Jihad and the state

By Ayesha Siddiqa
Friday, 09 Oct, 2009

Pakistan’s support is critical in reducing the size and subsequently the threat posed by terror networks like Al-Qaeda. –Photo by AP

Pakistan’s support today is central to winning the war on terror. Hence, American aid is meant to encourage the political government and, to a certain extent, the military to cleanse the country of the thousands of jihadis that have been in Pakistan since the 1980s.

The strategy might work to a degree in eliminating some groups. Indeed Pakistan’s support is critical in reducing the size and subsequently the threat posed by terror networks like Al-Qaeda. The current assessment is that the terror outfit has in fact reduced in size and is partly relocating to Africa.

But this is not an indicator that the battle has been completely won. To vanquish the faceless enemy, the US and its allies have to achieve the harder goal of winning hearts and minds without which the war on terror is not winnable. This is because terror networks are difficult to locate, especially when they have society’s support. The problem right now is that while people in Pakistan might be anxious regarding some Taliban groups on a killing spree in the country, neither they nor the state in its entirety have complete faith in America’s war on terror or its presence in the region.

While institutions of the state have problems due to the manner in which the US chooses to fight the war, a common perception is that the Taliban imposed the war on Pakistan due to the US presence. So, to many the Taliban and jihadis essentially represent a struggle against American imperialism in Afghanistan. What, of course, goes hand in hand with such perceptions is the view that 9/11 was an American conspiracy to invade Afghanistan, the key to Central Asia. These are interesting times when the religious right begins to look like the left.

The battle for hearts and minds is essentially a part of the exercise of making the war legitimate. Currently, the argument presented by some in Pakistan, including certain prominent televangelists, is that America’s war essentially represents a clash of civilisations and is being imposed on Pakistan by an illegitimate government on behalf of the US. Notwithstanding the general suspicion regarding the US, there are two issues that need attention when it comes to the debate on what a ‘just war’ is in the Muslim world.

Firstly, what is a just war in Islam? According to some, a just war is one which is fought for the defence of Islam or for extending the religion to other parts of the world. The thinking goes that since the war on terror has been imposed by the US by falsely accusing Al Qaeda for 9/11, the struggle against it is legitimate. It would certainly add to everyone’s knowledge if Pakistani authorities disclosed how Khaled Sheikh Mohammad, who was interrogated by Pakistani forces before being handed over to America, confessed to his involvement in the bombing of the World Trade Centre.

Those that oppose the war on terror create the same categories as those that support the war of the ‘bad’ Taliban versus the ‘good’ Taliban. The latter are those fighting American hegemony in South Asia or other parts of the world. The bad ones are those that attack Pakistan on the behest of the US or Indian intelligence agencies. It becomes imperative for all Muslims to fight the US, which is threatening the survival of the Islamic civilisation, while Pakistan is considered the citadel of Islam.

So, people are caught between their dislike for violence imposed internally and the message coming from certain quarters that this violence is actually caused by the American presence in the region. Consequently, the situation would improve after America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Such perspectives received greater support after Washington’s needless expansion of the war to Iraq.

But then there is no consensus on what a just war is. Over the years, the concept of jihad has been through several interpretations depending on the times. Today, there is no consensus amongst the community of believers regarding the legitimacy of war. One of the important issues pertains to the question of who has the authority to wage a war. Is it the state or the individual’s responsibility? This question is not easy to answer as it is directly connected with another equally complex matter regarding the nature and legitimacy of the state.

The fact is that most religious opinions on war involving the individual citizen pertain to times when scholars had responded to external invasions and considered their own governments to be lacking in legitimacy to represent the people. The current times, unfortunately, don’t appear very different. However, the issue requires further thought even if the US left the region.

This brings me to the second issue of what a legitimate Islamic state is, a matter that has a direct bearing on whether the public would support the war or not. For the US, the battle to win hearts and minds becomes even more problematic considering that people in most countries of the Muslim world are not happy with their governments. This is certainly true in Pakistan where there is a lot of confusion about who has the right to govern.

The rampant corruption of the leadership adds fuel to the fire of the arguments of those who believe and profess that democracy is not suited to an Islamic system of government. Some televangelists in Pakistan, who are gaining popularity amongst the educated middle-class youth, argue that democracy as a system is foreign to Islam and hence must be abolished. Naturally, a state established on what they consider the wrong principles does not have the right to decide on which side of the fence it wants to fight.

