ نام ورته کسبيان وو
پۀ چکر ئې چېلمونه
ماسخوتن به دَ زلميانو
پۀ حجرو کښې محفلونه
دَ منګی هغه ټنګونه
پۀ رېلو ئې ربابونه
چې دَ خوند او دَ وقار وو------------ښکلی واړه ساعتونه
مينه مينه ورورولی وه--------------کشالې وې نۀ جنګونه
ماته ياد شی اے وطنه---------------همه تېر زاړۀ وختونه
زما زړۀ باندې پراتۀ دی------------هغه ډېر خواږۀ يادونه
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Barbarism in Swat
Barbarism in Swat
By Khurshid Khan, Dawn, December 25, 2008
SWAT’S Sangota Public School was blown to smithereens on Oct 7, 2008 — a dark day in the history of the area.
This convent school was established in 1964 by Miangul Jahanzeb, popularly known as Wali sahib, the last ruler of Swat who not only donated land for the school but also provided generous financial aid for its construction and operations. It was renowned for its quality of education in the entire Malakand region.
This epitome of architectural perfection was situated in a beautiful and enchanting location on the left bank of the meandering and bounteous Swat river, spreading the light of education. Most of the teachers were Irish nuns who had devoted their lives to educating Swat’s children. They arrived in the bloom of their youth and returned in the autumn of their lives. They also educated the young girls in neighbouring villages and hamlets, without any thought of financial gains, teaching them the same courses as were being taught in the school in the morning.
A co-education system was in place until the 1990s but after the establishment of Excelsior College, the boys were shifted there and from then onwards only girls were admitted to this prestigious school. The school was closed on the DCO Swat’s orders because of the turbulence and volatile atmosphere in Swat much against the wishes of the students’ parents. The school administration decided to vacate the premises and as soon as it was vacated, it was razed to the ground by militants the next day, as was the premises of Excelsior College.
The first school in Swat was established in 1922 by Miangul Abdul Wadood. Both boys and girls were educated here until the primary level. It was not until 1926 when a separate school was established for girls. His successor Miangul Jehanzeb established a network of schools and colleges in the whole of Swat, Buner, Shanglapar and Indus-Kohistan which were then a part of the Swat state.
Education was not only encouraged but free. Scholarships were awarded and students were sent to western countries for higher education. Those who completed their education were given attractive employment. Thanks to these incentives, people swarmed to Swat for education. Students from Dir, Chitral, Malakand, Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi and other parts of the country turned to Swat for education.
After the merger of Swat state in 1969, several other schools and colleges in the public sector were opened, especially girls’ schools and colleges. Private schools also emerged. Gradually, Swat came to be regarded as a centre of learning by adjoining districts. But this evolution of education was strangulated by the militants in 2007 and 2008. Swat is now being pushed back to the pre-1922 period. Even then there were no militants who destroyed their own people.
Adjoining districts Shangla, Buner and Dir have suffered equally adverse effects. The people of these areas sent their children to Swat for education but now they are compelled to send their children to Peshawar, even to Punjab, where expenses are comparatively high.
Meanwhile, back to the Sangota Public School. The religious extremists and rival private schools generated negative propaganda against it but parents were not taken in by these rumours and continued to send their children to school there. They knew that not a single student had been converted to Christianity.
The people of the nearby villages looted the furniture, libraries, computers and other precious accessories of Sangota Public School and Excelsior College after their destruction declaring it war booty. The vandalism and looting continued all day. Security forces stationed in the overlooking mountains watched this humiliating process but still remained silent and unmoved. Eyewitnesses say that even if the forces had fired in the air, the looting would have stopped.
Taliban spokesperson Muslim Khan in a BBC interview alleged that the school had been following a co-educational system and was also preaching Christianity. Therefore, its signs had to be obliterated. But what about the scores of other schools where there was no linkage whatsoever with co-education or Christianity? Why were these demolished?
There may be two hidden motives, i.e. to discourage education and increase poverty in Swat. Ignorance and poverty breed extremism and this is actually happening in Swat. Unemployment is on the rise. People are drawn towards militancy because they are given a handsome remuneration for becoming one of the Taliban. State-of-the-art weapons, handsome salaries and the assurance of paradise in the hereafter are some of the temptations that lure the youth.
These young men are the major source of strength and power for militant leaders. Through them militants have succeeded in banishing the influential people of Swat and have compelled political leaders to kneel before them. Police do not dare to patrol the areas and the army is very cautious in its movements and operations here.
The barbaric Huns destroyed the Gandhara civilisation in the 5th century AD and burnt to ashes educational institutions including the university at Taxila. Today, all the laboriously constructed educational institutions are once again the victims of vandalism. Precious cultural antiquities are being destroyed. These barbaric activities are certainly the handiwork of a strange and peculiar mindset.
It is shocking and surprising that as schools and colleges in Swat are being levelled to the ground one after the other, the people do not protest and the government is averse to taking serious action. Parliamentarians are also silent spectators. Their tongues are tied and their hands fastened.
The process of Talibanisation is progressing in Swat. There are many simple-headed people there who either openly or secretly support the movement, all in ignorance and clearing the ground for it. The valley is fertile and all the ingredients of building and maintaining a civilisation are there in abundance. In spite of possessing all these valuable resources, if we still keep silent, then barbarism will certainly replace civilisation in the valley.
One hopes that the demolition of educational institutions, especially of girls’ schools, does not mean that the people of Swat will stop educating their children. After all, the wheel of time is not meant to reverse its direction; it must move forward.
By Khurshid Khan, Dawn, December 25, 2008
SWAT’S Sangota Public School was blown to smithereens on Oct 7, 2008 — a dark day in the history of the area.
This convent school was established in 1964 by Miangul Jahanzeb, popularly known as Wali sahib, the last ruler of Swat who not only donated land for the school but also provided generous financial aid for its construction and operations. It was renowned for its quality of education in the entire Malakand region.
This epitome of architectural perfection was situated in a beautiful and enchanting location on the left bank of the meandering and bounteous Swat river, spreading the light of education. Most of the teachers were Irish nuns who had devoted their lives to educating Swat’s children. They arrived in the bloom of their youth and returned in the autumn of their lives. They also educated the young girls in neighbouring villages and hamlets, without any thought of financial gains, teaching them the same courses as were being taught in the school in the morning.
A co-education system was in place until the 1990s but after the establishment of Excelsior College, the boys were shifted there and from then onwards only girls were admitted to this prestigious school. The school was closed on the DCO Swat’s orders because of the turbulence and volatile atmosphere in Swat much against the wishes of the students’ parents. The school administration decided to vacate the premises and as soon as it was vacated, it was razed to the ground by militants the next day, as was the premises of Excelsior College.
The first school in Swat was established in 1922 by Miangul Abdul Wadood. Both boys and girls were educated here until the primary level. It was not until 1926 when a separate school was established for girls. His successor Miangul Jehanzeb established a network of schools and colleges in the whole of Swat, Buner, Shanglapar and Indus-Kohistan which were then a part of the Swat state.
Education was not only encouraged but free. Scholarships were awarded and students were sent to western countries for higher education. Those who completed their education were given attractive employment. Thanks to these incentives, people swarmed to Swat for education. Students from Dir, Chitral, Malakand, Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi and other parts of the country turned to Swat for education.
After the merger of Swat state in 1969, several other schools and colleges in the public sector were opened, especially girls’ schools and colleges. Private schools also emerged. Gradually, Swat came to be regarded as a centre of learning by adjoining districts. But this evolution of education was strangulated by the militants in 2007 and 2008. Swat is now being pushed back to the pre-1922 period. Even then there were no militants who destroyed their own people.
Adjoining districts Shangla, Buner and Dir have suffered equally adverse effects. The people of these areas sent their children to Swat for education but now they are compelled to send their children to Peshawar, even to Punjab, where expenses are comparatively high.
Meanwhile, back to the Sangota Public School. The religious extremists and rival private schools generated negative propaganda against it but parents were not taken in by these rumours and continued to send their children to school there. They knew that not a single student had been converted to Christianity.
The people of the nearby villages looted the furniture, libraries, computers and other precious accessories of Sangota Public School and Excelsior College after their destruction declaring it war booty. The vandalism and looting continued all day. Security forces stationed in the overlooking mountains watched this humiliating process but still remained silent and unmoved. Eyewitnesses say that even if the forces had fired in the air, the looting would have stopped.
Taliban spokesperson Muslim Khan in a BBC interview alleged that the school had been following a co-educational system and was also preaching Christianity. Therefore, its signs had to be obliterated. But what about the scores of other schools where there was no linkage whatsoever with co-education or Christianity? Why were these demolished?
There may be two hidden motives, i.e. to discourage education and increase poverty in Swat. Ignorance and poverty breed extremism and this is actually happening in Swat. Unemployment is on the rise. People are drawn towards militancy because they are given a handsome remuneration for becoming one of the Taliban. State-of-the-art weapons, handsome salaries and the assurance of paradise in the hereafter are some of the temptations that lure the youth.
These young men are the major source of strength and power for militant leaders. Through them militants have succeeded in banishing the influential people of Swat and have compelled political leaders to kneel before them. Police do not dare to patrol the areas and the army is very cautious in its movements and operations here.
The barbaric Huns destroyed the Gandhara civilisation in the 5th century AD and burnt to ashes educational institutions including the university at Taxila. Today, all the laboriously constructed educational institutions are once again the victims of vandalism. Precious cultural antiquities are being destroyed. These barbaric activities are certainly the handiwork of a strange and peculiar mindset.
It is shocking and surprising that as schools and colleges in Swat are being levelled to the ground one after the other, the people do not protest and the government is averse to taking serious action. Parliamentarians are also silent spectators. Their tongues are tied and their hands fastened.
The process of Talibanisation is progressing in Swat. There are many simple-headed people there who either openly or secretly support the movement, all in ignorance and clearing the ground for it. The valley is fertile and all the ingredients of building and maintaining a civilisation are there in abundance. In spite of possessing all these valuable resources, if we still keep silent, then barbarism will certainly replace civilisation in the valley.
One hopes that the demolition of educational institutions, especially of girls’ schools, does not mean that the people of Swat will stop educating their children. After all, the wheel of time is not meant to reverse its direction; it must move forward.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Pakhtunkhwa vs Punjab
Pakhtunkhwa vs politicians!
M Waqar
The Frontier Post
Monday, December 22, 2008
I was shocked to read some news reports and statements of PML(N) leaders over the name Pakhtunkhwa and it seems like they are generating new issue of hate and divide in this province. Let's not make it a political issue. One should not politicize an issue for own interest.I see no reason for denying Pukhtoons the legitimate name of their province on the grounds that this will increase ethnic tension. On the contrary, if anything, it will defuse the existing tension. Let's not forget what happened to East Pakistan when West Pakistan denied them their right of Bengali language. The problem is Pakistani politicians never learn from history, these politicians need to understand that Pakistan's imposition of Urdu on East Pakistan was a mistake. It seems like some opportunist politicians of PML(N) in the province are trying to create political tension over Pakhtunkhwa. People in Pakhtunkhwa wants to be recognized as a nationality in their own right and for this they want their living place to be given their name Pakhtunkhwa. Why can Punjabis have Punjab, Sindhis Sindh, Baluchis Balochistan, but Pakhtuns can't have Pakhtoonkhwa? why Pakhtoon are being treated like occupied Palestine who will breakaway at the first chance.? and if do decide to break off, trust me with all its might, Pakistan can't prevent that. Pakistan couldn't beat Bengalis into submission and it can never force Pakhtuns into submission. Its stupid that some people who consider themselves super patriotic imply that Pakhtuns are any less patriotic than themselves. Let me remind those self-declared super Pakistanis that Punjab did not have any option except joining Pakistan. Punjab had to join Pakistan. But we Pakhtuns had a choice to join our brothers in Afghanistan, with whom we share not only our ancestry but our culture, our history, our tradition, and our language, but Pakhtuns decided to stay with Pakistan. How can someone from Punjab or Sindh or any other part of Pakistan give us a lecture on patriotism? I think these people are the one who needs a lesson in patriotism, because by suppressing minorities right and denying them their identity they are weakening Pakistan NOT Pakhtuns. Its tragic that Pakistani politicians did NOT learn any lesson from history. Bengalis were at the forefront in the struggle for Pakistan but when Pakistan suppressed them and denied them their rights and their identity what happened? We all know the end result. By calling Bengalis traitors because they demanded their rights they were converted into traitors. Alas we could learn from history because if we don't, history is doomed to repeat itself. Acceptance of history is a good sign, no wonder, but learning no lesson from it is unforgivable. Please someone help me to understand how renaming NWFP is gonna break Pakistan or divide people in this province? And please don't give me the crap about patriotism and Islamic unity. Whats wrong with Pakhtuns having their identity in Pakistan like Punjabis, Sindhis, and Balochis? It's the politicians who are making mess over the name not the people living in this province. Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan are border provinces too why they are not called, east-south, north-east or south-west provinces why these provinces are called with identity of race residing inside that territory? We are unanimous on one thing that people from this province are all pathan if all are not Pashtun. So please take back the British name and give us our own name. The usage of Pakhtunkhwa in Pakhto poetry dates back to the middle ages. The word is a combination of two words - that is Pakhtun and Khwa. Pakhtun or Pashtun is a noun while Khwa means side. Culturally there is no doubt that the land was called Pakhtunkhwa in Pushtu literature since 15th century .The word Pakhtunkhwa was also used in the modern poetry by contemporary poets like Qalandar Momand (1930-2003) long before it was suggested as the nomenclature for the NWFP. The name NWFP is certainly a misnomer today since it does not satisfy the aspirations of the people of the province. Three of the four provinces the Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan, got their own identity either through their environment or inhabitants. But the NWFP has been named neither after the historical and cultural background of the inhabitants nor derived its name from environment. Since the name (NWFP) does not reflect the true ethnic identity of its inhabitants, therefore a demand for its change is a logical consequence but unfortunately the matter has turned into a controversial issue again by so-called politicians. Those opposing the word Pakhtunkhwa argue that the name will not represent non Pashto speaking population of the province. The argument is unjustified and impractical. There is hardly any country in the world which does not have ethnic minorities. Even in Pakistan; Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan have large number of people who do not speak the language their names ostensibly suggest. The 74 percent population of NWFP speaks Pashto as mother language in present day NWFP and the proportion will greatly increase when FATA will ultimately be merged in the province, choosing a proper name for the province is the fundamental right of its residents. It would help strengthen the federation besides removing the sense of deprivation among people of the smallest province of the country. It is time that politicians belonging to different factions of Muslim League too come out of their mindset and start objectively treating the demands the smaller provinces. It will help us build a stronger and more vibrant federation. Instead of debating again and again over this issue, politicians are wasting their time, they should either spend their time on development of this province or quit politics. There is no need to challenge the Pakhtunkhwa issue as it has been passed with overwhelming majority in the provincial assembly, members of this assembly should discuss how to solve the problems in this province. Renaming the NWFP to Pakhtunkhwa has a long political history in Pakistan. Pakhtuns and nationalist groups, which are passionate about naming their inhabited land after their identity as Pakhtuns, have been demanding change in the province's name for decades. But a number of political groups and opportunist politicians are not in favour of calling NW FP as Pakhtunkhwa and they are trying to divide people. These members of assembly should be discussing creating jobs, hiring police officers, opening new schools, colleges and universities, hospitals and providing clean water and electricity to their voters and keeping province safe, rid Province of violence and terror, generate productive employment for youth, provide education, healthcare, and bring progress to the doorstep of workers, farmers and small businesses, elimination of child labour etc . These are the issues for which people have elected these assembly members to solve.
M Waqar
The Frontier Post
Monday, December 22, 2008
I was shocked to read some news reports and statements of PML(N) leaders over the name Pakhtunkhwa and it seems like they are generating new issue of hate and divide in this province. Let's not make it a political issue. One should not politicize an issue for own interest.I see no reason for denying Pukhtoons the legitimate name of their province on the grounds that this will increase ethnic tension. On the contrary, if anything, it will defuse the existing tension. Let's not forget what happened to East Pakistan when West Pakistan denied them their right of Bengali language. The problem is Pakistani politicians never learn from history, these politicians need to understand that Pakistan's imposition of Urdu on East Pakistan was a mistake. It seems like some opportunist politicians of PML(N) in the province are trying to create political tension over Pakhtunkhwa. People in Pakhtunkhwa wants to be recognized as a nationality in their own right and for this they want their living place to be given their name Pakhtunkhwa. Why can Punjabis have Punjab, Sindhis Sindh, Baluchis Balochistan, but Pakhtuns can't have Pakhtoonkhwa? why Pakhtoon are being treated like occupied Palestine who will breakaway at the first chance.? and if do decide to break off, trust me with all its might, Pakistan can't prevent that. Pakistan couldn't beat Bengalis into submission and it can never force Pakhtuns into submission. Its stupid that some people who consider themselves super patriotic imply that Pakhtuns are any less patriotic than themselves. Let me remind those self-declared super Pakistanis that Punjab did not have any option except joining Pakistan. Punjab had to join Pakistan. But we Pakhtuns had a choice to join our brothers in Afghanistan, with whom we share not only our ancestry but our culture, our history, our tradition, and our language, but Pakhtuns decided to stay with Pakistan. How can someone from Punjab or Sindh or any other part of Pakistan give us a lecture on patriotism? I think these people are the one who needs a lesson in patriotism, because by suppressing minorities right and denying them their identity they are weakening Pakistan NOT Pakhtuns. Its tragic that Pakistani politicians did NOT learn any lesson from history. Bengalis were at the forefront in the struggle for Pakistan but when Pakistan suppressed them and denied them their rights and their identity what happened? We all know the end result. By calling Bengalis traitors because they demanded their rights they were converted into traitors. Alas we could learn from history because if we don't, history is doomed to repeat itself. Acceptance of history is a good sign, no wonder, but learning no lesson from it is unforgivable. Please someone help me to understand how renaming NWFP is gonna break Pakistan or divide people in this province? And please don't give me the crap about patriotism and Islamic unity. Whats wrong with Pakhtuns having their identity in Pakistan like Punjabis, Sindhis, and Balochis? It's the politicians who are making mess over the name not the people living in this province. Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan are border provinces too why they are not called, east-south, north-east or south-west provinces why these provinces are called with identity of race residing inside that territory? We are unanimous on one thing that people from this province are all pathan if all are not Pashtun. So please take back the British name and give us our own name. The usage of Pakhtunkhwa in Pakhto poetry dates back to the middle ages. The word is a combination of two words - that is Pakhtun and Khwa. Pakhtun or Pashtun is a noun while Khwa means side. Culturally there is no doubt that the land was called Pakhtunkhwa in Pushtu literature since 15th century .The word Pakhtunkhwa was also used in the modern poetry by contemporary poets like Qalandar Momand (1930-2003) long before it was suggested as the nomenclature for the NWFP. The name NWFP is certainly a misnomer today since it does not satisfy the aspirations of the people of the province. Three of the four provinces the Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan, got their own identity either through their environment or inhabitants. But the NWFP has been named neither after the historical and cultural background of the inhabitants nor derived its name from environment. Since the name (NWFP) does not reflect the true ethnic identity of its inhabitants, therefore a demand for its change is a logical consequence but unfortunately the matter has turned into a controversial issue again by so-called politicians. Those opposing the word Pakhtunkhwa argue that the name will not represent non Pashto speaking population of the province. The argument is unjustified and impractical. There is hardly any country in the world which does not have ethnic minorities. Even in Pakistan; Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan have large number of people who do not speak the language their names ostensibly suggest. The 74 percent population of NWFP speaks Pashto as mother language in present day NWFP and the proportion will greatly increase when FATA will ultimately be merged in the province, choosing a proper name for the province is the fundamental right of its residents. It would help strengthen the federation besides removing the sense of deprivation among people of the smallest province of the country. It is time that politicians belonging to different factions of Muslim League too come out of their mindset and start objectively treating the demands the smaller provinces. It will help us build a stronger and more vibrant federation. Instead of debating again and again over this issue, politicians are wasting their time, they should either spend their time on development of this province or quit politics. There is no need to challenge the Pakhtunkhwa issue as it has been passed with overwhelming majority in the provincial assembly, members of this assembly should discuss how to solve the problems in this province. Renaming the NWFP to Pakhtunkhwa has a long political history in Pakistan. Pakhtuns and nationalist groups, which are passionate about naming their inhabited land after their identity as Pakhtuns, have been demanding change in the province's name for decades. But a number of political groups and opportunist politicians are not in favour of calling NW FP as Pakhtunkhwa and they are trying to divide people. These members of assembly should be discussing creating jobs, hiring police officers, opening new schools, colleges and universities, hospitals and providing clean water and electricity to their voters and keeping province safe, rid Province of violence and terror, generate productive employment for youth, provide education, healthcare, and bring progress to the doorstep of workers, farmers and small businesses, elimination of child labour etc . These are the issues for which people have elected these assembly members to solve.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
In-camera briefing: ANP Ignored?
