great rage and great fear in swat-villagers recount taliban abuse

[khanz]

Refugees fleeing Swat Valley tell of Taliban crimes, abuses

GOLRA, Pakistan - Hajji Karim and his extended family of 70 were camped in a dirt-floor stable 10 miles outside Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. It was as far as they could get from the Swat Valley, where thousands of people are fleeing from the ravages of the Taliban and the imminent prospect of war with government forces.

When Taliban fighters first entered Karim's village last month, he recounted, they said they had come to bring peace and Islamic law, or sharia, to Swat. But the next day, two of the fighters dragged a policeman out of his truck and tried to slit his throat. Horrified, a crowd rushed over, shouting and trying to shield the officer. The fighters let him go, but the incident confirmed the villagers' worst suspicions.

"We all said to each other, what sort of people have come here? And what kind of sharia is this? Cutting off people's heads has nothing to do with Islam," recounted Karim, 55, a bus driver. "The people were filled with great rage, and great fear."

Authorities in North-West Frontier Province said that with the conflict intensifying, they expect half a million people to flee the once-bucolic Swat region near the Afghan border, much of which is now occupied by heavily armed militants. Officials announced Tuesday that they plan to open six refugee camps in the safer nearby districts of Swabi and Mardan, but until then, many who leave home to escape the violence are facing the arduous task of finding their own shelter.

Refugees confused and trapped
As the refugees begin streaming out of Swat and the neighboring Buner district in northwest Pakistan, they carry with them memories of the indignities and horrors inflicted by occupying Taliban forces -- locking women inside their homes, setting donkeys on fire -- as they tried to force residents to accept a radical version of Islam.

The government has not helped, refugees said, with its erratic, seesawing efforts to appease and fight the militants. Some said they felt confused and trapped, unsure whether to trust the peace deal forged by the government and Taliban leaders last month, or to flee in anticipation of the fighting that has begun as the peace accord collapses.

Sher Mohammed, a property dealer from Mingora, the main town in Swat, was one of the first people to reach a new refugee camp in the Mardan district with his wife and children Tuesday night. On Wednesday, he kicked the dirt outside their tent despondently, saying that after enduring two years of fighting and Taliban abuses, he had had enough.

"I feel like I have lost my mind," he said. "I work hard to make a respectable life and educate my children. Now we are living in a camp, and my sons are talking of guns."

Mohammed said he did not understand why the country's powerful army had not been able to defeat the militants before they took over the valley. Even now, after a week of sporadic fighting, military officials have not announced an offensive against the militants who occupy much of Swat and Buner. The Taliban has repeatedly rejected government overtures to salvage the peace deal, in which the militants agreed to disarm if sharia courts were made the exclusive form of justice in Swat.

Army officials said 35 militants and three soldiers were killed Wednesday in Swat in sporadic fighting, including a shootout near several emerald mines that Taliban forces are using as hideouts. They said militants looted three banks and occupied police and civil administration buildings in Mingora. The military reported that an additional 50 militants had been killed in Buner.



'Great rage, and great fear' in Pakistan - Washington Post- msnbc.com

 

[Solomon2]

It looks like everything you ever wanted Aggy: the people of Swat, having learned first-hand the cruelties of the Taliban, now support the government. Was it really necessary for Pakistan to learn this lesson the hard way, rather than have the President act like a leader rather than a follower?

 

[IceCold]

It looks like everything you ever wanted Aggy: the people of Swat, having learned first-hand the cruelties of the Taliban, now support the government. Was it really necessary for Pakistan to learn this lesson the hard way, rather than have the President act like a leader rather than a follower?

Sometimes its better to understand the hardway because then it becomes really hard to forget such lessons.

 

[EyelessInGaza]

It has neither nor much gore, neither hysteria nor analysis, only a lot of pathos, but this, IMHO, is the most positive news story for Pakistan. The people who are most affected are saying they have had enough. It now remains for the leaders to carry that sentiment through; the army to fight, the politicians to govern. After this, not a single Pakistani elite, be he/ she from the armed forces or the government, has a single remaining excuse not to do what must be done.

 

[Solomon2]

Sometimes its better to understand the hardway because then it becomes really hard to forget such lessons.

What I understand is that the Pakistani government has agreed to go to war against the Taliban on the grounds that they are "extremists". The GoP did not trust or believe that democratic legitimacy alone was enough to motivate the population.