These self-appointed preachers present a specific view on the politics of the state as if there is no space for any other perspective. Indeed, there is an ongoing debate on the relationship between politics and religion. While the concept of caliphate was supported historically, modern Muslim scholars such as Al Razik and Abdullah An-Na’im talk about the possibility of the separation of religion and politics which would allow for newer methods of selecting a government.

A debate on the aforementioned issues is no guarantee that the situation would immediately turn around for the US in Afghanistan. But it may save the world from protracted conflict on other fronts. The clash of civilisations is an ugly phenomenon and discussion in Muslim societies will help world peace.

The writer is an independent strategic and political analyst. (Dawn)
ayesha.ibd@gmail.com

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Tailpiece: 33 jihadi bhaion ki shahadat. May their souls burn in hell.

Bodies of 33 militants found

By Our Correspondent
Friday, 09 Oct, 2009

MINGORA, Oct 8: The bullet-riddled bodies of 33 suspected Taliban were found in different areas of Char Bagh on Thursday and a senior military commander said the militants had been killed in clashes with security forces.

According to reports reaching here, all the bodies were of local militants.

Sources said that troops were carrying out a search operation in Benjot, Taligram, Seir and Munglistan. In Kasona, 13 bodies were found and seven militants surrendered.

Dozens of unidentified bodies have been found since the military launched an operation in Swat and most of them have been buried.

Operation Commander Maj-Gen Ashfaq Nadeem told journalists that the militants had been killed in clashes in Char Bagh area over the past three days. He said that 95 per cent areas of Swat had been cleared of militants.

He said the remaining areas would be cleared soon and troops would start handing over a number of checkpoints to police from Oct 15. He said curfew had been lifted from several areas in Swat.

Maj-Gen Nadeem said that most of the militants in Swat had been killed, adding that troops would fully participate in the reconstruction work. He said the army would build mosques and repair the Ayub bridge in six weeks.

He said a committee would present a report about the use of Rs1 billion funds announced by the army chief.

Agencies add: The bodies of 15 Taliban militants were found on Thursday while 24 insurgents were killed in military operations in Swat.

Officials have previously reported 251 corpses dumped next to roads, beheaded or strung up in Swat since July.

“I can confirm that 15 bodies were found today and our information is that they are militants,” army spokesman Major Mushtaq Khan told AFP. “They might have been the victims of infighting among militant groups or killed by local people.” (Dawn)

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Mob sets church set on fire near Sialkot. Shame on the pro-Taliban government of Punjab. Shame on Sharif brothers.

This site has moved to http://criticalppp.com, click this link if you are not redirected
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Lahore terror attack: Lashkar-e-Jhangavi and allied sectarian/jihadi groups involved

From a state of denial to accepting ownership?

Ayesha Ijaz Khan writes in The News (6 March 2009):

While Pakistanis are not completely out of line if they have concerns about India's hegemonic designs and regional threats to their existence (in recent months, these threats have amplified. Yet, equally dangerous, if not more so, is the enemy within); regrettable as it is, it would not be unfair to say that extremism has permeated our society and over the past many decades there has been a systematic transfer of power from the secular segments of society to those claiming to pose as Islamists.

There is too much tolerance for religious posers, and precious little for dissent in secular terms. This is exhibited across the board. The biggest culprits of course have been successive governments, willing to make peace deals with those who threaten the very fabric of our legal and value structure, yet unwilling to accommodate political dissent or civil society activism based on globally-accepted human values.

But the trouble is also evident among large segments of our society at large. Those who hide behind the cloak of religiosity are rarely questioned about their motives or their actions. Even ten years ago, before the menace of Talibanization crept upon us so forcefully, a policeman, for instance, was far more likely to fine a clean-shaven driver as opposed to a bearded one.

I find it ridiculous, for example, when some analysts ask what the extremists would gain by targeting the Sri Lankans and thus further isolating Pakistan. What do they gain by burning girls' schools? What do they gain by mutilating dead bodies? What do they gain by attacking concerts? Isn't it just the spread of panic and fear that they are after? Have they been emboldened further by the deal in Swat?

