May 15, 2009

 

Taliban - Challenge and Response

 

Shorn of the myth built about them by some radical Islamist groups, including the Jama’at-e-Islami, the Taliban give now a clear impression of being ideologically an obscurantist bunch and operationally a detestable tyrannical setup. Their practices hardly square with Islamic teachings. Yet, they masquerade as strict followers of Islamic precepts!

Their leader in Swat Valley, Sufi Muhammad, in a recent TV interview shocked his audiences by putting forward themes that are not upheld in any of the 55 or so Muslim countries of the world. Not even Saudi Arabia and Iran, he contended, had an Islamic judiciary system. Only the Taliban of Afghanistan had enforced it. And, he was trying to do so in Malakand Division of Pakistan following the peace deal with the Pakistani authorities. That deal ended on May 7 following the army action against the Taliban in the area as they had extended their tentacles to Buner and Dir in contravention of the terms of the peace agreement. Also, they had not complied with the prime condition of the deal that required the Taliban to surrender their arms.

Sufi Muhammad was unequivocal in his contention that women should remain confined to their homes and should be allowed to step out only to perform Hajj. No wonder, a teenage girl was publicly flogged in Swat on the suspicion of having an affair. Another couple was shot dead as they were accused of having had an illicit relationship. Anyone suspected of having spied on the activities of the Taliban was publicly beheaded. I have received a video clip showing the brutal process of beheading. Viewing the clip, I couldn’t help uttering: “Brutality, they name is Taliban.”

What prompted military action were the Taliban encroachments in towns beyond the Malakand Division in total disdain of the peace accord. That revealed their real agenda, and even a very weak army could not have accepted such an expansionist design. Pakistan’s army rated as Number 7 in the world could hardly put up with such an offensive move of the Taliban. They mistook the tolerance of their antics by the government as its weakness and sent truckloads of gun-wielding youngsters to Dir and Buner to terrorize the people. That had to be and is being stopped. The writ of the government has to be restored in all areas where the Taliban had been operating. They have to be disarmed and subdued, if not totally eliminated.

The army action has given rise in its turn to some other challenges. Since the army’s arsenal lacks arms suitable for guerrilla warfare, it has to use powerful artillery causing a lot of collateral damage to civilian life and property. No wonder hundreds of thousands of families have moved to adjoining peaceful areas where camps have been set up by the government to provide them food and shelter. Pakistan has the experience of looking after over three million Afghan refugees during the war against the Soviet Union. In this, they had the help of numerous international agencies. One hopes that similar facilities will be forthcoming this time too, particularly as the army action has the full support of NATO countries and the US.

The biggest challenge will be the likely antagonism to the army action by the people of the region. As it is, many people still believe that it is America’s war that Pakistan is fighting - a war setting one group of Muslims against another, a war wherein the Punjabi soldiers would be killing the Pukhtoons. The Americans are also accused of having pushed the Afghan Taliban across the border into Pakistan instead of sorting them out on the Afghan territory. That gave rise, it is believed, to the menace of the Taliban of Pakistan.

The current army action would forfeit whatever goodwill the Pakistani Taliban had for the state of Pakistan. The tribal people have always been staunch supporters of Pakistan. The Awami National Party (ANP) which is the ruling party in the Frontier province now and which had insisted on the Swat peace deal and which still sticks to the ‘wisdom’ of the deal, might excite support for its hoary project of “Pukhtoonistan”. The ANP leadership - Bacha Khan, Wali Khan, Isfandiyar Wali Khan - have had for three consecutive generations some mental reservations about the very idea of Pakistan. They had also to suffer jail terms for that very reason. The party might exploit the army action to promote its Pukhtoonistan agenda.

The insurgents in Baloochistan might also attempt exploiting the fallout of the army action to augment their separatist design.

The present government’s biggest weakness has been its inability to canvass support for its policies. So much so that even the parliamentarians are heard complaining that they were not taken into confidence before several crucial decisions were made. The feudal structure (wadera-shahi) at the apex of the state apparatus appears to have a noticeable reluctance in launching mass contact projects to canvass support for government policies. Shaheed Benazir understood the power of the common man. Her husband, who is occupying the Presidency because of the general sympathy for her, would be well advised to double his efforts at mass contacts. He has inherited the advantage of having dozens of TV channels, besides the PTV, for such an exercise.

Fortunately, a group of 20 religious setups convened a meeting in Lahore on May 6 to launch a campaign to expose the fallacious, un-Islamic thoughts of the Taliban. They have decided to hold a large conference in Islamabad on May 17 to underline the deviations of the Taliban from the generally accepted tenets of Islam. They plan organizing processions, giving Friday sermons, and appearing on TV channels to expose the perversions of the Taliban in the name of Islam.

With the exception of the Jama’t-e- Islami, no politico-religious party is willing to stand by the Taliban on their interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence. Members of the parliament belonging to Islamic parties could be prevailed upon perhaps by the Prime Minister to address their constituents about the necessity of the action against the Taliban in the interest of national integrity.

Unless the country’s leadership, both civil and military, takes up the challenges seriously, giving up its insouciant and haughty approach to the Taliban menace, they might have to contend before long with much daunting fault-lines in the country.

Arifhussaini@hotmail.com