It is a strong expression of Pakistan's weakness, and by extension a lack of commitment by the GoP to remedying the some of the conditions that bred the Taliban in the first place: poor governance and official corruption. After the Talibs are gone, things will be just as messed up as before, and people will have as little hope as they did before that their lives will get any better. And we all know who will get blamed for this: the U.S.A., for encouraging Pakistan to fight its home-bred terrorists in the first place, rather than give them the keys to Kabul.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

After the Talibs are gone, things will be just as messed up as before, and people will have as little hope as they did before that their lives will get any better. And we all know who will get blamed for this: the U.S.A., for encouraging Pakistan to fight its home-bred terrorists in the first place, rather than give them the keys to Kabul.

I don't recall large numbers of Pakistanis blaming the US for their domestic problems before the US invasion of Afghanistan.

 

[Torpedo]

Its really good to see something is happening in favor of Pakistan.

Very correct decision by GoP. The deal should never have came to existence. Better late then never.

 

[Durran3]

Thanks for the Article was very informative.. Being a Pakhtun it really hurts to read the stories these people are telling.. and it was something that could have stopped

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Tales of woe and a glimmer of hope​

Thursday, May 14, 2009

By Kamal Siddiqi

MARDAN: The displaced persons streaming out of Swat, Buner and Dir bring with them countless tales of woe.

Finally, Pakistanis are waking up to the terror of Taliban rule as stories emerge of people suffering unspeakable brutalities for challenging the writ of the militants. Until now, the people were scared and frustrated. This has changed with the latest military action.

“When they started killing big landlords and figures of authority in this poorly governed area, many people actually applauded the acts,” says Khadim Hussain of the Ariana Institute of Regional Research and Advocacy, an Islamabad-based think tank set up by academics from the NWFP. However, after the peace deal with the government, the way the Taliban went against the local customs and norms upset even their most ardent supporters.

One of the most talked about Taliban commanders is 32-year-old Ibne Amin, who is rumoured to have been injured in the ongoing military operation. “When Ibne Amin travelled in an area, people would either shut themselves in their houses or bow down as his convoy passed,” said one resident of Malakand.

Earlier this year, Amin’s men invited a tribal Jirga to a mosque in Matta Tehsil in Swat and entered into negotiations to settle disputes. In the middle of the talks, Amin walked in and allegedly shot dead all the elders present.

Khairullah, one of the eye witnesses to the incident, says that after shooting them dead, Amin took a hatchet and started to chop up the corpses. This was meant as a message to anyone who dared challenge the Taliban.

Clearly, the Taliban had gone too far. Never in the history of the Pakhtoons, says Khadim Hussain, has a Jirga been attacked in this manner. It is such incidents that have turned the people against them.

“Our Pakhtoon traditions are being challenged,” says Aurangzeb Khan from Pir Baba, a small village in Buner. While it is obvious that the Taliban have gone too far, the question now being asked is how serious is the government in rising to the challenge. Pakistanis want to know, for example, how this Army operation is different from the previous time round. “It is a valid question,” says Talat Masood, an analyst and retired Army general. Masood says that he sees a far greater level of resolve and a realisation within the Army leadership of the seriousness of the threat to Pakistan.

But other analysts say that the Army’s objective remains to drive out the Taliban from the cities and leave them alone in the rural areas.

This is a source of worry for many. “The two months in which the Taliban were allowed to rule in Swat have done untold damage to that area,” comments Dr Fauzia Saeed, a human rights activist. Fauzia says that if the Taliban are not completely flushed out of the area, they will resurface in no time at all.

While the military operation is in place, many are saying that it has to be followed up with economic and political reforms. In addition, says General Masood, the civil administration would have to be brought back on its feet. All this is not that easy to achieve.

The good news, however, is that the public opinion has finally started to tilt in favour of the government. Until now, Pakistanis were divided over the operation in Swat. “Possibly the whole exercise of signing a peace agreement with the Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) of Sufi Muhammad and then its visible failure was not a futile effort,” comments Dr Fauzia, who argues that this proved to the world that the government did make an effort for peace but the religious extremists did not keep their part of the bargain.

Fauzia, who has led a campaign to protest Talibanisation in Islamabad, says that finally people have started to overcome the fear of the Taliban and are publicly protesting against their actions. “When we started to gather people and civil society organisations earlier this year in Islamabad, people were scared to come forward. They feared being targeted by the extremists,” she says. Now, after the military operation has re-started, the numbers at the rallies are swelling once again.