In-camera briefing: ANP Ignored?
In-camera briefing
The News, October 13, 2008
ANP not given enough time to put questions
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: The Awami National Party (ANP) MPs attending the in-camera sessions of Parliament, were not allowed to put their well prepared questions to DG ISI General Ahmed Shuja Pasha about the explosive situation in the Fata and rest of the NWFP last week during the question-answer session.
Top political level sources have confirmed that earlier before dashing to London last Thursday after getting fresh threats to life, ANP leader Asfandyar Wali is said to have given a list of his own “unanswered questions” to MNAs and senators of his party to be asked from the military establishment during the in-camera briefing.
Sources said NA Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza did not allow the members of ANP to ask questions as the briefing ended. There are 15 parliamentarians of ANP in the Senate and National Assembly and all of them were present in the house when it was opened for questions from the DG ISI.
Sources said names of five MPs were handed over to the speaker with the understanding that they would put questions to DG ISI during the question hour session. It was generally believed that MPs of the ANP would be given priority during the question hour so that they get maximum time and share of questions because of the fact their party was running the affairs of NWFP.
Sources said the ANP MPs were very keen to ask questions because it was being reported that the ANP leaders had expressed their serious reservations in the past that they were not being taken into confidence by the military establishment about the operation in tribal areas. Likewise, it was also reported that the level of mistrust between the security agencies and the provincial government had reached such an alarming point that the security agencies did not undertake an operation in Swat against the hideouts of Taliban leader Fazlullah when his exact location was pointed out by none other than the NWFP chief minister. After three days, Fazlullah’S men kidnapped Chinese engineers.
Sources said, earlier, during the closed-door meeting between the military establishment and political bigwigs like President Asif Zardari, PM Yousuf Raza Gilani and Nawaz Sharif, the pointed questions of Asfandyar from the top military brass were never answered, which further widened the gulf between the army and the ANP.
Against that background, now ANP leaders were prepared to ask all those unanswered questions during the in-camera briefing. But, much to their surprise, Speaker Dr Mirza did not give them enough time to ask questions. Only the parliamentary leader of ANP Senator Haji Adeel was told to ask just one question. Other five MPs never got a chance to put their questions.
Sources said Haji Adeel reportedly asked the DG ISI that he was at a loss to understand how could armed militants torch schools, burn the official buildings and kill the innocent people during the curfew hours. Haji Adeel asked as to why the army and police continued to sleep in the night when Taliban came and returned to their havens after carrying out terrorist activities in the settled areas.
Sources said concerned army officials gave a long explanation in response to this question to justify their action in the area.
But, afterwards, NA Speaker Dr Fehmida did not allow any other ANP MP to ask questions. Sources however said that PPP leaders got maximum time during question hour particularly Labour Minister Khursheed Shah who is said to have delivered a long speech in the house to show his presence, instead of asking a straight question. Likewise, MPs of PML-N also delivered long speeches on the floor of the house instead of asking questions which set a trend for other MPs which continued till the session ended.
This correspondent called upon Haji Adeel but he refused to talk on the subject saying that he was under oath from speaker NA not to make any comment or reveal any information to the media.
In-camera briefing
The News, October 13, 2008
ANP not given enough time to put questions
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: The Awami National Party (ANP) MPs attending the in-camera sessions of Parliament, were not allowed to put their well prepared questions to DG ISI General Ahmed Shuja Pasha about the explosive situation in the Fata and rest of the NWFP last week during the question-answer session.
Top political level sources have confirmed that earlier before dashing to London last Thursday after getting fresh threats to life, ANP leader Asfandyar Wali is said to have given a list of his own “unanswered questions” to MNAs and senators of his party to be asked from the military establishment during the in-camera briefing.
Sources said NA Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza did not allow the members of ANP to ask questions as the briefing ended. There are 15 parliamentarians of ANP in the Senate and National Assembly and all of them were present in the house when it was opened for questions from the DG ISI.
Sources said names of five MPs were handed over to the speaker with the understanding that they would put questions to DG ISI during the question hour session. It was generally believed that MPs of the ANP would be given priority during the question hour so that they get maximum time and share of questions because of the fact their party was running the affairs of NWFP.
Sources said the ANP MPs were very keen to ask questions because it was being reported that the ANP leaders had expressed their serious reservations in the past that they were not being taken into confidence by the military establishment about the operation in tribal areas. Likewise, it was also reported that the level of mistrust between the security agencies and the provincial government had reached such an alarming point that the security agencies did not undertake an operation in Swat against the hideouts of Taliban leader Fazlullah when his exact location was pointed out by none other than the NWFP chief minister. After three days, Fazlullah’S men kidnapped Chinese engineers.
Sources said, earlier, during the closed-door meeting between the military establishment and political bigwigs like President Asif Zardari, PM Yousuf Raza Gilani and Nawaz Sharif, the pointed questions of Asfandyar from the top military brass were never answered, which further widened the gulf between the army and the ANP.
Against that background, now ANP leaders were prepared to ask all those unanswered questions during the in-camera briefing. But, much to their surprise, Speaker Dr Mirza did not give them enough time to ask questions. Only the parliamentary leader of ANP Senator Haji Adeel was told to ask just one question. Other five MPs never got a chance to put their questions.
Sources said Haji Adeel reportedly asked the DG ISI that he was at a loss to understand how could armed militants torch schools, burn the official buildings and kill the innocent people during the curfew hours. Haji Adeel asked as to why the army and police continued to sleep in the night when Taliban came and returned to their havens after carrying out terrorist activities in the settled areas.
Sources said concerned army officials gave a long explanation in response to this question to justify their action in the area.
But, afterwards, NA Speaker Dr Fehmida did not allow any other ANP MP to ask questions. Sources however said that PPP leaders got maximum time during question hour particularly Labour Minister Khursheed Shah who is said to have delivered a long speech in the house to show his presence, instead of asking a straight question. Likewise, MPs of PML-N also delivered long speeches on the floor of the house instead of asking questions which set a trend for other MPs which continued till the session ended.
This correspondent called upon Haji Adeel but he refused to talk on the subject saying that he was under oath from speaker NA not to make any comment or reveal any information to the media.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Akmal Lewanai.......
Khodaya Paka Be Hesaba dawlat raka
Da che sa bankuna dee,tol zama ka
50 zara jreba zmaka me pakar da
Tata grana na da,ser me muda'aa ka
Akmal Lewanay - A uniuqe insane of my homeland
By Dr Yaseen Iqbal Yousafzai
A poetry concert in the memory of Sher Mohammad Mainosh was at its peak in the late seventies (in village Toolandai, Swabi) and I was one of the passers by who were attracted to watch and listen to the poets.
I had hardly found a place to accommodate myself that the stage secretary invited a strange name to present his poetic gratitude to Mainosh Baba.
By hearing the name, my eyes turned away from the stage towards a smart, ambitious young man, dressed in black Malaishia clothes with a sharp dark beard, running to the stage.
The features I can recall were of a 25 to 30 years-old young man. Yes, all the features I saw were matching the name ‘Akmal Lewanay’ (Akmal, the insane) but in those days, I was even more insane than him to understand his poetry and message.
The poetry concert came to its end and like everyone else I also disappeared.
Today, after almost 25 years, I again happened to listen and watch to a poetry concert in the memory of well-known Pushto poet Khyber Afridi in Jamrud and again heard the same name ‘Akmal Lewanay’.
The picture of the young Akmal I had in my mind changed completely. Today, he was not that young and smart. He needed a support even to climb a couple of stairs. He did not even appear insane to me. Yes, he was still presenting his poetry in his unique humorous style and entertained the audience to its best but his message was that of a selfless, true and sincere intellectual.
Probably, I was now grown enough to understand the message he wanted to convey. When Akmal sahib started to present his great poem, “Wazeer-i-Azam”, a Pukhtun intellectual setting nearby me whispered, “Akmal sahib is doing a true post-mortem of our political icons”.
Every line of his poetry was artistically reflecting the common man’s feelings. Although, his only book of poetry I came across was the 3rd edition of “Tortum” (Deep Dark), with a preface by Pukhto Baba-i-Ghazal, Amir Hamza Khan Shinwari but he has published several books such as Yaw So Guloona (a few flowers), Rahbar-i-Ishq (the love guide), Lewanai (the female insane) and Goozaroona (the strikes).
He is even more popular for his humorous Qitaat always full of constructive criticism but the book I read had none of them.
Most of his poetry is in the ghazal form with a small number of poems. The language of his poetry is very simple. His message is very straightforward and has simultaneously decorated most of his poetry with attractive colours of humour.
All these qualities make him a unique name in the modern day Pukhto poetry. Although, he has written on many subjects but the criticism of bright-day socio-economic injustices is very dominant in his poetry.
His poetry carries every colour a Pukhtun expects from his mother tongue. Regarding the self-pride, he says, “if death is certain, then why should it not be for self-pride, so that you are remembered for ever.”
If he talks of his national helplessness, he says, “Oh, the insane people! How do you know about your pains and pleasures. Do not turn on the candles, darkness is a better hiding place for the helpless.”
He uses every way he can to entertain Pukhtuns. According to Amir Hamza Khan Shinwari, “if a curtain is dropped between Akmal and the audience and Akmal narrates my poetry in my voice from behind the veil, everyone will believe that this is Hamza. He can very skillfully speak in the voice of his several contemporary poets like Khyber Afridi, Ayub Sabir, Samandar Khan Samandar and many others”.
Keeping in view the eternal smile on his face, his straight-forward criticism of the lords of the day and the number of books he had published in his mother tongue, everyone will guess him a very rich and self-sufficient man but unfortunately it is not the case. Born in 1947, in village Shamozai of Katlang (Mardan) in the house of Syal Khan Baba, young Mohammad Akmal Khan used to earn his bread by bringing woods from the mountains and selling it in the local market.
Years ago, due to a disease, his legs refused to climb the mountains and earn him bread. So, the poor and proud Akmal, who used to serve his mother tongue (when he was healthy) by writing poetry, started selling Pushto books.
This great poet is not only writing and presenting his lovely poetry in his unique Pakhtun voice but is also carrying with him a considerable number of Pushto books from Hujra to Hujra in all over the Pukhtun’s land to make them available to everyone interested and thus earn his bread.
Unfortunately, he is always the last man to leave the venue of poetry concerts and re-load the books on his back to carry them back home as Pukhtuns are not used to read books in general and Pushto books in special. And this reminds me Dr Sher Zaman Taizi’s couplet, “Every hostile power came to its end but could not harm Pushto and this proves the miraculous nature of Pushto.”
And to me, these miracles are in the form of insane lovers of Pushto like Akmal Lewanay who could not live a comfortable life among his fellow beings but could earn a unique name in the history of pushto literature, “A unique insane of my homeland.”
--------------------
Tha Akmal lewantob ...........Dr.Israr
ليک : ډاکټر اسرار
اکمل ليونی په ړومبي ځل ما د مردان په يوه مشاعره کې يو شل کالۀ به ېې کيږي چې ليدلی او اوريدلی و- د څو ټوقو ټقالو نه علاوه ېې چې دغلته کوم غزل په خپل مخصوص ترنم کې اورولی و ، دا يو شعر ېې ماته د هغه وخت نه ياد دی
کم عقله خلکه تاسو غم او ښادي څه پيژنۍ
تيارۀ بې وسو له پرده ده ډيوې مه بلوۍ
ددغه شعر په وجه ورسره زما پيژندګلي پيدا شوه - دده اهميت او دده شعري استعداد راته معلوم شو - بيا چې په کومه مشاعره کې اکمل ليونی موجود ؤ ، نو خوشاله به ووم چې ځه که خير وي ، مشاعره به کاميابه او خوندناکه وي - او اوريدونکي به دا نه شي وئېلی چې دا موږ چاته راغونډ شوي يو
اکمل ليونے زما نه ډير مخکې د مردان شاعرانو پيژندلے او خوښ کړے وؤ او يوازې د مردان ملګرو څۀ چې اکمل د ميډيا د مدد نه بغير خپل شعر د ترنم د خوږو سره د پښتونخوا ګوټ ګوټ ته رسولی دے - او د لکونو پښتنو نه ېې داد اخستے دی -
اکمل وايي
ما د حيا نه پوهـ ځان ناپوهـ کړے ورته
داسې نور کم خلک پوهيږي څنګ چې زه پوهيږم
ددې داخلي شهادت په رڼا کې موږ وئېلے شو چې دے ليونی نه دے - خپل کور کلی ، لاره کوڅه ، حجره جومات ، خپل پردی ، دوست دښمن او خپله ډله ټپله پيژني -دے وايي چې ؛ ما د حيا نه ؛ خو زه وايم چې ده له قصده په دې غرض دا تخلص خوښ کړے دے ، دے د ليونو په جامه کې ګرځي ، د خلکو او د چاپير چل تماشه کوي ، ګوري چې دا خلک دا د کلو ، ښاريو او بازارونو خلک ، دا سرمايه دار ، جاګيردار ، دوکانداران ، زمينداران ، عالمان ، ليډران او د حکومت واکداران او اهلکاران څه کوي؟ دوۍ په ظاهره څنګه دي او ددوې باطن څنګه دے ، دی چې څه ويني ګوري ، په لفظونو کې د هغې تصويرونه جوړوي - او دغه د شعر تصويري آئينه خلکو ته مخامخ نيسي چې دا تاسو ېئ او دا ستاسو کارونه او دا ستاسو نمونې دي او ورته وايي
دې ژړا ويراو ماتؤنو ته دې خيال دے
دې قتلونو دې مرګونو ته دې خيال دے
انسانان لکه څاروي پکې خرڅيږي
دې ميلو دې بازارونو ته دې خيال دے
چې غل بري کړي کوټوال غريب پانسي کړي
د انصاف عدالتونو ته دې خيال دے
اسلام نه اسلام آباد ورپکې ستايي
دې وعظونو تقريرونو ته دې خيال دے
اکمل ليونے د خلکو شاعر دے - د اولس شاعر دے -او د اظهار لپاره ېې د اولس اسانه ژبه غوره کړيده - ځکه چې دده مخاطب عام اولس او ټول خلک دے - او هغوۍ ته هم د هغوۍ په روزمره او محاوره کې نيغه په نيغه خبره کوي - کله په سنجيده انداز ، خو زياتره په مزاحيه انداز کې خپل خيال وړاندې کوي - دده مزاح او طنز مقصدي او تعميري دے - ځکه چې دی د خلکو خيال او پام د هغوۍ غلطو ، کمزورو،ګمراهو او منافقتونو ته راګرځوي - دده د نظمونو او غزلونو هم دغه مرکزي موضوع ده - دۀ خپل غمونه هير کړي او د خلکو غمونه ېې خپل کړيدي - دا خبره دے په يو رنګ او کله په بل رنګ کې د خلکو مخې ته ږدي - ؛ ځمه ددې کلي نه ؛ نومې نظم کې ېې دغه غم څه په دې رنګ ژړلی دے :
نور ورپکې نه اوسمه ځمه ددې کلي نه
کډه په حيا کې چرته وړمه ددې کلي نه
نور ورپکې نه اوسمه زړه مې ترې موړ شوی دے
ننګ غيرت د خلکو د زړګو نه نچوړ شوی دے
اوس د پښتنو تاريخ هير شوے دے زوړ شوے دے
څه به وايم ښاری ناپرسان ترېنه جوړ شوے دے
زه خو قدرتي له وېرې مرمه ددې کلي نه
کډه په حيا کې چرته وړمه ددې کلي نه
دا چې
ختم شريفان شو بدمعاشان ېې مشري کوي
وينم چې د امن قاتلان ېې مشري کوي
نوره مې د خېر نه کيږي طمعه ددې کلي نه
کډه په حيا کې چرته وړمه ددې کلي نه
په نني وخت کې دا د پښتنو د هر کلي نقشه ده - چې اکمل په لفظونو کې راکښلې ده ؛ اوسه پکې مه؛ ، ؛غل؛ ، ؛انصاف؛ او ؛ حق او باطل؛ نومې نظمونو کې ېې هم دغه ژړا ده -
اکمل ليونےيو نظرياتي او قام پرست شاعر دے - داسې شاعر چې تشې خبرې نه کوي قول ېې د عمل او عمل ېې د قول مطابق دے - د پښتنو د قامي تحريک سره پوخ تړون او کلکه وابستګي لري - ړوند تقليد نه کوي - په نورو د تنقيد کولو سره د خپلې ډلې د ليډرانو په کمزورو او غلطو هم تنقيد کوي - په ځينو نظمونو لکه انقلاب ، پښتو او پښتون ، چغه ، پښتونخوا او د مزدور حال ېې سياسي رنګ زيات غالب دے چې خپله قامي او طبقاتي وابستګي ېې پکې ښکاره کړيده ، په ؛ رښتيا ؛ نومې نظم کې پرې د پتولا د ډډې شوی دے
زه په خپل کور کې د اوبو ډوډۍ حق دار يم کنه
ما نه چا اونکړله پښتنه چې نهار يم کنه
د دوزخي ګيډې له لاسه ګناهنګار يم کنه
دومره څوک نه وايي چې روغ يم که بيمار يم کنه
د وطن داسې مشرانو ته به څه اووايم
دې پښتنو ته به په خپله ژبه مړه اووايم
اکمل ليونے ډير ګرځيدلے او لوبيدلے شاعر دے، د ډيرو تماشو نه پس په دې نتيجه رسيدلے دے چې
دروغ وايي رښتيا خبره کوم ده چې چا اوکړه
ښه سپينه او صفا خبره کوم ده چې چا اوکړه
جرګه کې د سپين روبو بزرګانو مشرانو
د غلو هغه د غلا خبره کوم ده چې چا اوکړه
هر خوا ته د مړې خيټې خبرې دي چې کيږي
د وږو د مرضا خبره کوم ده چې چا اوکړه
(ګلونو ماشومانو) او (سپرليه په خيرونو) کې اکمل د خپلې شاعرۍ يو بل رنګ هم ښودلے دے - په ړومبي نظم کې ېې چې د قام ماشومانو ته لکه د لقمان حکيم کومې د کار خبرې کړې دي ، هغه د نوټ کولو جوګه دي - په دوهم نظم کې ېې د سپرلي د راتلو ښکلې منظر کشي کړيده -
دې للمو ته چې ګورم پکښې پولې که پټي دي
قدرت پرې غوړولي څادرونه د شينکي دي
راکاږي ځان ته زړونه ښکلاګانې د فصلونو --- سپرليه په خيرونو
پېشتری که چيلو ، کورکمانے که تروپکے دے
قدرت پرې دور راوستو که کندو کې شلخے دے
اکمل ليوني په دې کتاب کې غزلونه هم شامل کړيدي - د غزل په شعرونو کې ېې هم پختګي شته - ژبه ېې اسانه او روانه ده - د سنجيدګۍ نه ور کې د مزاح او طنز چاشني زياته ده -
وخت د رښتياؤ دی په زوره وايم
ما له خبره په مزه نه راځي
ښکليه ياره چې ېې څومره ترخوې ته
عجيبه ده لا خوږيږي ستا خبرې
ما درسره سم سپين ږيری ځان وړوکے کړيدے
يه د ليوني اکمل جانانه مجبوري مې ده
دې وخت د ملاقات کې خو څوک مه راولی خدايه
د لاسه مې نيولی ، ودرولی دی جانان
سرۀ سپين د چا نه ، نه وړم کليوالو تنګ نظرو
د مينې ليونی د ديدن غلا ته اوړم راوړم
داسې به په دې مجموعه کې لوستونکي د اکمل نور ډير ښه ښه شعرونه ولولي او پوره خوند به ترې واخلي - په دې مجموعه کې څو مرثېې او څو سهرې هم شاملې دي - غم او خوشحالي د انسان ژوند سره تړلي څيزونه دي - د ملګرو په وادۀ خوشحالۍ ، خوشحاله کيدل او په جداېې ېې غمجن کيدل قدرتي خبره هم ده - او د شاعر د خپلو دوستانو مشرانو او کشرانو سره مينه او علاقه مندي هم ښکاره کوي- او د ټولنيز ژوند سره دده کلک تړون هم څرګندوي -
دا د اکمل د شعرونو دريمه مجموعه ده چې د پښتو ژبې مئينانو ته ېې ډالۍ کوي - اکمل پښتانۀ او پښتانۀ اکمل پيژني - چې يو رښتونی شاعر دے - مخلص دے - په دې غريبه غريبۍ کې او په داسې وخت کې چې د څنګ ډير ملګري ېې په يوه يا بله بهانه د قافلې نه بېل شوي دي ، دۀ د باچا خان د پښتو ، پښتونولۍ او د پښتون د وحدت او ورورولۍ بيرغ هسک نيولے دے - ځکه خو د پښتنو اکمل ليونے او دده شاعري خوښه ده - ددۀ شعرونه په ډير شوق اوري او ددۀ کتابونه اخلي او لولي ېې -
محفل کې د خبرو د کؤلو خلک ډير وؤ
اکمله بې له تا خبره کوم ده چې چا اوکړه
ډاکټر اسرار
هوتي مردان
www.khyberwatch.com
By Dr Yaseen Iqbal Yousafzai
A poetry concert in the memory of Sher Mohammad Mainosh was at its peak in the late seventies (in village Toolandai, Swabi) and I was one of the passers by who were attracted to watch and listen to the poets.