Najmuddin Shaikh writes in Daily Times:

But if we want to face reality, we must accept that this was a homegrown attack. If it had foreign financing and perhaps some foreign planning, the finger should point not only towards our eastern border but also to the north of our own country. It is there that those who found shelter now find themselves under pressure, which can best be relieved if their sympathisers in Punjab — and there are plenty of those — can be motivated to create chaos and anarchy in the capital of the country’s largest province.

Najam Sethi writes in Daily Times:

No one will disagree that it was premature on the part of the media to start discussing an “Indian hand” in the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team on March 3. Relying on a CID letter warning the government weeks in advance that the attack would be launched by India’s secret agency RAW, the media took off, bringing in commentators and analysts who were already wedded to the idea from their ideological convictions. But the campaign is coming unstuck even as it unfolds.....

The agencies have been finally forced to look for “local groups”, and that means the vast jihadi network now working for Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Because of their old linkages within the state institutions, these groups are able to plant “information” on our security personnel to confuse them and get them to ignore the real culprits. There is an unending stream of reported evidence that the jihadi organisations of Punjab are all aligned with Al Qaeda and have been involved in acts of terrorism planned by it. Yet, all TV discussions avoid naming them, preferring to focus on “foreign hands” that are never finally revealed.

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Lahore Liberty ambush: Defunct outfit involvement revealed
Updated at: 0915 PST, Friday, March 06, 2009

Gunmen carrying their weapons as they leave on foot after the ambush on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore

ISLAMABAD: A defunct religious outfit ambushed the Sri Lankan cricket team and the assailants had come from the tribal areas.

Sources said that the law enforcing agencies have dug out evidences against the attackers, which revealed that the terrorists having links with Afghanistan give rise to this conclusion that Al Qaeda was also indirectly involved in the Libery tragedy.

Sources said that the two vehicles near the Big City Plaza, which were used for Sri lankan team’s ambush had come there early in the morning and no one checked them. Sources said that the terrorists, who has stayed in the Youth Hostel, took part in the action, while the other accomplices had stayed at Kot Lakhpat and Township Area. Secret agencies have found out from the record obtained from cellular phone that the terrorist’ four associates were present around Qaddafi Stadium, who in touch among themselves through mobile phones---one of them stationed near Punjab University new campus, other at Lahore Canal near Qaddafi Stadium, the third one at nearby Boulevard, while the fourth in the Firdaus market area.

Sources claimed that the terrorists kept using the station code for Sri Lankan team van and as soon as the van reached Liberty Chowk, the terrorists told each other that the ‘station’ was about to arrive. According to information, among the 14 terrorists a few belonged to Lahore, while others came from the tribal areas armed with explosives RDX highly inflammable.

Sources said that a breakthrough has been achieved as plausible evidences have been obtained and some crucial arrests could be made in the next one/two days.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=70601

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Investigators see LeT footprints in Lahore attack
By Mubashir Zaidi and Irfan Raza
Friday, 06 Mar, 2009 (Dawn)

ISLAMABAD: Investigators are zeroing in on the footprints of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), according to preliminary investigations by the Joint Investigation Team probing Tuesday’s attack on Sri Lankan cricketers at Lahore’s Liberty Chowk.

Sketchy details of the initial probe suggest that a group of headstrong Lashkar activists, who went underground and remained in hiding in Rawalpindi after the crackdown on Lashkar and Jamaatud Dawa in December, had acted on their own and carried out the attack.

Although officials would not confirm the involvement of Lashkar, they categorically ruled out the possibility of involvement of the Indian spy agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as no evidence has been found so far pointing in their direction.

At least eight people, six policemen among them, were killed after 12 gunmen attacked the bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers to Qadhafi Stadium.

The attack has killed hopes of any international sports events in Pakistan for months, if not years, and seriously damaged Pakistan’s reputation to host any international sporting event, including the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

The prime minister’s adviser on interior, Rehman Malik, refused to comment on the investigations when asked.

‘At this moment I can only say that investigations into the Lahore attack are going in the right direction. We have also involved the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) to determine the identity of the attackers,’ he told Dawn.