Life in Islamabad seemed to have been badly hit by the Taliban advance. Many musical events, theatre performances and fashion shows were voluntarily cancelled. Schools were closed on the slightest hint of a threat. Some institutions told their women staff to cover their heads and co-education schools began to segregate classrooms. Residents talked of depression and frustration with the way things were going. If nothing else, the current military operation has lifted their spirits and given them new hope.

 

[Solomon2]

Tales of woe and a glimmer of hope​

Fauzia, who has led a campaign to protest Talibanisation in Islamabad, says that finally people have started to overcome the fear of the Taliban and are publicly protesting against their actions. “When we started to gather people and civil society organisations earlier this year in Islamabad, people were scared to come forward. They feared being targeted by the extremists,” she says. Now, after the military operation has re-started, the numbers at the rallies are swelling once again.

Does the Urdu-language press say the same thing?

 

[rokhanyousafzai]

Tales of woe and a glimmer of hope​

Thursday, May 14, 2009

By Kamal Siddiqi

MARDAN: The displaced persons streaming out of Swat, Buner and Dir bring with them countless tales of woe.

Finally, Pakistanis are waking up to the terror of Taliban rule as stories emerge of people suffering unspeakable brutalities for challenging the writ of the militants. Until now, the people were scared and frustrated. This has changed with the latest military action.

“When they started killing big landlords and figures of authority in this poorly governed area, many people actually applauded the acts,” says Khadim Hussain of the Ariana Institute of Regional Research and Advocacy, an Islamabad-based think tank set up by academics from the NWFP. However, after the peace deal with the government, the way the Taliban went against the local customs and norms upset even their most ardent supporters.

One of the most talked about Taliban commanders is 32-year-old Ibne Amin, who is rumoured to have been injured in the ongoing military operation. “When Ibne Amin travelled in an area, people would either shut themselves in their houses or bow down as his convoy passed,” said one resident of Malakand.

Earlier this year, Amin’s men invited a tribal Jirga to a mosque in Matta Tehsil in Swat and entered into negotiations to settle disputes. In the middle of the talks, Amin walked in and allegedly shot dead all the elders present.

Khairullah, one of the eye witnesses to the incident, says that after shooting them dead, Amin took a hatchet and started to chop up the corpses. This was meant as a message to anyone who dared challenge the Taliban.

Clearly, the Taliban had gone too far. Never in the history of the Pakhtoons, says Khadim Hussain, has a Jirga been attacked in this manner. It is such incidents that have turned the people against them.

“Our Pakhtoon traditions are being challenged,” says Aurangzeb Khan from Pir Baba, a small village in Buner. While it is obvious that the Taliban have gone too far, the question now being asked is how serious is the government in rising to the challenge. Pakistanis want to know, for example, how this Army operation is different from the previous time round. “It is a valid question,” says Talat Masood, an analyst and retired Army general. Masood says that he sees a far greater level of resolve and a realisation within the Army leadership of the seriousness of the threat to Pakistan.

But other analysts say that the Army’s objective remains to drive out the Taliban from the cities and leave them alone in the rural areas.

This is a source of worry for many. “The two months in which the Taliban were allowed to rule in Swat have done untold damage to that area,” comments Dr Fauzia Saeed, a human rights activist. Fauzia says that if the Taliban are not completely flushed out of the area, they will resurface in no time at all.

While the military operation is in place, many are saying that it has to be followed up with economic and political reforms. In addition, says General Masood, the civil administration would have to be brought back on its feet. All this is not that easy to achieve.

The good news, however, is that the public opinion has finally started to tilt in favour of the government. Until now, Pakistanis were divided over the operation in Swat. “Possibly the whole exercise of signing a peace agreement with the Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) of Sufi Muhammad and then its visible failure was not a futile effort,” comments Dr Fauzia, who argues that this proved to the world that the government did make an effort for peace but the religious extremists did not keep their part of the bargain.

Fauzia, who has led a campaign to protest Talibanisation in Islamabad, says that finally people have started to overcome the fear of the Taliban and are publicly protesting against their actions. “When we started to gather people and civil society organisations earlier this year in Islamabad, people were scared to come forward. They feared being targeted by the extremists,” she says. Now, after the military operation has re-started, the numbers at the rallies are swelling once again.