I had hardly found a place to accommodate myself that the stage secretary invited a strange name to present his poetic gratitude to Mainosh Baba.
By hearing the name, my eyes turned away from the stage towards a smart, ambitious young man, dressed in black Malaishia clothes with a sharp dark beard, running to the stage.
The features I can recall were of a 25 to 30 years-old young man. Yes, all the features I saw were matching the name ‘Akmal Lewanay’ (Akmal, the insane) but in those days, I was even more insane than him to understand his poetry and message.
The poetry concert came to its end and like everyone else I also disappeared.
Today, after almost 25 years, I again happened to listen and watch to a poetry concert in the memory of well-known Pushto poet Khyber Afridi in Jamrud and again heard the same name ‘Akmal Lewanay’.
The picture of the young Akmal I had in my mind changed completely. Today, he was not that young and smart. He needed a support even to climb a couple of stairs. He did not even appear insane to me. Yes, he was still presenting his poetry in his unique humorous style and entertained the audience to its best but his message was that of a selfless, true and sincere intellectual.
Probably, I was now grown enough to understand the message he wanted to convey. When Akmal sahib started to present his great poem, “Wazeer-i-Azam”, a Pukhtun intellectual setting nearby me whispered, “Akmal sahib is doing a true post-mortem of our political icons”.
Every line of his poetry was artistically reflecting the common man’s feelings. Although, his only book of poetry I came across was the 3rd edition of “Tortum” (Deep Dark), with a preface by Pukhto Baba-i-Ghazal, Amir Hamza Khan Shinwari but he has published several books such as Yaw So Guloona (a few flowers), Rahbar-i-Ishq (the love guide), Lewanai (the female insane) and Goozaroona (the strikes).
He is even more popular for his humorous Qitaat always full of constructive criticism but the book I read had none of them.
Most of his poetry is in the ghazal form with a small number of poems. The language of his poetry is very simple. His message is very straightforward and has simultaneously decorated most of his poetry with attractive colours of humour.
All these qualities make him a unique name in the modern day Pukhto poetry. Although, he has written on many subjects but the criticism of bright-day socio-economic injustices is very dominant in his poetry.
His poetry carries every colour a Pukhtun expects from his mother tongue. Regarding the self-pride, he says, “if death is certain, then why should it not be for self-pride, so that you are remembered for ever.”
If he talks of his national helplessness, he says, “Oh, the insane people! How do you know about your pains and pleasures. Do not turn on the candles, darkness is a better hiding place for the helpless.”
He uses every way he can to entertain Pukhtuns. According to Amir Hamza Khan Shinwari, “if a curtain is dropped between Akmal and the audience and Akmal narrates my poetry in my voice from behind the veil, everyone will believe that this is Hamza. He can very skillfully speak in the voice of his several contemporary poets like Khyber Afridi, Ayub Sabir, Samandar Khan Samandar and many others”.
Keeping in view the eternal smile on his face, his straight-forward criticism of the lords of the day and the number of books he had published in his mother tongue, everyone will guess him a very rich and self-sufficient man but unfortunately it is not the case. Born in 1947, in village Shamozai of Katlang (Mardan) in the house of Syal Khan Baba, young Mohammad Akmal Khan used to earn his bread by bringing woods from the mountains and selling it in the local market.
Years ago, due to a disease, his legs refused to climb the mountains and earn him bread. So, the poor and proud Akmal, who used to serve his mother tongue (when he was healthy) by writing poetry, started selling Pushto books.
This great poet is not only writing and presenting his lovely poetry in his unique Pakhtun voice but is also carrying with him a considerable number of Pushto books from Hujra to Hujra in all over the Pukhtun’s land to make them available to everyone interested and thus earn his bread.
Unfortunately, he is always the last man to leave the venue of poetry concerts and re-load the books on his back to carry them back home as Pukhtuns are not used to read books in general and Pushto books in special. And this reminds me Dr Sher Zaman Taizi’s couplet, “Every hostile power came to its end but could not harm Pushto and this proves the miraculous nature of Pushto.”
And to me, these miracles are in the form of insane lovers of Pushto like Akmal Lewanay who could not live a comfortable life among his fellow beings but could earn a unique name in the history of pushto literature, “A unique insane of my homeland.”
--------------------
Tha Akmal lewantob ...........Dr.Israr
ليک : ډاکټر اسرار
اکمل ليونی په ړومبي ځل ما د مردان په يوه مشاعره کې يو شل کالۀ به ېې کيږي چې ليدلی او اوريدلی و- د څو ټوقو ټقالو نه علاوه ېې چې دغلته کوم غزل په خپل مخصوص ترنم کې اورولی و ، دا يو شعر ېې ماته د هغه وخت نه ياد دی
کم عقله خلکه تاسو غم او ښادي څه پيژنۍ
تيارۀ بې وسو له پرده ده ډيوې مه بلوۍ
ددغه شعر په وجه ورسره زما پيژندګلي پيدا شوه - دده اهميت او دده شعري استعداد راته معلوم شو - بيا چې په کومه مشاعره کې اکمل ليونی موجود ؤ ، نو خوشاله به ووم چې ځه که خير وي ، مشاعره به کاميابه او خوندناکه وي - او اوريدونکي به دا نه شي وئېلی چې دا موږ چاته راغونډ شوي يو
اکمل ليونے زما نه ډير مخکې د مردان شاعرانو پيژندلے او خوښ کړے وؤ او يوازې د مردان ملګرو څۀ چې اکمل د ميډيا د مدد نه بغير خپل شعر د ترنم د خوږو سره د پښتونخوا ګوټ ګوټ ته رسولی دے - او د لکونو پښتنو نه ېې داد اخستے دی -
اکمل وايي
ما د حيا نه پوهـ ځان ناپوهـ کړے ورته
داسې نور کم خلک پوهيږي څنګ چې زه پوهيږم
ددې داخلي شهادت په رڼا کې موږ وئېلے شو چې دے ليونی نه دے - خپل کور کلی ، لاره کوڅه ، حجره جومات ، خپل پردی ، دوست دښمن او خپله ډله ټپله پيژني -دے وايي چې ؛ ما د حيا نه ؛ خو زه وايم چې ده له قصده په دې غرض دا تخلص خوښ کړے دے ، دے د ليونو په جامه کې ګرځي ، د خلکو او د چاپير چل تماشه کوي ، ګوري چې دا خلک دا د کلو ، ښاريو او بازارونو خلک ، دا سرمايه دار ، جاګيردار ، دوکانداران ، زمينداران ، عالمان ، ليډران او د حکومت واکداران او اهلکاران څه کوي؟ دوۍ په ظاهره څنګه دي او ددوې باطن څنګه دے ، دی چې څه ويني ګوري ، په لفظونو کې د هغې تصويرونه جوړوي - او دغه د شعر تصويري آئينه خلکو ته مخامخ نيسي چې دا تاسو ېئ او دا ستاسو کارونه او دا ستاسو نمونې دي او ورته وايي
دې ژړا ويراو ماتؤنو ته دې خيال دے
دې قتلونو دې مرګونو ته دې خيال دے
انسانان لکه څاروي پکې خرڅيږي
دې ميلو دې بازارونو ته دې خيال دے
چې غل بري کړي کوټوال غريب پانسي کړي
د انصاف عدالتونو ته دې خيال دے
اسلام نه اسلام آباد ورپکې ستايي
دې وعظونو تقريرونو ته دې خيال دے
اکمل ليونے د خلکو شاعر دے - د اولس شاعر دے -او د اظهار لپاره ېې د اولس اسانه ژبه غوره کړيده - ځکه چې دده مخاطب عام اولس او ټول خلک دے - او هغوۍ ته هم د هغوۍ په روزمره او محاوره کې نيغه په نيغه خبره کوي - کله په سنجيده انداز ، خو زياتره په مزاحيه انداز کې خپل خيال وړاندې کوي - دده مزاح او طنز مقصدي او تعميري دے - ځکه چې دی د خلکو خيال او پام د هغوۍ غلطو ، کمزورو،ګمراهو او منافقتونو ته راګرځوي - دده د نظمونو او غزلونو هم دغه مرکزي موضوع ده - دۀ خپل غمونه هير کړي او د خلکو غمونه ېې خپل کړيدي - دا خبره دے په يو رنګ او کله په بل رنګ کې د خلکو مخې ته ږدي - ؛ ځمه ددې کلي نه ؛ نومې نظم کې ېې دغه غم څه په دې رنګ ژړلی دے :
نور ورپکې نه اوسمه ځمه ددې کلي نه
کډه په حيا کې چرته وړمه ددې کلي نه
نور ورپکې نه اوسمه زړه مې ترې موړ شوی دے
ننګ غيرت د خلکو د زړګو نه نچوړ شوی دے
اوس د پښتنو تاريخ هير شوے دے زوړ شوے دے
څه به وايم ښاری ناپرسان ترېنه جوړ شوے دے
زه خو قدرتي له وېرې مرمه ددې کلي نه
کډه په حيا کې چرته وړمه ددې کلي نه
دا چې
ختم شريفان شو بدمعاشان ېې مشري کوي
وينم چې د امن قاتلان ېې مشري کوي
نوره مې د خېر نه کيږي طمعه ددې کلي نه
کډه په حيا کې چرته وړمه ددې کلي نه
په نني وخت کې دا د پښتنو د هر کلي نقشه ده - چې اکمل په لفظونو کې راکښلې ده ؛ اوسه پکې مه؛ ، ؛غل؛ ، ؛انصاف؛ او ؛ حق او باطل؛ نومې نظمونو کې ېې هم دغه ژړا ده -
اکمل ليونےيو نظرياتي او قام پرست شاعر دے - داسې شاعر چې تشې خبرې نه کوي قول ېې د عمل او عمل ېې د قول مطابق دے - د پښتنو د قامي تحريک سره پوخ تړون او کلکه وابستګي لري - ړوند تقليد نه کوي - په نورو د تنقيد کولو سره د خپلې ډلې د ليډرانو په کمزورو او غلطو هم تنقيد کوي - په ځينو نظمونو لکه انقلاب ، پښتو او پښتون ، چغه ، پښتونخوا او د مزدور حال ېې سياسي رنګ زيات غالب دے چې خپله قامي او طبقاتي وابستګي ېې پکې ښکاره کړيده ، په ؛ رښتيا ؛ نومې نظم کې پرې د پتولا د ډډې شوی دے
زه په خپل کور کې د اوبو ډوډۍ حق دار يم کنه
ما نه چا اونکړله پښتنه چې نهار يم کنه
د دوزخي ګيډې له لاسه ګناهنګار يم کنه
دومره څوک نه وايي چې روغ يم که بيمار يم کنه
د وطن داسې مشرانو ته به څه اووايم
دې پښتنو ته به په خپله ژبه مړه اووايم
اکمل ليونے ډير ګرځيدلے او لوبيدلے شاعر دے، د ډيرو تماشو نه پس په دې نتيجه رسيدلے دے چې
دروغ وايي رښتيا خبره کوم ده چې چا اوکړه
ښه سپينه او صفا خبره کوم ده چې چا اوکړه
جرګه کې د سپين روبو بزرګانو مشرانو
د غلو هغه د غلا خبره کوم ده چې چا اوکړه
هر خوا ته د مړې خيټې خبرې دي چې کيږي
د وږو د مرضا خبره کوم ده چې چا اوکړه
(ګلونو ماشومانو) او (سپرليه په خيرونو) کې اکمل د خپلې شاعرۍ يو بل رنګ هم ښودلے دے - په ړومبي نظم کې ېې چې د قام ماشومانو ته لکه د لقمان حکيم کومې د کار خبرې کړې دي ، هغه د نوټ کولو جوګه دي - په دوهم نظم کې ېې د سپرلي د راتلو ښکلې منظر کشي کړيده -
دې للمو ته چې ګورم پکښې پولې که پټي دي
قدرت پرې غوړولي څادرونه د شينکي دي
راکاږي ځان ته زړونه ښکلاګانې د فصلونو --- سپرليه په خيرونو
پېشتری که چيلو ، کورکمانے که تروپکے دے
قدرت پرې دور راوستو که کندو کې شلخے دے
اکمل ليوني په دې کتاب کې غزلونه هم شامل کړيدي - د غزل په شعرونو کې ېې هم پختګي شته - ژبه ېې اسانه او روانه ده - د سنجيدګۍ نه ور کې د مزاح او طنز چاشني زياته ده -
وخت د رښتياؤ دی په زوره وايم
ما له خبره په مزه نه راځي
ښکليه ياره چې ېې څومره ترخوې ته
عجيبه ده لا خوږيږي ستا خبرې
ما درسره سم سپين ږيری ځان وړوکے کړيدے
يه د ليوني اکمل جانانه مجبوري مې ده
دې وخت د ملاقات کې خو څوک مه راولی خدايه
د لاسه مې نيولی ، ودرولی دی جانان
سرۀ سپين د چا نه ، نه وړم کليوالو تنګ نظرو
د مينې ليونی د ديدن غلا ته اوړم راوړم
داسې به په دې مجموعه کې لوستونکي د اکمل نور ډير ښه ښه شعرونه ولولي او پوره خوند به ترې واخلي - په دې مجموعه کې څو مرثېې او څو سهرې هم شاملې دي - غم او خوشحالي د انسان ژوند سره تړلي څيزونه دي - د ملګرو په وادۀ خوشحالۍ ، خوشحاله کيدل او په جداېې ېې غمجن کيدل قدرتي خبره هم ده - او د شاعر د خپلو دوستانو مشرانو او کشرانو سره مينه او علاقه مندي هم ښکاره کوي- او د ټولنيز ژوند سره دده کلک تړون هم څرګندوي -
دا د اکمل د شعرونو دريمه مجموعه ده چې د پښتو ژبې مئينانو ته ېې ډالۍ کوي - اکمل پښتانۀ او پښتانۀ اکمل پيژني - چې يو رښتونی شاعر دے - مخلص دے - په دې غريبه غريبۍ کې او په داسې وخت کې چې د څنګ ډير ملګري ېې په يوه يا بله بهانه د قافلې نه بېل شوي دي ، دۀ د باچا خان د پښتو ، پښتونولۍ او د پښتون د وحدت او ورورولۍ بيرغ هسک نيولے دے - ځکه خو د پښتنو اکمل ليونے او دده شاعري خوښه ده - ددۀ شعرونه په ډير شوق اوري او ددۀ کتابونه اخلي او لولي ېې -
محفل کې د خبرو د کؤلو خلک ډير وؤ
اکمله بې له تا خبره کوم ده چې چا اوکړه
ډاکټر اسرار
هوتي مردان
www.khyberwatch.com
Sunday, September 21, 2008
A Modernized Taliban Thrives in Afghanistan
A Modernized Taliban Thrives in Afghanistan
By Pamela Constable
The Frontier Post,Sunday, September 21, 2008, Ramadan 20, 1429 A.H.