Interestingly, officials working at Nadra told Dawn that they had no facility to match the sketches with the database. ‘It is a very expensive technology and we do not have it here. So Nadra cannot do anything in this regard,’ a top official of Nadra said.

But asked specifically about the involvement of Lashkar in the Lahore attack, Mr Malik said he could not reveal anything at the moment. ‘The preliminary report will be finalised by Friday. At this moment I can only say that reports regarding the involvement of LeT are speculation,’ he added.

Later he told reporters in Parliament that al Qaeda could be involved in the attack. He also said so far investigations had not yet found any Indian connection.

He told journalists that the involvement of India’s Raw had not been proved so far. But, he added, the final answer could only be given once the investigations were completed.

Mr Malik claimed that investigators had not found any link between the attackers and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, a key Pakistani suspect in the Mumbai attacks and the alleged trainer/handler of the suicide squad that wreaked havoc in India’s commercial hub in November last year.

But he refused to share details with media of the arrests made by the law enforcement agencies so far.

The investigators involved in the probe believe that the attackers got their commando training in the camp of Lashkar’s operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi as their modus operandi had similarities with the Mumbai attackers.

Lakhvi was detained by authorities on suspicion of involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks. He was picked up from his camp in Muzaffarabad on Dec 10 last year.

Investigators believed that one of the attackers had assured the chief suspect in Mumbai terror attacks that his followers would take revenge against Pakistani authorities for his arrest and subsequent trial.

The authorities have also approached Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, who is currently under detention at his Johar Town residence in Lahore, to help authorities in tracking down the attackers.

http://www.dawn.net/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn%20Content%20Library/dawn/news/pakistan/investigators+see+let+footprints+in+lahore+attack--sal-up

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Pakistan IDs cricket attackers, security concerns mount

Sketch of four of the terrorists wanted in the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on March 4.

LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) — Authorities in Pakistan said they had identified the gunmen who attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team, as international concern mounted Friday over how the security plans failed.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia, home to two officials caught up in Tuesday's deadly attack in the city of Lahore, demanded to know how up to 12 men were able to stage the assault, killing eight and wounding seven players.

Footage of the gunmen's getaway has raised questions about Pakistan's ability to combat Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants, who have carried out scores of attacks here over the last two years and are the main suspects.

"We have identified the people who did the operation," provincial governor Salman Taseer told reporters in Lahore late Thursday.

Police released sketches of four suspects and have brought in around two dozen people for questioning but no leads have been announced.

Taseer said he would comment further after reviewing an interim investigation report due Friday.

The gunmen fired on the Sri Lankan team convoy with automatic weapons, grenades and a rocket launcher as the vehicles travelled to Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium but all the attackers fled without a trace.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which left a total of 19 people injured.

In Australia, Rudd said he was unhappy about the security concerns expressed by Australian cricket officials travelling with the team.

"I am sufficiently concerned about what has been said by the Australians that we need an explanation, and we intend to get one," he told a radio interviewer on Friday.

Simon Taufel, one of the umpires travelling in the convoy with the Sri Lankan team, said his bus had been left unprotected once the assault began.

"You tell me why supposedly 20 armed commandos were in our convoy and when the team bus got going again, we were left on our own? I don't have any answers to these questions," he said.

Pakistan lawmakers have accused the government of a "serious security lapse", highlighting reports that authorities were warned of a possible attack.

The top government official for Lahore conceded Thursday there were gaps in the security provisions made for the Sri Lankan team.

"A terrorist has to succeed only once, whereas security has to be successful all the time. After every incident one gets wiser. You get to know all the gaps and how you should not repeat those gaps," Khusro Pervaiz told AFP.

More than 1,600 people have been killed in attacks over the past 22 months in Pakistan, where Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants have forged a base in the rugged, lawless northwest along the border with Afghanistan.

For decades, Pakistan's ISI military intelligence agency has fostered Islamist militant groups in Kashmir and Afghanistan, and there are suspicions that some ISI elements have links to militants inside the country.

The South Asian country's long history of unsolved political attacks includes the assassination in December 2007 of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

Tuesday's attack was also a serious blow for cricket in Pakistan, as the International Cricket Council raised doubts about whether it could still co-host the sport's 2011 World Cup.