Life in Islamabad seemed to have been badly hit by the Taliban advance. Many musical events, theatre performances and fashion shows were voluntarily cancelled. Schools were closed on the slightest hint of a threat. Some institutions told their women staff to cover their heads and co-education schools began to segregate classrooms. Residents talked of depression and frustration with the way things were going. If nothing else, the current military operation has lifted their spirits and given them new hope.

absolutely disgusting act how can u hack the corpse of an elders at jirgas this has really disturbed me there barbaric ,my friend told me they were walking around with mutilated heads scaring girls in schools getting a laugh from it

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Taliban terror in Buner​

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

* Residents of relief camp in Swabi blame former Malakand commissioner for rise of Taliban
* Refuse to return to homes until region cleansed of Taliban

By Iqbal Khattak

SHAWAI ADDA: Nineteen-year-old Naib Zada decided to leave Buner, along with several other villagers, hours after the Taliban beheaded his neighbour for being a police officer.

“That was a terrible experience and a wake-up call for all of us,” he said when talking about why he left his hometown of Kalpani in Buner district. Zada is now a resident of a private relief camp run by ‘Tarakai Trust’ in Shawai Adda, Swabi.

“The Taliban are quite intelligent. They initially presented a soft image to endear themselves to the population. However, once they take control of an area, you get to see their full cruelty on display,” 38-year-old Mian Zarin said of the Taliban’s actions following their arrival in the region. Muhammad Raziq, 65, said the conditions really became ‘ugly’ once the military decided to chase out the Taliban. “The forces were shelling any site where Taliban presence was reported, forcing us to flee for safety,” he said. Forty-five-year-old Ibrahim, meanwhile, said he ran away from Buner to protect the honour of his family’s women. He said the Taliban were expected to “dishonour our women as they did to the women in Swat”.

Govt at fault: The residents of the relief camp did not mince words against the government. “I hold the government responsible for the state of affairs in Buner because the state is unwilling to take the Taliban out,” Zarin said. “The (former) commissioner of Malakand (Syed Muhammad Javed) fooled the district administration, and also the local population, by saying the Taliban had come to visit the area and would soon return. So, we pulled our jawans from the hilltop, and it gave the Taliban freedom to spread across Buner,” Zarin added.

No return: However, most of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the camp were willing to give the government forces sufficient time to cleanse Buner of the Taliban. “We can withstand the temporary suffering, but we will not return if even a single member of the Taliban remains in Buner,” Zarin said in chorus with other IDPs.

 

[muse]

The residents of the relief camp did not mince words against the government. “I hold the government responsible for the state of affairs in Buner because the state is unwilling to take the Taliban out,” Zarin said. “The (former) commissioner of Malakand (Syed Muhammad Javed) fooled the district administration, and also the local population, by saying the Taliban had come to visit the area and would soon return. So, we pulled our jawans from the hilltop, and it gave the Taliban freedom to spread across Buner,” Zarin added.

No return: However, most of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the camp were willing to give the government forces sufficient time to cleanse Buner of the Taliban. “We can withstand the temporary suffering, but we will not return if even a single member of the Taliban remains in Buner,” Zarin said in chorus with other IDPs.

Contrary to all the BS we have heard about how the locals want the talib, it is clear that only those who have tied their wagon to the ideology of Islamism want the Talib.

 

[S-2]

"...it is clear that only those who have tied their wagon to the ideology of Islamism want the Talib."

That may be but I witnessed a guy in one of the videos here who was a refugee from Bajaur. Maybe it was hill country and an affinity beforehand. Maybe it was the interminable wait, but this guy was for turning Bajaur over to the taliban if he could return with his family.

I was dismayed. More to my concern, as your army broaches places like Orakzai, Khyber, Mohmand, Korrum, and the Waziristans, what shall they face-more like him?

 

[muse]

I think we might want to factor in that sentiment will continue to be a challenege -- but we will have a chance to discuss issues with regarding to dealing with ideology.

One individual who wants his family safe and the certainties he was used to. to continue - is that really a difficult idea to internalize? If it were you and I and we say our wife and our children and our extended family turned out from what we have, it would seem, known for as long as we had been alive, that we may want to cling to those certainties in the face of seeming ruin - I understand it - but it's not where this is heading.

Pakistani bureaucrats and politicians are hoping to make some money of these IDP, once again, it falls to the armed forces to lead the way to ensure the bureaucrats and politicians do not succeed.

I alos hope that American opinion, informed and diverse, will begin to realize that there may be more to their mission.