Just one year ago, the Taliban insurgency was a furtive, loosely organized guerrilla force that carried out hit-and-run ambushes, burned empty schools, left warning letters at night and concentrated attacks in the southern rural regions of its ethnic and religious heartland. Today it is a larger, better armed and more confident militia, capable of mounting sustained military assaults. Its forces operate in virtually every province and control many districts in areas ringing the capital. Its fighters have bombed embassies and prisons, nearly assassinated the president, executed foreign aid workers and hanged or beheaded dozens of Afghans. The new Taliban movement has created a parallel government structure that includes defense and finance councils and appoints judges and officials in some areas. It offers cash to recruits and presents letters of introduction to local leaders. It operates Web sites and a 24-hour propaganda apparatus that spins every military incident faster than Afghan and Western officials can manage. "This is not the Taliban of Emirate times. It is a new, updated generation," said Waheed Mojda, a former foreign ministry aide under the Taliban Islamic Emirate, which ruled most of the country from 1996 to 2001. "They are more educated, and they don't punish people for having CDs or cassettes," he said. "The old Taliban wanted to bring sharia, security and unity to Afghanistan. The new Taliban has much broader goals -- to drive foreign forces out of the country and the Muslim world." In late 2001, U.S. forces made common cause with ethnic groups in Afghanistan's north to overthrow the Taliban, in response to Osama bin Laden's use of the country as a base. Hamid Karzai was tapped as president by the United States and other powers, then elected to the job. In the early years, much of the deeply conservative Muslim country was largely peaceful and secure. Over the past two years, the Taliban's revival has been fueled by fast-growing popular dissatisfaction with Karzai's government, which has failed to bring services and security to much of the country. Deepening public resentment against civilian deaths caused by U.S. and NATO alliance airstrikes is another factor. No one here believes that the insurgents, estimated at 10,000 to 15,000 fighters, are currently capable of seizing the capital of Kabul or toppling the government, which is backed by more than 130,000 international troops. But a series of spectacular urban attacks in recent months, notably the bombing of the Indian Embassy and an armed assault on a parade reviewing stand where Karzai sat, have turned Kabul into a maze of bunkers and barricades that drive officialdom ever farther from the public. In many regions a short drive from the capital, some of them considered safe even six months ago, residents and officials said the Taliban now controls roads and villages, patrolling in trucks and recruiting new fighters. Its members execute government employees, bomb and burn cargo trucks on the highway, and search bus passengers for foreign passports and cellphones programmed with official numbers. "Our staff members don't want to commute to the capital anymore," said Nader Nadery, an official of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. "They say, 'If the Taliban find my cellphone and call you, please tell them I am a shopkeeper.' " The Taliban is "creating an environment of fear, and it is working very well, because the people have no hope of being protected if they stand up against them," Nadery added. Abdul Jabbar, a former anti-Soviet guerrilla commander and a member of parliament from Ghazni province, said he no longer dares visit his home district. Interviewed in Kabul, he said Taliban leaders asked him to leave the government and join their cause, but he refused and now fears being killed. Last week, three Ghazni residents were hanged by the Taliban, which called them government spies. "The other day, a Taliban commander called me and said I should come help him to free Afghanistan from the foreigners," Jabbar recounted. "I asked him, 'What do you want me to do? Kill a teacher? Kidnap an engineer? Capture a U.N. vehicle?' The people are not happy about the Taliban, but the government is weak, and the foreign forces have not brought us security. What choice do we have?" In Wardak, the next province toward Kabul along a highway that is under constant Taliban attack, residents said they now ask relatives from the capital not to travel there for weddings or funerals. Roshanak Wardak, the only private obstetrician in the region, said that since last spring, Taliban leaders have recruited dozens of young men from her town. Wardak, who is also a legislator, said people in her province may not like the Taliban, but they relate to those in the movement as fellow Afghans and Muslims, at a time of growing public disenchantment with U.S. and NATO military forces. "Their popularity is increasing day by day, because the government has done nothing for our province," she said. "They take our innocent boys and tell them Islam is in danger. They offer them money and weapons. Now everyone is becoming a Talib. It is a great game, and they are the fuel." As in Ghazni, many of the Taliban supporters in Wardak are Pashtuns, members of the country's largest ethnic group. They believe that rival ethnic groups unfairly rule the country with the help of foreign soldiers. Though Karzai is a Pashtun, he is viewed in Taliban ranks as a traitor to his religion and community. One aspect of the game the Taliban now clearly dominates is the propaganda war over battlefield victories, defeats and casualties. Once composed of largely illiterate fighters and clerics who shunned modern technology as un-Islamic, the Taliban now uses a variety of high-tech means to communicate its version of events, often far faster than its adversaries. This issue has crystallized with the controversy over civilian casualties inflicted by U.S. and NATO airstrikes, especially a village bombing last month near Herat in western Afghanistan. Although civilian deaths have been frequent and real, officials say the Taliban quickly broadcasts exaggerated tolls, stoking public anger, while foreign military officers may take days to respond. "We are definitely not winning the information war, and we have to reverse that," said Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette, the chief spokesman for NATO forces here. He said the Taliban uses such tactics as hiding in farm compounds, dressing dead fighters in civilian clothes and then denouncing foreign forces for bombing villagers. "They don't have to bother with the truth," Blanchette said. Today's Taliban also has a much greater degree of formal organization. The old Taliban was disastrous at governing, and ministries were run by barefoot mullahs who scribbled orders on scraps of paper. The new Taliban structure has councils for each area of governance, appoints officials in controlled areas and confers swift justice for crimes and disputes. One Afghan journalist said he recently visited the capital of Logar province, less than an hour's drive south of Kabul, where the Taliban now wields enormous power. He said a man had walked into a Logar radio station and politely introduced himself to the astonished manager as the new provincial spokesman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. According to Mojda and others, the Taliban is still led by Mohammad Omar, a village cleric who headed the 1996-2001 administration and has been a fugitive since its overthrow. Some former leaders hold senior posts in the new movement, although many have been killed. The rank-and-file fighters are a mix of old members and new recruits. Their statements focus on ridding Afghanistan of foreign occupiers and incompetent leaders. Although they use Islam to motivate followers, they regularly violate what people here consider to be basic Islamic tenets against such things as the murder of women and trafficking in opium. Their predecessors used harsh punishments to instill law and order but were often pious Muslims. This year, the insurgents have killed teachers, mayors, policemen, truck drivers, doctors, female aid workers and Muslim clerics. "These people claim to be Muslims, but they are nothing more than terrorists," said Abdul Razzak Qureshi, police chief of Paghman, a district in the mountains west of Kabul. Last week he showed a visiting journalist a trove of land mines and explosive devices that his officers had found planted beside roads and in culverts in the past several months. One such device was detonated last week under a vehicle carrying Abdullah Wardak, the governor of Logar province, near his home in Paghman. He died instantly, along with two bodyguards and a driver. In separate interviews, residents of Paghman, a pretty area in the hills with wildflowers, birches and breezy picnic spots, said they had unhappy memories of Taliban rule and hoped it would not return. So far, the insurgents have not emerged in daylight there, but Razzak, the police chief, said he was unsure how long his force of 147 officers could continue to protect a sprawling district of 186 villages that borders Taliban-controlled Wardak. "The Taliban used to have nothing, but now they have more modern weapons than we do," he said. "Our people feel safe for now, but just over the border they operate freely and have their own checkpoints. If they decide to come here one day, there is nothing I can do to stop them."
By Pamela Constable
The Frontier Post,Sunday, September 21, 2008, Ramadan 20, 1429 A.H.
Just one year ago, the Taliban insurgency was a furtive, loosely organized guerrilla force that carried out hit-and-run ambushes, burned empty schools, left warning letters at night and concentrated attacks in the southern rural regions of its ethnic and religious heartland. Today it is a larger, better armed and more confident militia, capable of mounting sustained military assaults. Its forces operate in virtually every province and control many districts in areas ringing the capital. Its fighters have bombed embassies and prisons, nearly assassinated the president, executed foreign aid workers and hanged or beheaded dozens of Afghans. The new Taliban movement has created a parallel government structure that includes defense and finance councils and appoints judges and officials in some areas. It offers cash to recruits and presents letters of introduction to local leaders. It operates Web sites and a 24-hour propaganda apparatus that spins every military incident faster than Afghan and Western officials can manage. "This is not the Taliban of Emirate times. It is a new, updated generation," said Waheed Mojda, a former foreign ministry aide under the Taliban Islamic Emirate, which ruled most of the country from 1996 to 2001. "They are more educated, and they don't punish people for having CDs or cassettes," he said. "The old Taliban wanted to bring sharia, security and unity to Afghanistan. The new Taliban has much broader goals -- to drive foreign forces out of the country and the Muslim world." In late 2001, U.S. forces made common cause with ethnic groups in Afghanistan's north to overthrow the Taliban, in response to Osama bin Laden's use of the country as a base. Hamid Karzai was tapped as president by the United States and other powers, then elected to the job. In the early years, much of the deeply conservative Muslim country was largely peaceful and secure. Over the past two years, the Taliban's revival has been fueled by fast-growing popular dissatisfaction with Karzai's government, which has failed to bring services and security to much of the country. Deepening public resentment against civilian deaths caused by U.S. and NATO alliance airstrikes is another factor. No one here believes that the insurgents, estimated at 10,000 to 15,000 fighters, are currently capable of seizing the capital of Kabul or toppling the government, which is backed by more than 130,000 international troops. But a series of spectacular urban attacks in recent months, notably the bombing of the Indian Embassy and an armed assault on a parade reviewing stand where Karzai sat, have turned Kabul into a maze of bunkers and barricades that drive officialdom ever farther from the public. In many regions a short drive from the capital, some of them considered safe even six months ago, residents and officials said the Taliban now controls roads and villages, patrolling in trucks and recruiting new fighters. Its members execute government employees, bomb and burn cargo trucks on the highway, and search bus passengers for foreign passports and cellphones programmed with official numbers. "Our staff members don't want to commute to the capital anymore," said Nader Nadery, an official of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. "They say, 'If the Taliban find my cellphone and call you, please tell them I am a shopkeeper.' " The Taliban is "creating an environment of fear, and it is working very well, because the people have no hope of being protected if they stand up against them," Nadery added. Abdul Jabbar, a former anti-Soviet guerrilla commander and a member of parliament from Ghazni province, said he no longer dares visit his home district. Interviewed in Kabul, he said Taliban leaders asked him to leave the government and join their cause, but he refused and now fears being killed. Last week, three Ghazni residents were hanged by the Taliban, which called them government spies. "The other day, a Taliban commander called me and said I should come help him to free Afghanistan from the foreigners," Jabbar recounted. "I asked him, 'What do you want me to do? Kill a teacher? Kidnap an engineer? Capture a U.N. vehicle?' The people are not happy about the Taliban, but the government is weak, and the foreign forces have not brought us security. What choice do we have?" In Wardak, the next province toward Kabul along a highway that is under constant Taliban attack, residents said they now ask relatives from the capital not to travel there for weddings or funerals. Roshanak Wardak, the only private obstetrician in the region, said that since last spring, Taliban leaders have recruited dozens of young men from her town. Wardak, who is also a legislator, said people in her province may not like the Taliban, but they relate to those in the movement as fellow Afghans and Muslims, at a time of growing public disenchantment with U.S. and NATO military forces. "Their popularity is increasing day by day, because the government has done nothing for our province," she said. "They take our innocent boys and tell them Islam is in danger. They offer them money and weapons. Now everyone is becoming a Talib. It is a great game, and they are the fuel." As in Ghazni, many of the Taliban supporters in Wardak are Pashtuns, members of the country's largest ethnic group. They believe that rival ethnic groups unfairly rule the country with the help of foreign soldiers. Though Karzai is a Pashtun, he is viewed in Taliban ranks as a traitor to his religion and community. One aspect of the game the Taliban now clearly dominates is the propaganda war over battlefield victories, defeats and casualties. Once composed of largely illiterate fighters and clerics who shunned modern technology as un-Islamic, the Taliban now uses a variety of high-tech means to communicate its version of events, often far faster than its adversaries. This issue has crystallized with the controversy over civilian casualties inflicted by U.S. and NATO airstrikes, especially a village bombing last month near Herat in western Afghanistan. Although civilian deaths have been frequent and real, officials say the Taliban quickly broadcasts exaggerated tolls, stoking public anger, while foreign military officers may take days to respond. "We are definitely not winning the information war, and we have to reverse that," said Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette, the chief spokesman for NATO forces here. He said the Taliban uses such tactics as hiding in farm compounds, dressing dead fighters in civilian clothes and then denouncing foreign forces for bombing villagers. "They don't have to bother with the truth," Blanchette said. Today's Taliban also has a much greater degree of formal organization. The old Taliban was disastrous at governing, and ministries were run by barefoot mullahs who scribbled orders on scraps of paper. The new Taliban structure has councils for each area of governance, appoints officials in controlled areas and confers swift justice for crimes and disputes. One Afghan journalist said he recently visited the capital of Logar province, less than an hour's drive south of Kabul, where the Taliban now wields enormous power. He said a man had walked into a Logar radio station and politely introduced himself to the astonished manager as the new provincial spokesman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. According to Mojda and others, the Taliban is still led by Mohammad Omar, a village cleric who headed the 1996-2001 administration and has been a fugitive since its overthrow. Some former leaders hold senior posts in the new movement, although many have been killed. The rank-and-file fighters are a mix of old members and new recruits. Their statements focus on ridding Afghanistan of foreign occupiers and incompetent leaders. Although they use Islam to motivate followers, they regularly violate what people here consider to be basic Islamic tenets against such things as the murder of women and trafficking in opium. Their predecessors used harsh punishments to instill law and order but were often pious Muslims. This year, the insurgents have killed teachers, mayors, policemen, truck drivers, doctors, female aid workers and Muslim clerics. "These people claim to be Muslims, but they are nothing more than terrorists," said Abdul Razzak Qureshi, police chief of Paghman, a district in the mountains west of Kabul. Last week he showed a visiting journalist a trove of land mines and explosive devices that his officers had found planted beside roads and in culverts in the past several months. One such device was detonated last week under a vehicle carrying Abdullah Wardak, the governor of Logar province, near his home in Paghman. He died instantly, along with two bodyguards and a driver. In separate interviews, residents of Paghman, a pretty area in the hills with wildflowers, birches and breezy picnic spots, said they had unhappy memories of Taliban rule and hoped it would not return. So far, the insurgents have not emerged in daylight there, but Razzak, the police chief, said he was unsure how long his force of 147 officers could continue to protect a sprawling district of 186 villages that borders Taliban-controlled Wardak. "The Taliban used to have nothing, but now they have more modern weapons than we do," he said. "Our people feel safe for now, but just over the border they operate freely and have their own checkpoints. If they decide to come here one day, there is nothing I can do to stop them."
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Dialogue with arms:ANP leaders under attack
Dialogue with arms:ANP leaders under attack
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
By Delawar Jan - News On Sunday
The Awami National Party, which staunchly advocated a negotiated settlement to the growing militancy in the scenic Swat valley before and after the Feb 18 elections, is now under attack from the irreconcilable militants loyal to Maulana Fazlullah.
The nationalist party, that secured sweeping victory in Swat district due to its slogan of peace, declared the Taliban militants their own 'brothers' and offered an olive branch to them soon after coming into power in the NWFP.
Subsequently, a 16-point peace agreement despite immense pressure from the US was signed on May 21 2008, at a time when the insurgents were on a death and destruction spree in the valley by carrying out deadly suicide attacks and bomb blasts on security forces and even in public places. However, the peace deal could not remain intact, as less than one month into the peace deal the militants continued their attacks on the girls' schools.
The situation grew worse when the security forces and militants clashed in Sambat Cham area of the militant-teemed Matta tehsil, resulting in the death of two Taliban commanders, Shahzad and Khan Agha and a security forces person. With this, the Taliban started a series of militant activities, but both sides kept expressing their 'resolve' to keep the accord 'intact.' However, the militants, angry at the alleged failure of the government to release their members, abducted two cops and threatened to pick up more to bargain the release of Taliban prisoners.
After Maulana Fazlullah's press conference on July 27, in which he claimed responsibility for attacks on the girls' schools and threatened of suicide attacks if the government took action, the militants ambushed three Inter-Services Intelligence officials the next day. Moreover, they attacked the security forces check-post in Deolai area of Kabal and picked up 33 cops and Frontier Corps personnel. After these aggressive attacks, the security forces with a nod from the provincial government re-launched a full-scale military operation against the rebels on July 30.
However, the militants held the ANP and members of the NWFP assembly responsible for the operation and turned their guns towards them. In early August, they threatened to take action against all ministers and members National and provincial assemblies, but their threat proved more lethal than it seemed as the unrepentant militants didn't even spare the families of the MPs and ANP workers. They attacked the house of former federal minister and Awami National Party's senior leader, Afzal Khan Lala, with rockets in Drushkhela area on August 12 but he and his family members remained unharmed. They again surrounded his house on Wednesday night but his guards made them flee by opening fire on them.
The militants then killed a local leader, Musa Khan, who was on his way back home after Isha prayers. They ambushed another leader and former union council nazim, Muhammad Ameen, the same night when he was returning from Mingora after taking the injured body of Musa Khan to the hospital.
The militants, who carried out another suicide attack towards the end of August, stormed the family residence of Awami National Party member NWFP Assembly, Waqar Ahmad Khan, in Shahdherai and killed his brother Iqbal Ahmad Khan along with his two sons and seven guards. The MPA was not at home at the time of attack when around 150 heavily armed Taliban militants first gunned down all the seven guards and then entered the house forcing the family members to queue up. They separated women from the other inmates and fired a volley of bullets at the male members, before blowing up the house. The security situation was so precarious that the MPA could not attend the funeral rites of his loved ones and received condolences at the fortified MPA hostel in Peshawar.
The series of target-killings did not stop; the combatants killed another local leader of the party, Gul Bacha, the next day. All the elected representatives from the volatile district have shifted their immediate families to Peshawar and have stopped going to the valley. This was once the case with PML-Q's leaders and workers. The militants killed the member of Swat's royal family and the party's candidate for PF-81, Miangul Asfandyar Amirzeb, in a bomb blast along with a local nazim. Another leader of the party, Shujaat Ali Khan, was also attacked along with his family members, injuring several people. They also burnt down the house of Jamal Nasir, his son and the incumbent district nazim of Swat.
In a meeting of all MPAs from the valley, the military was asked to withdraw if they could not effectively crush the militants. The MPAs were of the opinion that the security forces have failed to protect people from the Taliban; instead they have increased the danger to people's lives.
The militancy-weary people of Swat are under the impression that the forces do not come to the help of those being attacked by the Taliban and are not serious in their elimination. It is, however, encouraging that the NWFP government led by ANP, whose central and provincial leaders have received threats, has adopted a principled stand of crushing the militants if they don't lay down their arms.
retrieved from:khyberwatch.com
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
By Delawar Jan - News On Sunday
The Awami National Party, which staunchly advocated a negotiated settlement to the growing militancy in the scenic Swat valley before and after the Feb 18 elections, is now under attack from the irreconcilable militants loyal to Maulana Fazlullah.
The nationalist party, that secured sweeping victory in Swat district due to its slogan of peace, declared the Taliban militants their own 'brothers' and offered an olive branch to them soon after coming into power in the NWFP.
Subsequently, a 16-point peace agreement despite immense pressure from the US was signed on May 21 2008, at a time when the insurgents were on a death and destruction spree in the valley by carrying out deadly suicide attacks and bomb blasts on security forces and even in public places. However, the peace deal could not remain intact, as less than one month into the peace deal the militants continued their attacks on the girls' schools.
The situation grew worse when the security forces and militants clashed in Sambat Cham area of the militant-teemed Matta tehsil, resulting in the death of two Taliban commanders, Shahzad and Khan Agha and a security forces person. With this, the Taliban started a series of militant activities, but both sides kept expressing their 'resolve' to keep the accord 'intact.' However, the militants, angry at the alleged failure of the government to release their members, abducted two cops and threatened to pick up more to bargain the release of Taliban prisoners.
After Maulana Fazlullah's press conference on July 27, in which he claimed responsibility for attacks on the girls' schools and threatened of suicide attacks if the government took action, the militants ambushed three Inter-Services Intelligence officials the next day. Moreover, they attacked the security forces check-post in Deolai area of Kabal and picked up 33 cops and Frontier Corps personnel. After these aggressive attacks, the security forces with a nod from the provincial government re-launched a full-scale military operation against the rebels on July 30.
However, the militants held the ANP and members of the NWFP assembly responsible for the operation and turned their guns towards them. In early August, they threatened to take action against all ministers and members National and provincial assemblies, but their threat proved more lethal than it seemed as the unrepentant militants didn't even spare the families of the MPs and ANP workers. They attacked the house of former federal minister and Awami National Party's senior leader, Afzal Khan Lala, with rockets in Drushkhela area on August 12 but he and his family members remained unharmed. They again surrounded his house on Wednesday night but his guards made them flee by opening fire on them.
The militants then killed a local leader, Musa Khan, who was on his way back home after Isha prayers. They ambushed another leader and former union council nazim, Muhammad Ameen, the same night when he was returning from Mingora after taking the injured body of Musa Khan to the hospital.
The militants, who carried out another suicide attack towards the end of August, stormed the family residence of Awami National Party member NWFP Assembly, Waqar Ahmad Khan, in Shahdherai and killed his brother Iqbal Ahmad Khan along with his two sons and seven guards. The MPA was not at home at the time of attack when around 150 heavily armed Taliban militants first gunned down all the seven guards and then entered the house forcing the family members to queue up. They separated women from the other inmates and fired a volley of bullets at the male members, before blowing up the house. The security situation was so precarious that the MPA could not attend the funeral rites of his loved ones and received condolences at the fortified MPA hostel in Peshawar.
The series of target-killings did not stop; the combatants killed another local leader of the party, Gul Bacha, the next day. All the elected representatives from the volatile district have shifted their immediate families to Peshawar and have stopped going to the valley. This was once the case with PML-Q's leaders and workers. The militants killed the member of Swat's royal family and the party's candidate for PF-81, Miangul Asfandyar Amirzeb, in a bomb blast along with a local nazim. Another leader of the party, Shujaat Ali Khan, was also attacked along with his family members, injuring several people. They also burnt down the house of Jamal Nasir, his son and the incumbent district nazim of Swat.
In a meeting of all MPAs from the valley, the military was asked to withdraw if they could not effectively crush the militants. The MPAs were of the opinion that the security forces have failed to protect people from the Taliban; instead they have increased the danger to people's lives.
The militancy-weary people of Swat are under the impression that the forces do not come to the help of those being attacked by the Taliban and are not serious in their elimination. It is, however, encouraging that the NWFP government led by ANP, whose central and provincial leaders have received threats, has adopted a principled stand of crushing the militants if they don't lay down their arms.
retrieved from:khyberwatch.com
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
2010 must be named as Bacha Khan Year: AYA
KABUL: Awakened Youth Association Wednesday demanded that the year 2010 must be named after great freedom fighter and proponent of the philosophy of non-violence Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as Fakhr-e-Afghan and Bacha Khan.
Read more... http://khyberwatch.com/nandara/
Friday, August 15, 2008
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Fata’s growing disconnect
Fata’s growing disconnect
July 31, 2008, DAWN.
By Afrasiab Khattak
IT is hardly an exaggeration that the security of Pakistan, Afghanistan, the entire region and indeed that of the whole world will be defined by developments in Fata over the next few months. Different scenarios are being painted by military strategists and political experts.
Al Qaeda, after regrouping in the militant sanctuaries of the area, is acquiring the capacity to repeat attacks in North America or Europe similar to those carried out in 2001 in the US.
If reports about the exchanges between Pakistan and the US at the highest level are anything to go by it is pretty clear that the US will retaliate against Pakistan, probably even more severely than it did against the Taliban-dominated Afghanistan. Similarly the use of these militant sanctuaries for cross-border fighting is so large in scale (in fact all the six political agencies bordering Afghanistan are being used) that denial in this regard is no longer plausible.
The federal government has to either admit defeat or muster the political will to resolve the problem, or else justify the existence of militant sanctuaries by explaining their usefulness to the national interest. We have run out of time and this decision cannot be delayed any more as there are no takers of the denial line.
As if this were not enough, armed lashkars (armies) from militant sanctuaries in Fata are poised to penetrate/invade the contiguous settled districts. The events in Hangu some three weeks back are a case in point. The Hangu police arrested four Taliban commanders from a car that also contained weapons, explosive material and manuals for making bombs in a place called Doaba not far away from the Orakzai Agency border.
Hundreds of Taliban surrounded the Doaba police station and demanded the commanders’ release. They also blocked the Hangu-Kurram highway. During this confrontation the Frontier Constabulary was ambushed near Zargari village and 16 security personnel were killed. Subsequently the army was called in to launch a military operation in Hangu. This action was not just in retaliation for the murder of 16 FC men but also came in view of the threat of attack by four to five thousand Taliban from Orakzai and Kurram agencies.
By now the said military operation has been completed and the targets achieved to the extent that the Taliban have been chased out of Hangu. Nevertheless, they have fled to Orakzai Agency where they are regrouping and preparing for future attacks.
The NWFP (Pakhtunkhwa) government is in a quandary. It has to call in the army whenever armed lashkars threaten to overrun a district as the police force simply does not have the capacity to fight an ever-expanding insurgency.
After Swat the army has also been deployed in Hangu. In view of the militant sanctuaries situated nearby, the army cannot be withdrawn in the near future. Imagine if the story is repeated in other vulnerable districts. Will the army also have to be deployed in all these other districts? Will such measures not bring the existence of the civilian provincial government into question?
Is it not amazing that in spite of such high stakes the presidency that has a monopoly over governance in Fata seems to show no anxiety over the prevailing situation? It is continuing with the policy of keeping Fata a black hole where terrorist groups from across the globe run their bases. It is still a no-go area for the media and civil society, and so far there is no corrective measure or policy change in sight. So much so that we have failed to take even the most preliminary step of extending the Political Parties Act to Fata.
It is only natural that we are perturbed when attacks are launched from across the border. But should we not be equally sensitive to the loss of our sovereignty over Fata to militant groups? Strangely enough we do not seem to be bothered about the militants’ total control of Fata. When the international media carries reports about this situation we dismiss them as ‘enemy’ propaganda against Pakistan. We have failed to grasp the fact that in the post-cold war world there is a universal consensus about two things. One, that all assault weapons that can be used for launching a war cannot be allowed to be kept in private possession. Two, that no state will allow the use of its soil by non-state players against another state. The entire world is astounded by our fixation with the cold war mode. We have developed an incredible capacity to live in unreality. This is indeed dangerous for any state system but it can be catastrophic for a state dancing in a minefield.
Where does all this leave the people of Fata? They are victims and not perpetrators as some people would like us to believe. They are in fact in triple jeopardy. Firstly they are groaning under the draconian Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) of 1901. They have no access to the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan since they are not justiciable outside of the jurisdiction of the higher judiciary.
Secondly the tribal belt has almost been occupied by foreign and local militant organisations that are better equipped, better trained and better financed than the local population. More than 160 tribal leaders have been killed by terrorists in North and South Waziristan who operate with total impunity. Today’s Fata is not dissimilar to the Taliban and Al Qaeda controlled Afghanistan before 9/11.
Thirdly, the people of Fata get caught in the crossfire between militants and security forces from both sides of the Durand Line. The so-called collateral damage has seen a cancerous growth in Fata. The people of Fata have lost the support and protection of the state. They have no access to the media, courts and hospitals or to humanitarian assistance. The only intervention by state players takes place through their armies and air forces in which people of the tribal area are mostly on the receiving end.
For any informed and sensitive Pakistani, the situation in the tribal area is the top-most priority when it comes to policy formation and implementation. We must realise that the question of dismantling militant sanctuaries in Fata and taking short-term and long-term measures to open up the area and integrate it with the rest of the country needs urgent national attention if we are to avoid the impending catastrophe.
July 31, 2008, DAWN.
By Afrasiab Khattak
IT is hardly an exaggeration that the security of Pakistan, Afghanistan, the entire region and indeed that of the whole world will be defined by developments in Fata over the next few months. Different scenarios are being painted by military strategists and political experts.
Al Qaeda, after regrouping in the militant sanctuaries of the area, is acquiring the capacity to repeat attacks in North America or Europe similar to those carried out in 2001 in the US.
If reports about the exchanges between Pakistan and the US at the highest level are anything to go by it is pretty clear that the US will retaliate against Pakistan, probably even more severely than it did against the Taliban-dominated Afghanistan. Similarly the use of these militant sanctuaries for cross-border fighting is so large in scale (in fact all the six political agencies bordering Afghanistan are being used) that denial in this regard is no longer plausible.
The federal government has to either admit defeat or muster the political will to resolve the problem, or else justify the existence of militant sanctuaries by explaining their usefulness to the national interest. We have run out of time and this decision cannot be delayed any more as there are no takers of the denial line.
As if this were not enough, armed lashkars (armies) from militant sanctuaries in Fata are poised to penetrate/invade the contiguous settled districts. The events in Hangu some three weeks back are a case in point. The Hangu police arrested four Taliban commanders from a car that also contained weapons, explosive material and manuals for making bombs in a place called Doaba not far away from the Orakzai Agency border.
Hundreds of Taliban surrounded the Doaba police station and demanded the commanders’ release. They also blocked the Hangu-Kurram highway. During this confrontation the Frontier Constabulary was ambushed near Zargari village and 16 security personnel were killed. Subsequently the army was called in to launch a military operation in Hangu. This action was not just in retaliation for the murder of 16 FC men but also came in view of the threat of attack by four to five thousand Taliban from Orakzai and Kurram agencies.
By now the said military operation has been completed and the targets achieved to the extent that the Taliban have been chased out of Hangu. Nevertheless, they have fled to Orakzai Agency where they are regrouping and preparing for future attacks.
The NWFP (Pakhtunkhwa) government is in a quandary. It has to call in the army whenever armed lashkars threaten to overrun a district as the police force simply does not have the capacity to fight an ever-expanding insurgency.
After Swat the army has also been deployed in Hangu. In view of the militant sanctuaries situated nearby, the army cannot be withdrawn in the near future. Imagine if the story is repeated in other vulnerable districts. Will the army also have to be deployed in all these other districts? Will such measures not bring the existence of the civilian provincial government into question?
Is it not amazing that in spite of such high stakes the presidency that has a monopoly over governance in Fata seems to show no anxiety over the prevailing situation? It is continuing with the policy of keeping Fata a black hole where terrorist groups from across the globe run their bases. It is still a no-go area for the media and civil society, and so far there is no corrective measure or policy change in sight. So much so that we have failed to take even the most preliminary step of extending the Political Parties Act to Fata.
It is only natural that we are perturbed when attacks are launched from across the border. But should we not be equally sensitive to the loss of our sovereignty over Fata to militant groups? Strangely enough we do not seem to be bothered about the militants’ total control of Fata. When the international media carries reports about this situation we dismiss them as ‘enemy’ propaganda against Pakistan. We have failed to grasp the fact that in the post-cold war world there is a universal consensus about two things. One, that all assault weapons that can be used for launching a war cannot be allowed to be kept in private possession. Two, that no state will allow the use of its soil by non-state players against another state. The entire world is astounded by our fixation with the cold war mode. We have developed an incredible capacity to live in unreality. This is indeed dangerous for any state system but it can be catastrophic for a state dancing in a minefield.
Where does all this leave the people of Fata? They are victims and not perpetrators as some people would like us to believe. They are in fact in triple jeopardy. Firstly they are groaning under the draconian Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) of 1901. They have no access to the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan since they are not justiciable outside of the jurisdiction of the higher judiciary.
Secondly the tribal belt has almost been occupied by foreign and local militant organisations that are better equipped, better trained and better financed than the local population. More than 160 tribal leaders have been killed by terrorists in North and South Waziristan who operate with total impunity. Today’s Fata is not dissimilar to the Taliban and Al Qaeda controlled Afghanistan before 9/11.
Thirdly, the people of Fata get caught in the crossfire between militants and security forces from both sides of the Durand Line. The so-called collateral damage has seen a cancerous growth in Fata. The people of Fata have lost the support and protection of the state. They have no access to the media, courts and hospitals or to humanitarian assistance. The only intervention by state players takes place through their armies and air forces in which people of the tribal area are mostly on the receiving end.
For any informed and sensitive Pakistani, the situation in the tribal area is the top-most priority when it comes to policy formation and implementation. We must realise that the question of dismantling militant sanctuaries in Fata and taking short-term and long-term measures to open up the area and integrate it with the rest of the country needs urgent national attention if we are to avoid the impending catastrophe.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Lack of Policy Coordination on Counter-Terrorism Creating Problems
Militant Gains in Pakistan Said to Draw More Fighters
By ERIC SCHMITT, New York Times, July 10, 2008
WASHINGTON — American military and intelligence officials say there has been an increase in recent months in the number of foreign fighters who have traveled to Pakistan’s tribal areas to join with militants there.
The flow may reflect a change that is making Pakistan, not Iraq, the preferred destination for some Sunni extremists from the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia who are seeking to take up arms against the West, these officials say.
The American officials say the influx, which could be in the dozens but could also be higher, shows a further strengthening of the position of the forces of Al Qaeda in the tribal areas, increasingly seen as an important base of support for the Taliban, whose forces in Afghanistan have become more aggressive in their campaign against American-led troops.
According to the American officials, many of the fighters making their way to the tribal areas are Uzbeks, North Africans and Arabs from Persian Gulf states. American intelligence officials say that some jihadist Web sites have been encouraging foreign militants to go to Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is considered a “winning fight,” compared with the insurgency in Iraq, which has suffered sharp setbacks recently.
The number of foreign fighters entering Iraq has dropped to fewer than 40 a month from as many as 110 a month a year ago, a military spokesman in Baghdad said Wednesday. “The sanctuary situation in Pakistan’s tribal areas and North-West Frontier Province is more, rather than less, troublesome than before,” Gen. David D. McKiernan, the new NATO commander in Afghanistan, said in a telephone interview. “The porous border has allowed insurgent militant groups a greater freedom of movement across that border, as well as a greater freedom to resupply, to allow leadership to sustain stronger sanctuaries, and to provide fighters across that border.”
The suicide bombing at the gates of the Indian Embassy in Kabul on Monday underscored the increasing fears of American and Afghan officials that Taliban insurgents working with Pakistani intelligence operatives might have used the bombing to pursue Pakistan’s long power struggle with India.
Al Qaeda and other militant groups have used redoubts in Pakistan’s rugged mountains as havens for the past several years. But especially since the new Pakistani government sharply curtailed security operations in the tribal areas in March and began negotiating with tribal leaders to rein in the militants, the number of foreign fighters entering the tribal areas has increased “from a trickle to a steady stream,” said a Defense Department official who follows Pakistan closely, and who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Some of the foreign militants take commercial flights into Pakistan and make their way to the tribal areas by car or bus, while a smaller, undetermined number go overland through Iran and then up through Baluchistan, the Defense Department official said. General McKiernan said, “There are noticeably more non-Pashtun-speaking fighters than this time last year.”
Some American intelligence officials cautioned, however, that the increases were still relatively small, perhaps a few dozen — military and independent analysts estimate between 150 and 500 hard-core Qaeda fighters are operating in the tribal area — and that Al Qaeda was still recruiting fighters and suicide bombers for both Afghanistan and Iraq.
With the number of attacks in eastern Afghanistan up by 40 percent from a year ago, senior Bush administration officials have been voicing increasing alarm about the growing strength of the militants using havens in Pakistan.
“The ability of the Taliban and other insurgents to cross that border and not being under any pressure from the Pakistani side of the border is clearly a concern,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters two weeks ago in one of his most pointed comments to date on the situation. “That’s the area that needs to be addressed with the Pakistani government.”
The Bush administration is struggling to work with the Afghan and Pakistani governments to find an effective combination of political, diplomatic and military tools to help stem the increasingly entrenched insurgency, but it has faced difficulties dealing with Pakistan’s new coalition government, officials say.
“We’re trying to impress upon the Pakistanis how bad things are,” said one senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities. “Before, we could go to Musharraf,” the official said, speaking of President Pervez Musharraf. “Now it’s more of a power-sharing agreement, and it’s more difficult. There’s no apparent solution at hand. The next six months look like they’ll be a lot like the past six months.”
Four senior military officials said that Al Qaeda was strengthening its increasingly close operational ties in the tribal areas with the Taliban and various other militant groups — financing, training recruits and facilitating attacks into Afghanistan, though not necessarily conducting attacks themselves.
Inside Pakistan, the forces of the Tehrik-e-Taliban of Pakistan, an umbrella group of Taliban, are most prominent among the militants. The group is led by Baitullah Mehsud, who is accused by the Pakistani government of masterminding the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December and running scores of suicide bombers on both sides of the border.
Mr. Mehsud, who has risen from near obscurity to become a powerful ally of Al Qaeda, brazenly held a news conference in May in his home base, South Waziristan, to announce that he would expand his fight against the American military across the border in Afghanistan, where the group has close links to other Taliban forces.
American options for strikes inside the tribal areas are limited. The C.I.A. has armed, remotely piloted Predator aircraft ready if high-level insurgents are located. But a Pentagon order authorizing an increased campaign by Special Operations forces in the tribal areas remains under review by administration officials.
The Pentagon moved the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to the Arabian Sea from the Persian Gulf in recent days, shortening the time that the carrier’s nearly four dozen FA-18 Hornet and Super Hornet strike planes must fly to support combat in Afghanistan.
President Bush’s new homeland security adviser, Kenneth L. Wainstein, traveled to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar and Kuwait last month, and urged leaders in those countries to help crack down on groups or individuals that are helping to finance or funnel fighters to the insurgency in the tribal areas. “We’re seeing financing and recruiting from the gulf countries going to the tribal areas,” Mr. Wainstein said in an interview.
The Saudis, in particular, committed to continuing to expand their efforts to prevent terrorist financing and facilitation from their country, a spokesman for Mr. Wainstein said in an e-mail message.
“We’re aware we’re down to the last six months,” the senior administration official said. “There’s no real time for new initiatives. What we can do is set up a number of initiatives for the next administration, to give them possible options.”
Those options, the official said, include continuing to support Pakistan’s army chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who late last month was given a mandate by the new civilian government to use force in the tribal areas and the North-West Frontier Province when “verifiable intelligence” was available, Pakistani televisions stations reported.
Several American officials expressed exasperation that small elements of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force, the Pakistani Army and Pakistan’s leading military intelligence agency — Inter-Services Intelligence, or the ISI — were turning a blind eye to militants launching cross-border attacks, if not supporting them outright.
“Right now, the Pakistanis are in a muddle over how to use the tribal leaders, Frontier Corps paramilitary forces and the Pakistani Army to deal with the situation,” said a senior allied military officer who has served in the region. “To complicate matters, U.S.-Pakistani relations are currently toxic.”
Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Ismail Khan from Peshawar, Pakistan.
By ERIC SCHMITT, New York Times, July 10, 2008
WASHINGTON — American military and intelligence officials say there has been an increase in recent months in the number of foreign fighters who have traveled to Pakistan’s tribal areas to join with militants there.
The flow may reflect a change that is making Pakistan, not Iraq, the preferred destination for some Sunni extremists from the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia who are seeking to take up arms against the West, these officials say.
The American officials say the influx, which could be in the dozens but could also be higher, shows a further strengthening of the position of the forces of Al Qaeda in the tribal areas, increasingly seen as an important base of support for the Taliban, whose forces in Afghanistan have become more aggressive in their campaign against American-led troops.
According to the American officials, many of the fighters making their way to the tribal areas are Uzbeks, North Africans and Arabs from Persian Gulf states. American intelligence officials say that some jihadist Web sites have been encouraging foreign militants to go to Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is considered a “winning fight,” compared with the insurgency in Iraq, which has suffered sharp setbacks recently.
The number of foreign fighters entering Iraq has dropped to fewer than 40 a month from as many as 110 a month a year ago, a military spokesman in Baghdad said Wednesday. “The sanctuary situation in Pakistan’s tribal areas and North-West Frontier Province is more, rather than less, troublesome than before,” Gen. David D. McKiernan, the new NATO commander in Afghanistan, said in a telephone interview. “The porous border has allowed insurgent militant groups a greater freedom of movement across that border, as well as a greater freedom to resupply, to allow leadership to sustain stronger sanctuaries, and to provide fighters across that border.”
The suicide bombing at the gates of the Indian Embassy in Kabul on Monday underscored the increasing fears of American and Afghan officials that Taliban insurgents working with Pakistani intelligence operatives might have used the bombing to pursue Pakistan’s long power struggle with India.
Al Qaeda and other militant groups have used redoubts in Pakistan’s rugged mountains as havens for the past several years. But especially since the new Pakistani government sharply curtailed security operations in the tribal areas in March and began negotiating with tribal leaders to rein in the militants, the number of foreign fighters entering the tribal areas has increased “from a trickle to a steady stream,” said a Defense Department official who follows Pakistan closely, and who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Some of the foreign militants take commercial flights into Pakistan and make their way to the tribal areas by car or bus, while a smaller, undetermined number go overland through Iran and then up through Baluchistan, the Defense Department official said. General McKiernan said, “There are noticeably more non-Pashtun-speaking fighters than this time last year.”
Some American intelligence officials cautioned, however, that the increases were still relatively small, perhaps a few dozen — military and independent analysts estimate between 150 and 500 hard-core Qaeda fighters are operating in the tribal area — and that Al Qaeda was still recruiting fighters and suicide bombers for both Afghanistan and Iraq.
With the number of attacks in eastern Afghanistan up by 40 percent from a year ago, senior Bush administration officials have been voicing increasing alarm about the growing strength of the militants using havens in Pakistan.
“The ability of the Taliban and other insurgents to cross that border and not being under any pressure from the Pakistani side of the border is clearly a concern,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters two weeks ago in one of his most pointed comments to date on the situation. “That’s the area that needs to be addressed with the Pakistani government.”
The Bush administration is struggling to work with the Afghan and Pakistani governments to find an effective combination of political, diplomatic and military tools to help stem the increasingly entrenched insurgency, but it has faced difficulties dealing with Pakistan’s new coalition government, officials say.
“We’re trying to impress upon the Pakistanis how bad things are,” said one senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities. “Before, we could go to Musharraf,” the official said, speaking of President Pervez Musharraf. “Now it’s more of a power-sharing agreement, and it’s more difficult. There’s no apparent solution at hand. The next six months look like they’ll be a lot like the past six months.”
Four senior military officials said that Al Qaeda was strengthening its increasingly close operational ties in the tribal areas with the Taliban and various other militant groups — financing, training recruits and facilitating attacks into Afghanistan, though not necessarily conducting attacks themselves.
Inside Pakistan, the forces of the Tehrik-e-Taliban of Pakistan, an umbrella group of Taliban, are most prominent among the militants. The group is led by Baitullah Mehsud, who is accused by the Pakistani government of masterminding the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December and running scores of suicide bombers on both sides of the border.
Mr. Mehsud, who has risen from near obscurity to become a powerful ally of Al Qaeda, brazenly held a news conference in May in his home base, South Waziristan, to announce that he would expand his fight against the American military across the border in Afghanistan, where the group has close links to other Taliban forces.
American options for strikes inside the tribal areas are limited. The C.I.A. has armed, remotely piloted Predator aircraft ready if high-level insurgents are located. But a Pentagon order authorizing an increased campaign by Special Operations forces in the tribal areas remains under review by administration officials.
The Pentagon moved the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to the Arabian Sea from the Persian Gulf in recent days, shortening the time that the carrier’s nearly four dozen FA-18 Hornet and Super Hornet strike planes must fly to support combat in Afghanistan.
President Bush’s new homeland security adviser, Kenneth L. Wainstein, traveled to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar and Kuwait last month, and urged leaders in those countries to help crack down on groups or individuals that are helping to finance or funnel fighters to the insurgency in the tribal areas. “We’re seeing financing and recruiting from the gulf countries going to the tribal areas,” Mr. Wainstein said in an interview.
The Saudis, in particular, committed to continuing to expand their efforts to prevent terrorist financing and facilitation from their country, a spokesman for Mr. Wainstein said in an e-mail message.
“We’re aware we’re down to the last six months,” the senior administration official said. “There’s no real time for new initiatives. What we can do is set up a number of initiatives for the next administration, to give them possible options.”
Those options, the official said, include continuing to support Pakistan’s army chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who late last month was given a mandate by the new civilian government to use force in the tribal areas and the North-West Frontier Province when “verifiable intelligence” was available, Pakistani televisions stations reported.
Several American officials expressed exasperation that small elements of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force, the Pakistani Army and Pakistan’s leading military intelligence agency — Inter-Services Intelligence, or the ISI — were turning a blind eye to militants launching cross-border attacks, if not supporting them outright.
“Right now, the Pakistanis are in a muddle over how to use the tribal leaders, Frontier Corps paramilitary forces and the Pakistani Army to deal with the situation,” said a senior allied military officer who has served in the region. “To complicate matters, U.S.-Pakistani relations are currently toxic.”
Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Ismail Khan from Peshawar, Pakistan.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Durand Line & geopolitics
The News
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Zeenia Satti
When has a state ever been able to curb an insurgency without firm control over its borders? Under the guidance of the Pentagon's planners, Pakistan and Afghanistan are in the process of making history. Each seeks to curb the insurgency within its territory while keeping open its border with the other, ostensibly the very source of insurgency.
The current insurgency notwithstanding, the Pakistani-Afghan border, the Durand Line, is contested since 1947. Pakistan upholds the 1893 demarcation while Afghanistan claims more territory. The UN uses the Afghan maps. The US and NATO use the Pakistani map but mouth the Afghan view.
Pakistan had an opportunity to secure Kabul's endorsement of the Durand Line when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001. Because all three of the current incumbents, the PPP, the PML-N and Musharref held office during this period, each is to blame for missing the most expedient geopolitical moment to secure bilateral settlement of the Durand Line. In 1998 Jalaluddin Haqqani's appointment as minister for border affairs in the Taliban government meant that the key portfolio in the matter was held by the ISI's protégé. During the time in question, a nuclear-capable Pakistan, oblivious to the geostrategic implications of the 1991 invasion of Iraq, remained preoccupied with conventional strategic depth, vis-à-vis India, through Afghanistan, and failed to secure its immediate border interest.
The United States' invasion of Afghanistan turned Pakistan's "strategic depth" into a strategic nightmare. Pakistan faces a myriad of geostrategic hazards which include the cross-border infiltration of insurgents who are frequently bombed by the US in Pakistan's "lawless" areas. The locals feel terrorised and unprotected as their civilian casualties mount. Musharref's combat with the insurgents as U.S proxy provoked their incitement of the Pakhtuns against the "foreign yoke." The emotive cry of Pakhtun dignity under attack is echoed within the NWFP by groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and the Pakhtun Democratic Council. This has given rise to a Pakistani insurgency akin to the Afghan one.
India's influence in Afghanistan's Pakhtun region is enormous. Pakistan's policy has alienated everyone in Afghanistan, including Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks, as well as the Pakhtuns. Pakistan-Afghanistan relations are at their worst, which makes the Durand Line a possible flashpoint of the future. Washington's declaration that FATA is a threat to US security magnifies the danger.
The current environment renders even positive developments vulnerable to manipulation by Islamabad's detractors. The ANP's victory exposes the marginality of extremism, legitimising Islamabad's fight against it. Paradoxically, while extremism serves the Taliban's purpose, the ANP gives the Karzai government an opportunity to woo Pakhtun nationalism. Both the Afghan contestants now have other avenues in the NWFP to exploit.
The Pentagon labels the Afghan insurgency "Taliban resurgence." US civil society follows suit. During a briefing in Washington's Woodrow Wilson Centre on April 18, a Rand Corporation associate and a Georgetown University professor lamented that NATO's goal in Afghanistan is complicated by a highly decentralised enemy. They called the enemy "multiple Taliban, with varying loyalties, depending on their geographic locations." The academicians failed to explain the logic through which a variety of insurgent groups are given a title that until 2001 identified a distinct Afghan faction.
Because the Afghan insurgents wear baggy clothes and do not shave regularly does not hoodwink the US commanders into believing all are Taliban. There are reasons why the insurgents are labelled so. The US intelligence seeks to shape political realities through political articulation. It seeks to isolate the population from the insurgents by identifying them as a discredited group. It also seeks the international community's acquiescence in the insurgents' massacre. Further, it triggers the resurgence of the Northern Alliance, which crystallised in 2006 as the "United Afghan National Front Opposition Group." The northern warlords' partnership with Karzai is insincere. He is considered a US puppet, just as the Taliban were considered Pakistani puppets. Karzai's appeasement of the moderate Taliban makes the northerners dread a government dominated by undesirable Pakhtun elements, motivating the northerners' reorganisation. Karzai's presence and the hoax of Taliban resurgence create fissiparous fissures in Afghanistan, straining its nationalism. If Iraq is any example to go by, this tendency will intensify under US occupation.
The Pakistani Pakhtuns left to the political and economic periphery hitherto defined themselves as peripheral. The war on terror is pressuring them into separatism. It is a maxim that in common catastrophe men move into unison. The brutality of the Afghan war is a common catastrophe for the Pakhtuns. Unless Islamabad bifurcates its Pakhtuns from the Afghan ones, their struggle to protect themselves and their interests may lead them to seek strength in cross-border territorial unison. Kabul has every incentive to fan separatism in the NWFP.
There are no economic and political boundaries in FATA. Once such boundaries are established, ethnic identities will cease to exist as "autonomous" and will become "relational" instead. The politico-economic boundaries will define the Afghan and Pakistani Pakhtuns vis-à-vis each other. With the advent of rapid development through mining, the border citizens of Arizona began to identify themselves as Mexican Indians and American Indians vis-à-vis each other, whereas in the pre-development stage they looked upon each other as one. There is a consensus among anthropologists and sociologists that ethnic identities are not static but dynamic and are socially constructed and politically contingent.
Whereas the Afghan insurgency goes beyond the Taliban, the Pakistani insurgency does not. It is peripheral and can be controlled. The first step towards the goal is to impede the Taliban mobility to and from Afghanistan. Since late August 2006, Pakistan has conducted patrol of its border jointly with the Afghan military and NATO under a tripartite agreement. This would have sufficed, but for latent interests that have pushed Pakistan in the line of fire.
The way out of this peril is the sealing of the Durand Line and its high-tech monitoring, the integration of FATA into NWFP and its rapid rural development under a robust security network. The United States' hunt for Osama bin Laden through aerial bombardment is a gimmick. Dangerous individuals are apprehended covertly, not through bombardment. Actionable intelligence on Al Qaeda should be responded to by Pakistani covert forces in the field. Withdrawing forces from FATA is a blunder equivalent to fighting the insurgency on the neocons' terms. The mess they have made on foreign lands is unacceptable even to Americans. Pakistan's leadership needs to act like Russia's Putin to prevent its fissiparous fissures from deepening.
The writer, based in Washington, is an energy consultant and analyst of energy geopolitics. Email: zeenia.satti@ yahoo.com
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Zeenia Satti
When has a state ever been able to curb an insurgency without firm control over its borders? Under the guidance of the Pentagon's planners, Pakistan and Afghanistan are in the process of making history. Each seeks to curb the insurgency within its territory while keeping open its border with the other, ostensibly the very source of insurgency.
The current insurgency notwithstanding, the Pakistani-Afghan border, the Durand Line, is contested since 1947. Pakistan upholds the 1893 demarcation while Afghanistan claims more territory. The UN uses the Afghan maps. The US and NATO use the Pakistani map but mouth the Afghan view.
Pakistan had an opportunity to secure Kabul's endorsement of the Durand Line when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001. Because all three of the current incumbents, the PPP, the PML-N and Musharref held office during this period, each is to blame for missing the most expedient geopolitical moment to secure bilateral settlement of the Durand Line. In 1998 Jalaluddin Haqqani's appointment as minister for border affairs in the Taliban government meant that the key portfolio in the matter was held by the ISI's protégé. During the time in question, a nuclear-capable Pakistan, oblivious to the geostrategic implications of the 1991 invasion of Iraq, remained preoccupied with conventional strategic depth, vis-à-vis India, through Afghanistan, and failed to secure its immediate border interest.
The United States' invasion of Afghanistan turned Pakistan's "strategic depth" into a strategic nightmare. Pakistan faces a myriad of geostrategic hazards which include the cross-border infiltration of insurgents who are frequently bombed by the US in Pakistan's "lawless" areas. The locals feel terrorised and unprotected as their civilian casualties mount. Musharref's combat with the insurgents as U.S proxy provoked their incitement of the Pakhtuns against the "foreign yoke." The emotive cry of Pakhtun dignity under attack is echoed within the NWFP by groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and the Pakhtun Democratic Council. This has given rise to a Pakistani insurgency akin to the Afghan one.
India's influence in Afghanistan's Pakhtun region is enormous. Pakistan's policy has alienated everyone in Afghanistan, including Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks, as well as the Pakhtuns. Pakistan-Afghanistan relations are at their worst, which makes the Durand Line a possible flashpoint of the future. Washington's declaration that FATA is a threat to US security magnifies the danger.
The current environment renders even positive developments vulnerable to manipulation by Islamabad's detractors. The ANP's victory exposes the marginality of extremism, legitimising Islamabad's fight against it. Paradoxically, while extremism serves the Taliban's purpose, the ANP gives the Karzai government an opportunity to woo Pakhtun nationalism. Both the Afghan contestants now have other avenues in the NWFP to exploit.
The Pentagon labels the Afghan insurgency "Taliban resurgence." US civil society follows suit. During a briefing in Washington's Woodrow Wilson Centre on April 18, a Rand Corporation associate and a Georgetown University professor lamented that NATO's goal in Afghanistan is complicated by a highly decentralised enemy. They called the enemy "multiple Taliban, with varying loyalties, depending on their geographic locations." The academicians failed to explain the logic through which a variety of insurgent groups are given a title that until 2001 identified a distinct Afghan faction.
Because the Afghan insurgents wear baggy clothes and do not shave regularly does not hoodwink the US commanders into believing all are Taliban. There are reasons why the insurgents are labelled so. The US intelligence seeks to shape political realities through political articulation. It seeks to isolate the population from the insurgents by identifying them as a discredited group. It also seeks the international community's acquiescence in the insurgents' massacre. Further, it triggers the resurgence of the Northern Alliance, which crystallised in 2006 as the "United Afghan National Front Opposition Group." The northern warlords' partnership with Karzai is insincere. He is considered a US puppet, just as the Taliban were considered Pakistani puppets. Karzai's appeasement of the moderate Taliban makes the northerners dread a government dominated by undesirable Pakhtun elements, motivating the northerners' reorganisation. Karzai's presence and the hoax of Taliban resurgence create fissiparous fissures in Afghanistan, straining its nationalism. If Iraq is any example to go by, this tendency will intensify under US occupation.
The Pakistani Pakhtuns left to the political and economic periphery hitherto defined themselves as peripheral. The war on terror is pressuring them into separatism. It is a maxim that in common catastrophe men move into unison. The brutality of the Afghan war is a common catastrophe for the Pakhtuns. Unless Islamabad bifurcates its Pakhtuns from the Afghan ones, their struggle to protect themselves and their interests may lead them to seek strength in cross-border territorial unison. Kabul has every incentive to fan separatism in the NWFP.
There are no economic and political boundaries in FATA. Once such boundaries are established, ethnic identities will cease to exist as "autonomous" and will become "relational" instead. The politico-economic boundaries will define the Afghan and Pakistani Pakhtuns vis-à-vis each other. With the advent of rapid development through mining, the border citizens of Arizona began to identify themselves as Mexican Indians and American Indians vis-à-vis each other, whereas in the pre-development stage they looked upon each other as one. There is a consensus among anthropologists and sociologists that ethnic identities are not static but dynamic and are socially constructed and politically contingent.
Whereas the Afghan insurgency goes beyond the Taliban, the Pakistani insurgency does not. It is peripheral and can be controlled. The first step towards the goal is to impede the Taliban mobility to and from Afghanistan. Since late August 2006, Pakistan has conducted patrol of its border jointly with the Afghan military and NATO under a tripartite agreement. This would have sufficed, but for latent interests that have pushed Pakistan in the line of fire.
The way out of this peril is the sealing of the Durand Line and its high-tech monitoring, the integration of FATA into NWFP and its rapid rural development under a robust security network. The United States' hunt for Osama bin Laden through aerial bombardment is a gimmick. Dangerous individuals are apprehended covertly, not through bombardment. Actionable intelligence on Al Qaeda should be responded to by Pakistani covert forces in the field. Withdrawing forces from FATA is a blunder equivalent to fighting the insurgency on the neocons' terms. The mess they have made on foreign lands is unacceptable even to Americans. Pakistan's leadership needs to act like Russia's Putin to prevent its fissiparous fissures from deepening.
The writer, based in Washington, is an energy consultant and analyst of energy geopolitics. Email: zeenia.satti@ yahoo.com
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Meeting at Bacha Khan Baba's Tomb
Thanks To Dawezay Momand for sharing these links
...
1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQpDC5294tM
2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So49V9Wl93U
3.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc21O7ND6fE
4.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKwr3extBZ0
5.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7SYhp-NQbU
6.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5HpdccXfLU
7.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-X8FEhxOgA
...
1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQpDC5294tM
2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So49V9Wl93U
3.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc21O7ND6fE
4.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKwr3extBZ0
5.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7SYhp-NQbU
6.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5HpdccXfLU
7.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-X8FEhxOgA
PAKISTAN: A POLITICIZED BOMBING IN KARACHI
Summary
A day after a suicide bombing in the Pakistani capital city of Islamabad, a series of explosions hit Pashtun-dominated areas of the port city of Karachi on July 7. While the Islamabad bombing indicates the growing jihadist problem in Pakistan, the Karachi blasts appear to be about strengthening Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's hold on power.
Analysis
A day after Pakistan's capital city Islamabad was rocked by a deadly suicide bombing, a series of small blasts struck the port city of Karachi on July 7. The attacks occurred within a span of one hour in Pashtun-dominated areas of north and central Karachi. The devices, which appear to have been crude, killed two people and injured around 50 others, prompting small-scale riots.
The Islamabad suicide bombing is yet another indicator of Pakistan's intensifying jihadist problem. By contrast, the Karachi attacks appear to be more about Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's political survival than anything else.
Musharraf is still in the political hot seat, with his political opponents regularly calling for his removal either through an honorable exit or through an impeachment trial. Nonetheless, the beleaguered president still has staying power mainly due to severe political infighting in the newly elected civilian government and his success in packing Pakistan's Supreme Court with allies to block any legal attempts to remove him from power.
To further secure his political position, Musharraf can rely on his friends in the Mutahiddah Qaumi Movement (MQM), a Muhajir political party that long has been the kingmaker of Pakistan's main port city and closely allied with Musharraf. The MQM has no shortage of political thugs to serve Musharraf's political agenda. The group dominates the organized crime sector in Karachi's ports and has been known to instigate ethnic riots and organize large pro-Musharraf demonstrations in the past.
The July 7 attacks targeted the poor segment of Karachi's Pashtun population -- a popular target for the MQM's attempts to stir up ethnic unrest in Karachi. By playing the MQM card, Musharraf can demonstrate to his political opponents in the government that he remains the king of Karachi through his ties with the MQM, and without him, the country's largest trading hub could fall into chaos.
The MQM, meanwhile, has its own reason to play along with Musharraf's political maneuvers. The Feb. 18 general elections gave Musharraf's opponents -- the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz -- an overwhelming victory, putting the Musharraf-allied MQM in the opposition. With Musharraf in power, the MQM retains political clout in the government. But if Musharraf gets the boot, MQM leaders would have to start from scratch in buying political influence among the government's leading parties. Through intimidation tactics in Karachi, the MQM can signal that it is still a political force to be reckoned with.
While this political wrangling is certainly not atypical for Pakistan, it comes at a most precarious time. Pakistan is already approaching a crisis point as the jihadist insurgency continues to spiral out of control. Stoking ethnic unrest in Karachi for political reasons exacerbates the security dilemma confronting the state and provides a greater opportunity for the jihadists to strike.
Courtesty Whiznews
A day after a suicide bombing in the Pakistani capital city of Islamabad, a series of explosions hit Pashtun-dominated areas of the port city of Karachi on July 7. While the Islamabad bombing indicates the growing jihadist problem in Pakistan, the Karachi blasts appear to be about strengthening Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's hold on power.
Analysis
A day after Pakistan's capital city Islamabad was rocked by a deadly suicide bombing, a series of small blasts struck the port city of Karachi on July 7. The attacks occurred within a span of one hour in Pashtun-dominated areas of north and central Karachi. The devices, which appear to have been crude, killed two people and injured around 50 others, prompting small-scale riots.
The Islamabad suicide bombing is yet another indicator of Pakistan's intensifying jihadist problem. By contrast, the Karachi attacks appear to be more about Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's political survival than anything else.
Musharraf is still in the political hot seat, with his political opponents regularly calling for his removal either through an honorable exit or through an impeachment trial. Nonetheless, the beleaguered president still has staying power mainly due to severe political infighting in the newly elected civilian government and his success in packing Pakistan's Supreme Court with allies to block any legal attempts to remove him from power.
To further secure his political position, Musharraf can rely on his friends in the Mutahiddah Qaumi Movement (MQM), a Muhajir political party that long has been the kingmaker of Pakistan's main port city and closely allied with Musharraf. The MQM has no shortage of political thugs to serve Musharraf's political agenda. The group dominates the organized crime sector in Karachi's ports and has been known to instigate ethnic riots and organize large pro-Musharraf demonstrations in the past.
The July 7 attacks targeted the poor segment of Karachi's Pashtun population -- a popular target for the MQM's attempts to stir up ethnic unrest in Karachi. By playing the MQM card, Musharraf can demonstrate to his political opponents in the government that he remains the king of Karachi through his ties with the MQM, and without him, the country's largest trading hub could fall into chaos.
The MQM, meanwhile, has its own reason to play along with Musharraf's political maneuvers. The Feb. 18 general elections gave Musharraf's opponents -- the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz -- an overwhelming victory, putting the Musharraf-allied MQM in the opposition. With Musharraf in power, the MQM retains political clout in the government. But if Musharraf gets the boot, MQM leaders would have to start from scratch in buying political influence among the government's leading parties. Through intimidation tactics in Karachi, the MQM can signal that it is still a political force to be reckoned with.
While this political wrangling is certainly not atypical for Pakistan, it comes at a most precarious time. Pakistan is already approaching a crisis point as the jihadist insurgency continues to spiral out of control. Stoking ethnic unrest in Karachi for political reasons exacerbates the security dilemma confronting the state and provides a greater opportunity for the jihadists to strike.
Courtesty Whiznews
Monday, June 16, 2008
Concerns of Pashtuns in Balochistan
Concerns of Pashtuns in Balochistan
By Arif Tabassum, Dawn, June 14, 2008
THE proposed constitutional package may not be acceptable to all but no one can ignore its immediate beneficiaries. One point, which is particularly related to Pashtuns, is about the renaming of the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa. Since independence, the majority of Pashtuns politically struggled for their national identity, being one of the main nationalities of Pakistan. Now, that moment has arrived when one hopes to translate this dream into reality.
However, some anti-Pakhtunkhwa elements have also become active to confuse the situation. ANP’s decision to take part in the elections and its alliance with the PPP was based on a strategy for long-term benefits, Pakhtunkhwa being the most important one. The article concerned in the proposed constitutional package meets the decades-old demand of Pashtuns, but there is a feeling that because of it Pashtuns of Balochistan may suffer its adverse effects. In fact, since the end of One Unit in early 1970s, the Pashtun districts of Balochistan have remained part of that province. This decision of the then Pashtun leadership remains questionable till today. Having their own regional and geographic spheres, Pashtuns of Balochistan are deprived of their political identity.
The Pashtun nationalist parties in Balochistan hold different political stances over the question of identity. Some of them want to merge with the Pakhtunkhwa (the NWFP); others demand a separate province while some progressives also see the dream of becoming part of Afghanistan. All these three political approaches have their own implications; by becoming part of Pakhtunkhwa, the Pashtuns of this province will not be able to compete with Pashtuns of Pakhtunkhwa, because the education system in Balochistan is neither of good quality nor have most parts of the region easy access to basic education.
Thus, there is a fear that this area will remain out of the competitive environment and will lag behind for more decades. Having its own identity as Southern Pakhtunkhwa, it will not be treated as a true federating unit because currently its contribution to GDP is insignificant. Thus it will get little share from the federal allocations. By becoming part of Afghanistan it will not be stabile enough to develop. All three options for seeking political identity are not viable and therefore of little consequence. A unified strategy through an alliance such as Pakhtunkhwa National Democratic Alliance (PNDA) can be considered and worked out.
However, the proposed constitutional amendment about renaming of the NWFP has received unprecedented appreciation from the progressive community of the country. All oppressed nationalities the country have described it as a revolutionary step, which will strengthen the federation. They also hope to be awarded with a similar status for protection of their rights. Baloch nationalists also appreciated it but a section of them has given the impression that since the Pashtuns are going to get their political identity as Pakhtunkhwa, the Pashtuns of Balochistan should now give up the agenda of seeking their identity and should rethink about calling a part of Balochistan as Southern Pakhtunkhwa. It means the Pashtuns of Balochistan should now think in terms of accepting the status quo and living within the current boundaries.
If we analyse the geographical status of Pashtuns in Pakistan, we come to the conclusion that they have been deliberately scattered into different territories so that they could not get united, perhaps because they are deemed a threat to the integrity of Pakistan. The Durand Line is the basic cause of this division. The majority of Pashtuns live in Pakhtunkhwa (the NWFP) while a major part of their population lives in Fata and the rest are compelled to live in Balochistan. This division raises some serious questions. Among the Pashtuns of Balochistan and Pakhtunkhwa, there are no direct communications links, no direct train and there are no direct flights between Peshawar and Quetta.
Under the given circumstances, though the Pashtuns of Balochistan are very much excited about the renaming of the NWFP, yet there are feelings of being left out of the game. Such feelings grew intense when the reconciliation process started. None of the actions or statements relating to reconciliation in Balochistan talks about Pashtuns. The emphasis of this reconciliation is only on the issues, which excludes Pashtuns as an ethnic group in the province.
Same was done in Musharraf regime, though none of the mega projects was started in Pashtun districts. The present reconciliation process repeats the same mistakes of excluding Pashtuns. The overall development scenario of Pashtun districts presents a sad picture. Politically Pashtuns have neither identity nor authority for the development of their areas. About 70 per cent of them are deprived of the basic education and health facilities. There are no post-graduate colleges or universities in the areas. The higher educational institutions in Quetta are not affordable for the poor families. The religious extremism is getting its roots deeper here.
The quality communication sources among these areas and their links to other provinces are absent. The only one economic source, agriculture, is facing serious threat, because the underground water sources are becoming dry rapidly.
All these factors have no place either in the reconciliation exercise or in the long-term development planning. Then, the suggestion to drop the question of identity because of the renaming of the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa is seriously affecting the remaining political, economic and social forbearance of Pashtuns. They, however, support other matters in the reconciliation process. They have shown serious concerns over the killing of Nawab Bugti, disappearances, and control on provincial resources but it does not mean that the Pashtuns’ issues be ignored.
Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy (AIRRA) is seen as the ever first think-tank of Pashtuns. It is expected that it will work on the issues of extremism, exclusion and segregation of Pashtuns. One hopes such think tanks will lay emphasis on Balochistan a bit more to study its complex issues. The political identity of Pakhtunkhwa should not be seen as a factor to underestimate the fate of Pashtuns in Balochistan. Through political efforts and academic studies the issues of Pashtuns in Balochistan must be highlighted in its true context.
ariftabasum@yahoo.com
By Arif Tabassum, Dawn, June 14, 2008
THE proposed constitutional package may not be acceptable to all but no one can ignore its immediate beneficiaries. One point, which is particularly related to Pashtuns, is about the renaming of the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa. Since independence, the majority of Pashtuns politically struggled for their national identity, being one of the main nationalities of Pakistan. Now, that moment has arrived when one hopes to translate this dream into reality.
However, some anti-Pakhtunkhwa elements have also become active to confuse the situation. ANP’s decision to take part in the elections and its alliance with the PPP was based on a strategy for long-term benefits, Pakhtunkhwa being the most important one. The article concerned in the proposed constitutional package meets the decades-old demand of Pashtuns, but there is a feeling that because of it Pashtuns of Balochistan may suffer its adverse effects. In fact, since the end of One Unit in early 1970s, the Pashtun districts of Balochistan have remained part of that province. This decision of the then Pashtun leadership remains questionable till today. Having their own regional and geographic spheres, Pashtuns of Balochistan are deprived of their political identity.
The Pashtun nationalist parties in Balochistan hold different political stances over the question of identity. Some of them want to merge with the Pakhtunkhwa (the NWFP); others demand a separate province while some progressives also see the dream of becoming part of Afghanistan. All these three political approaches have their own implications; by becoming part of Pakhtunkhwa, the Pashtuns of this province will not be able to compete with Pashtuns of Pakhtunkhwa, because the education system in Balochistan is neither of good quality nor have most parts of the region easy access to basic education.
Thus, there is a fear that this area will remain out of the competitive environment and will lag behind for more decades. Having its own identity as Southern Pakhtunkhwa, it will not be treated as a true federating unit because currently its contribution to GDP is insignificant. Thus it will get little share from the federal allocations. By becoming part of Afghanistan it will not be stabile enough to develop. All three options for seeking political identity are not viable and therefore of little consequence. A unified strategy through an alliance such as Pakhtunkhwa National Democratic Alliance (PNDA) can be considered and worked out.
However, the proposed constitutional amendment about renaming of the NWFP has received unprecedented appreciation from the progressive community of the country. All oppressed nationalities the country have described it as a revolutionary step, which will strengthen the federation. They also hope to be awarded with a similar status for protection of their rights. Baloch nationalists also appreciated it but a section of them has given the impression that since the Pashtuns are going to get their political identity as Pakhtunkhwa, the Pashtuns of Balochistan should now give up the agenda of seeking their identity and should rethink about calling a part of Balochistan as Southern Pakhtunkhwa. It means the Pashtuns of Balochistan should now think in terms of accepting the status quo and living within the current boundaries.
If we analyse the geographical status of Pashtuns in Pakistan, we come to the conclusion that they have been deliberately scattered into different territories so that they could not get united, perhaps because they are deemed a threat to the integrity of Pakistan. The Durand Line is the basic cause of this division. The majority of Pashtuns live in Pakhtunkhwa (the NWFP) while a major part of their population lives in Fata and the rest are compelled to live in Balochistan. This division raises some serious questions. Among the Pashtuns of Balochistan and Pakhtunkhwa, there are no direct communications links, no direct train and there are no direct flights between Peshawar and Quetta.
Under the given circumstances, though the Pashtuns of Balochistan are very much excited about the renaming of the NWFP, yet there are feelings of being left out of the game. Such feelings grew intense when the reconciliation process started. None of the actions or statements relating to reconciliation in Balochistan talks about Pashtuns. The emphasis of this reconciliation is only on the issues, which excludes Pashtuns as an ethnic group in the province.
Same was done in Musharraf regime, though none of the mega projects was started in Pashtun districts. The present reconciliation process repeats the same mistakes of excluding Pashtuns. The overall development scenario of Pashtun districts presents a sad picture. Politically Pashtuns have neither identity nor authority for the development of their areas. About 70 per cent of them are deprived of the basic education and health facilities. There are no post-graduate colleges or universities in the areas. The higher educational institutions in Quetta are not affordable for the poor families. The religious extremism is getting its roots deeper here.
The quality communication sources among these areas and their links to other provinces are absent. The only one economic source, agriculture, is facing serious threat, because the underground water sources are becoming dry rapidly.
All these factors have no place either in the reconciliation exercise or in the long-term development planning. Then, the suggestion to drop the question of identity because of the renaming of the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa is seriously affecting the remaining political, economic and social forbearance of Pashtuns. They, however, support other matters in the reconciliation process. They have shown serious concerns over the killing of Nawab Bugti, disappearances, and control on provincial resources but it does not mean that the Pashtuns’ issues be ignored.
Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy (AIRRA) is seen as the ever first think-tank of Pashtuns. It is expected that it will work on the issues of extremism, exclusion and segregation of Pashtuns. One hopes such think tanks will lay emphasis on Balochistan a bit more to study its complex issues. The political identity of Pakhtunkhwa should not be seen as a factor to underestimate the fate of Pashtuns in Balochistan. Through political efforts and academic studies the issues of Pashtuns in Balochistan must be highlighted in its true context.
ariftabasum@yahoo.com
Monday, June 02, 2008
Haji Adeel in Senate: by Rahimullah Yousafzai
Haji Adeel in Senate: by Rahimullah Yousafzai
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senate to be a lively place with arrival of ANP’s Adeel
Long-time campaigner for provincial rights becomes senator
The News, June 2,2008
by Rahim Ullah Yousafzai
True to his reputation, ANP leader Haji Mohammad Adeel on his first day in the Senate after his recent election generated controversy by forcefully raising the issue of renaming of NWFP and insisting on calling his native province Pakhtunkhwa.
Adeel is no stranger to controversy. He thrives in controversial situations and never gives ground to his opponents. The Senate would be witnessing fireworks now that he has become a Senator.
The ANP made a good choice by nominating the 66-year-old Adeel as its candidate for the Senate seat vacated by party President Asfandyar Wali Khan following his election as MNA. He is knowledgeable about issues concerning the country and his province. Being familiar with business and economic matters, he would be able to highlight the rights of NWFP and link them with the larger issue of provincial autonomy.
In fact, Adeel came armed with figures and in his maiden speech as Senator he deftly put across the case of his province by pointing out that it produced 70 per cent of the timber, 75 per cent hydel power, 70 per cent maize and 80 per cent tobacco in the country and yet it wasn’t getting its due in terms of its share in federal resources. That is what a Senator should be doing and few can do this better than Adeel.
However, Adeel would be serving as Senator for a short period of seven months only. He was elected to complete the remaining term of Asfandyar Wali. It is possible that his party would nominate him as its candidate for a longer term when Senate elections are held in March next year. He certainly deserves a full six-year term as Senator.
Adeel, who belongs to a prominent family of Peshawar, has proved his utility to the ANP by defending and highlighting its policies in the media. He makes frequent appearances on television channels and is readily available to reporters seeking comments on a variety of issues. He knows how to cultivate the media and put across his and his party’s views. Rather he is known as someone who likes publicity. Forever in the news, he wants more of the same.
Fluent in a number of languages, Adeel has also improved his Pushto. Sometimes, party workers insist that he should speak at public meetings in Pushto. Some do this to tease him but he takes all this in his stride. Witty and vocal, Adeel is ready to tackle any unpleasant situation.
Adeel’s father Hakim Abdul Jaleel Nadvi was a freedom fighter. He was a leader of the Congress party and the Khudai Khidmatgar movement of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, or Bacha Khan as he is commonly known. The late Jaleel Nadvi led the procession in Peshawar’s Bazaar-i-Kalan that was fired at by the British colonial forces. He was also in the procession in Qissa Khwani Bazaar that was attacked by the British Raj soldiers. For three years from 1918 onwards, he was imprisoned in the Andaman island prison, known as Kala Pani. An overhead bridge near Bazaar-i-Kalan is now named after him.
Adeel’s forefathers had migrated from Afghanistan during Mahmud Ghaznavi’s rule and settled in Chamkani village outside Peshawar. In 1825 it shifted to Peshawar and gradually rose to prominence in political and business circles.
Thrice in 1990, 1993 and 1997, Adeel was elected MPA from Peshawar. However, he lost election in 1988 and 2002. He served as provincial finance minister and as deputy speaker of the NWFP Assembly.
Adeel studied at the historic Edwardes College, Peshawar. He has had a full life, spending time in jail including a stint in the Multan prison, taking part in literary and cultural activities and devoting all his time and energy to nationalist politics from the platform of ANP and its predecessor parties such as NAP and NDP. It isn’t commonly known that Adeel is a painter. He remained associated with Abasin Arts Council for years.
However, it is politics that consumes most of his time. For 21 years he was president of ANP Peshawar. Another 11 years he served as central information secretary of the party. For four years he was vice-president of the party. He has also served as its additional general secretary. Presently, Adeel is ANP’s senior vice-president. When Asfandyar Wali was on an overseas visit recently, he officiated as the acting central president of ANP. Adeel deserved the honour as he had risen from the party ranks and remained loyal to its cause.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senate to be a lively place with arrival of ANP’s Adeel
Long-time campaigner for provincial rights becomes senator
The News, June 2,2008
by Rahim Ullah Yousafzai
True to his reputation, ANP leader Haji Mohammad Adeel on his first day in the Senate after his recent election generated controversy by forcefully raising the issue of renaming of NWFP and insisting on calling his native province Pakhtunkhwa.
Adeel is no stranger to controversy. He thrives in controversial situations and never gives ground to his opponents. The Senate would be witnessing fireworks now that he has become a Senator.
The ANP made a good choice by nominating the 66-year-old Adeel as its candidate for the Senate seat vacated by party President Asfandyar Wali Khan following his election as MNA. He is knowledgeable about issues concerning the country and his province. Being familiar with business and economic matters, he would be able to highlight the rights of NWFP and link them with the larger issue of provincial autonomy.
In fact, Adeel came armed with figures and in his maiden speech as Senator he deftly put across the case of his province by pointing out that it produced 70 per cent of the timber, 75 per cent hydel power, 70 per cent maize and 80 per cent tobacco in the country and yet it wasn’t getting its due in terms of its share in federal resources. That is what a Senator should be doing and few can do this better than Adeel.
However, Adeel would be serving as Senator for a short period of seven months only. He was elected to complete the remaining term of Asfandyar Wali. It is possible that his party would nominate him as its candidate for a longer term when Senate elections are held in March next year. He certainly deserves a full six-year term as Senator.
Adeel, who belongs to a prominent family of Peshawar, has proved his utility to the ANP by defending and highlighting its policies in the media. He makes frequent appearances on television channels and is readily available to reporters seeking comments on a variety of issues. He knows how to cultivate the media and put across his and his party’s views. Rather he is known as someone who likes publicity. Forever in the news, he wants more of the same.
Fluent in a number of languages, Adeel has also improved his Pushto. Sometimes, party workers insist that he should speak at public meetings in Pushto. Some do this to tease him but he takes all this in his stride. Witty and vocal, Adeel is ready to tackle any unpleasant situation.
Adeel’s father Hakim Abdul Jaleel Nadvi was a freedom fighter. He was a leader of the Congress party and the Khudai Khidmatgar movement of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, or Bacha Khan as he is commonly known. The late Jaleel Nadvi led the procession in Peshawar’s Bazaar-i-Kalan that was fired at by the British colonial forces. He was also in the procession in Qissa Khwani Bazaar that was attacked by the British Raj soldiers. For three years from 1918 onwards, he was imprisoned in the Andaman island prison, known as Kala Pani. An overhead bridge near Bazaar-i-Kalan is now named after him.
Adeel’s forefathers had migrated from Afghanistan during Mahmud Ghaznavi’s rule and settled in Chamkani village outside Peshawar. In 1825 it shifted to Peshawar and gradually rose to prominence in political and business circles.
Thrice in 1990, 1993 and 1997, Adeel was elected MPA from Peshawar. However, he lost election in 1988 and 2002. He served as provincial finance minister and as deputy speaker of the NWFP Assembly.
Adeel studied at the historic Edwardes College, Peshawar. He has had a full life, spending time in jail including a stint in the Multan prison, taking part in literary and cultural activities and devoting all his time and energy to nationalist politics from the platform of ANP and its predecessor parties such as NAP and NDP. It isn’t commonly known that Adeel is a painter. He remained associated with Abasin Arts Council for years.
However, it is politics that consumes most of his time. For 21 years he was president of ANP Peshawar. Another 11 years he served as central information secretary of the party. For four years he was vice-president of the party. He has also served as its additional general secretary. Presently, Adeel is ANP’s senior vice-president. When Asfandyar Wali was on an overseas visit recently, he officiated as the acting central president of ANP. Adeel deserved the honour as he had risen from the party ranks and remained loyal to its cause.
Friday, May 30, 2008
‘If you carry out a suicide attack, you will not die’
If you carry out a suicide attack, you will not die’
* Pakistani teenager detained in Afghanistan narrates how he was brainwashed by clerics
Daily Times, May 28, 2008
KABUL: A 14-year-old Pakistani “suicide bomber”, who is currently in an Afghan intelligence agency’s detention, was convinced by clerics that if he carried out a suicide attack, he would not die, according to a report published in Chicago Tribune on Tuesday.
Shakirullah, who is from Barwan village in North Waziristan, said he agreed to carry out a suicide attack on foreign troops in Afghanistan.
“They said, ‘They’re only foreigners. They’ll die, and you won’t’,” he told the newspaper correspondent, referring to his clerics.
He said he did not know how to drive a car or read a book, and that his only schooling was four months in an Islamic madrassa. Shakir was arrested allegedly in a car filled with explosives.
The report said that it was impossible for the Tribune reporter to independently verify the story because Western journalists were not allowed to visit the Tribal Areas. But it added that Shakir told the tale of his recruitment willingly and calmly, under no apparent pressure.
Intelligence sources said they don’t yet know what will happen to Shakir. If he is sent to Pakistan, he could be killed or recruited again, the report said.
“Everyone is so sad about this kid,” said one Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his job.
The boy said he was recruited in March by two clerics from his madrassa, just after he finished learning to recite the Quran.
Because the book is in Arabic, Shakir said he had no idea what any of the words meant, but the clerics told him the next step to becoming a good Muslim was to blow himself up near foreign forces in Afghanistan.
The report quoted Shakir as saying that his clerics had told him that if he was a good Muslim, he would survive the attack. When he came home, he would be well paid and have everything he wanted.
“They said it was required because I finished the Quran,” Shakir said. “I didn’t want to go. They didn’t let me talk to my family,” he added.
He said he was driven across the border to Khost, an eastern Afghan city near the border and a US military base.
Shakir said that a medical student from another Afghan city and a cleric showed him several times how to drive a car and took him to sermons for three nights.
But before Shakir could launch an attack - on March 20, to coincide with the Afghan New Year - the explosives-filled car stalled in a dry riverbed.
Afghan security forces stumbled upon it and arrested Shakir, the cleric and the medical student.
Shakir said he doesn’t want to attack anyone anymore. “I don’t even know what jihad is,” he said. “I really want to go home.”
* Pakistani teenager detained in Afghanistan narrates how he was brainwashed by clerics
Daily Times, May 28, 2008
KABUL: A 14-year-old Pakistani “suicide bomber”, who is currently in an Afghan intelligence agency’s detention, was convinced by clerics that if he carried out a suicide attack, he would not die, according to a report published in Chicago Tribune on Tuesday.
Shakirullah, who is from Barwan village in North Waziristan, said he agreed to carry out a suicide attack on foreign troops in Afghanistan.
“They said, ‘They’re only foreigners. They’ll die, and you won’t’,” he told the newspaper correspondent, referring to his clerics.
He said he did not know how to drive a car or read a book, and that his only schooling was four months in an Islamic madrassa. Shakir was arrested allegedly in a car filled with explosives.
The report said that it was impossible for the Tribune reporter to independently verify the story because Western journalists were not allowed to visit the Tribal Areas. But it added that Shakir told the tale of his recruitment willingly and calmly, under no apparent pressure.
Intelligence sources said they don’t yet know what will happen to Shakir. If he is sent to Pakistan, he could be killed or recruited again, the report said.
“Everyone is so sad about this kid,” said one Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his job.
The boy said he was recruited in March by two clerics from his madrassa, just after he finished learning to recite the Quran.
Because the book is in Arabic, Shakir said he had no idea what any of the words meant, but the clerics told him the next step to becoming a good Muslim was to blow himself up near foreign forces in Afghanistan.
The report quoted Shakir as saying that his clerics had told him that if he was a good Muslim, he would survive the attack. When he came home, he would be well paid and have everything he wanted.
“They said it was required because I finished the Quran,” Shakir said. “I didn’t want to go. They didn’t let me talk to my family,” he added.
He said he was driven across the border to Khost, an eastern Afghan city near the border and a US military base.
Shakir said that a medical student from another Afghan city and a cleric showed him several times how to drive a car and took him to sermons for three nights.
But before Shakir could launch an attack - on March 20, to coincide with the Afghan New Year - the explosives-filled car stalled in a dry riverbed.
Afghan security forces stumbled upon it and arrested Shakir, the cleric and the medical student.
Shakir said he doesn’t want to attack anyone anymore. “I don’t even know what jihad is,” he said. “I really want to go home.”
Friday, May 16, 2008
Tanda mey mata shwa "تنده مې ماته شوه"
د عبدالهادي حېران د لنډو کيسو لومړنۍ ټولګه د "تنده مې ماته شوه" په نوم تازه په پېښور کې چاپ او خپره شوه. دا ټولګه چې د افغان خپرندويې ټولنې لخوا خپره شوې، سپين کاغذ او زړه راښکونکې سرپاڼه لري او ټولې پکې لس لنډې کيسې خپرې شوې دي چې اته د ليکوال خپلې او دوه د اردو او انګليسي ژبو څخه ژباړې دي.
د عبدالهادي حېران لدې وړاندې د "پښتو په انټرنېټ کې" په نوم يو بل کتاب هم خپور شوى دى. په راتلونکي وخت کې به يې څو نور کتابونه: (١) انګليسي – پښتو متلونه، (٢) ناول، (٣) تکلونه او خاکې، (٤) د انګليسي د پخولو لارښود، (٥) تحليلي ليکنې او نور اثار هم خپاره شي.
د دې ټولو کتابونو د ترلاسه کولو، يا وړانديزونو او مشورو او يا هم د کمپوزنګ او ژباړې د خدماتو لپاره په لاندې تليفون شمېرو او برېښناليک باندې تماس نيولاى شئ.
جلال اباد : (شفيع الله مصور) 0700-676273
پېښور: (يونيورسټي بک اېجنسي) 091-2212534
(ع. حېران) 0332-9198722
برېښناليک: ahhairan@gmail
More Deatil :http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3713
Celebrated Pushto singer living a miserable life
Celebrated Pushto singer living a miserable life
Chief Minister Pakhtunkhwa Mr. Ameer Haider Khan Hoti giving away a cheque amount to Rs. One Lakh to renowned Fold Singer Badshah Zarin jan at his office after a news article was published in the Daily The News Internatonal yesterday.zahid>khyberwatch.com
Article goes here;
Celebrated Pushto singer living a miserable life
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Tauseef-ur-Rahman
PESHAWAR: Once rightly considered the queen of Pushto ghazal, Bacha Zareen Jan, who was awarded ‘Tamgha-e-Imtiaz’ for enthralling music lovers for four decades, is now living a miserable life; thanks to Philistinism displayed by the people at the helm of the affairs.
The melody queen, who ruled minds and hearts of the millions, has now become a perfect example of the Pakhtun psyche noted by famous Pushto poet Ghani Khan in his book ‘The Pathans’, in which he says, “Pakhtuns love music but hate musicians.”
Born in village Kalpanay, Par Hoti, Mardan, in 1942, Zareen Jan lives along with her nephew in a small two-room rented house in Peshawar. The legendry singer started her career at age 7 when she gave her first performance in a programme aired by Radio Pakistan in 1949.
She has the singular talent of having sung Pushto, Hindko, Punjabi, Seraiki, Potohari, Urdu and Persian songs. Later, she decided for a career in singing but was only after she sung ‘Gila da Khpalo keegi Nakri sook da pradoo na gila’ (complains are made to near ones and not to aliens or unknown) that she came to the limelight. “The song became a hit at that time and won appreciation from all and sundry,” she recalled while talking to The News.
Zareen Jan, commonly known as Bibi Gul, sang thousands of Pashto songs for radio, television and stage, few of which including ‘Za Pana Walarha yama’ Halaka balai ma narhawa Leeday ma na shay, ‘Ma pre sezi, zee pa makizoono yara’ and ‘Allah ho sha Allah ho’ are still fresh in people’s minds and are being hummed even today.
She was the first woman Pushto singer who passed secondary school examination from a local school. Zareen Jan said she got initial music lessons from her elder sister Dilbar Jan Balelai and later on Ustad Pazir Khan-the father of famous Sarinda virtuoso, Munir Sarhadi groomed her talent. Ghulam Farid was her mentor in Urdu singing.
She also performed at All India Radio, Delhi. Apart from singing Bibi Gul played central role in radio dramas like Jalat Khan-Mahbooba and Sher Alam Mamoonai. Bibi Gul won plaudits from her admirers. In addition to dozens of awards and certificates, she was decorated with ‘Tamgha-e-Imtiaz’ on March 23, 2000 for her enormous contribution to Pushto music.
Zareen Jan sang national songs for country’s troops during the 1965 and 71 Pak-India wars. “At that time only live programmes used to be aired so I remained at radio station round-the-clock,” she recalled. She also worked with famous radio producers like Ashraf Maftoon, Arbab Rashid, Younis Sethi and directors like Rashid Ali Khan. She has worked with renowned musicians including Sham Lal, Ustad Pazir Khan and Daulat Khan
Speaking of the present-day Pushto music, she said singers today used old tunes. “There is no creativity except the remixes. New experiments should be done but according to the trend of Pushto music prevalent in our society,” she said.
Zareen Jan did not marry and dedicated her life to Pushto music. As is the fate of other artistes in our country, she is now living a quiet and miserable life in Gulbahar. She has been fighting various diseases for the last so many years. The monthly stipend (Rs2,500) that the culture department used to give her has also been stopped for the last one and half year.
A few days back NWFP culture minister Syed Aqil Shah visited Zareen Jan’s home. Besides giving her Rs3,000 from his pocket he assured her that her stipend would be restarted soon. He promised that the government would try to acquire a plot of land for her.
Interestingly, the visit of the cultural minister to Zareen Jan house invited more trouble for her. When the news of provincial minister’s visit appeared in newspapers, people who had given loans to Zareen Jan from time to time started thronging her rented home to demand a recovery of their loans.
“The minister gave me Rs3,000 and assurances for resolving my miseries but the people think as if I got some hefty amount of the government, which is not the case,” she clarified. Artistes of other provinces received admiration as well as monetary benefits from the government while those from NWFP were always neglected, she complained. She urged the authorities concerned to help her and provide a house where she could live with honour.
The last five years of anti-cultural and anti-entertainment government of MMA dealt a serious blow to the cultural atmosphere of the province. Now, as the nationalist party which claims to be champion of safeguarding Pakhtuns rights was at the helm should provide relief to people who in their own capacity worked for the promotion of Pushto language
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