New Zealand has indicated a tour of Pakistan set for November will likely be called off.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ik5u048DEW6VCSx2NYIvmnr6TxZQ

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The Times, March 6, 2009

Gunmen who attacked cricketers in Lahore 'had links to al-Qaeda'

Zahid Hussain in Islamabad

Pakistan has identified the gunmen who attacked Sri Lanka's cricket team in Lahore and arrested some key suspects, including the brother of the suspected mastermind, according to several officials.

Most of the two dozen detainees belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), the outlawed militant groups with close links to al-Qaeda, security officials have told The Times.

Senior police officials said that the men behind Tuesday morning's attack might also have links to other militants fighting in Pakistan's lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

However, it remained unclear last night whether those arrested included the gunmen who killed eight Pakistanis and injured six Sri Lankan players and one British assistant coach in Lahore. Salman Taseer, the Governor of the eastern province of Punjab, said only that the Government had identified the attackers but refused to give details until the investigation was completed.

“We have found a lot of evidence. We have recovered the weapons. We have identified the people who did the operation,” he told a news conference in Lahore.

Police also released sketches of four of the 12 gunmen, and Rehman Malik, the Interior Minister, said that a preliminary investigation report would be released today.

Some Pakistani officials have said that the attack bore the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group blamed for the attack on Mumbai in November.

But a senior Home Ministry official said that it appeared to be the work of al-Qaeda, which has masterminded previous attacks in Pakistan, including last year's suicide bombing on the Marriott hotel in Islamabad.

He said the investigation showed that Tuesday's attackers were from Punjab and North West Frontier Province, which has become the main battleground between militants and Pakistan's armed forces.

Intelligence sources said that southern Punjab had become the main centre of radical Islamic activities in the country. Despite a ban, groups such as JeM and LeJ had expanded their influence in the area, drawing recruits from among rural poor, they said.

Most of the gunmen involved in the attack on Mumbai in November came from the same region.

JeM has become a virtual extension of al-Qaeda and was blamed for most of the terrorist attacks in Pakistan after the country become an ally in the US-led War on Terror in 2001.

LeJ is an extremist Sunni sectarian group whose members overlap with JeM. It has also been involved in al-Qaeda-led attacks in Pakistan.

Pervez Musharraf, the former Pakistan President, voiced criticism of the security arrangements yesterday, saying that the special police guarding the Sri Lankan team should have responded and killed the attackers in less than three seconds.

“That should be the level of training that I expect from an elite force ... we need to improve that standard,” he said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5854505.ece

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Terrorism in Pakistan

State of denial

Mar 5th 2009 | LAHORE
From The Economist

The culprits behind the latest outrage

AFPNot a cricket shot

FOR many foreigners, events in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, on March 3rd confirmed their view of Pakistan as a hotbed of terrorism. A dozen masked gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying Sri Lanka’s national cricket team, killing six policemen and two others, and wounding seven cricketers and a British coach. But for many Pakistani pundits, quick to appear on television, events fitted another familiar pattern: Pakistan as victim of Indian conspiracy.

In January Punjab’s intelligence service had warned the police that India’s spies were planning to attack the Sri Lankan team. Now the pundits claimed the ambush was intended as retaliation for the attack on Mumbai in November in which more than 170 people were killed, to show that Pakistan was a security risk. As evidence, they pointed to the assailants’ escape: Pakistan’s Islamist terrorists, went the argument, make sure to kill themselves as well as their victims. To bolster their case, they cited India’s crowing over its decision not to send its own cricket team, for which Sri Lanka’s was standing in, and its leaders’ complaints, after the attack, about Pakistan’s intact terrorist “infrastructure”.

This far-fetched analysis, and the refusal to accept the reality of Pakistan’s terrorist problem, owes much to the religious-nationalist leanings of many young but influential television presenters. Their opinions were formed by the distorted education they received under General Zia ul-Haq, Pakistan’s dictator from 1977-88. So, despite many occasions when al-Qaeda has claimed attacks in Pakistan, many Pakistanis refuse to believe the group exists, let alone that it is dangerous for their country.

In fact, however, a former high-ranking Pakistani intelligence official has given The Economist a much more plausible explanation for the Lahore attack: that it was the handiwork of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). This sectarian group, which also put New Zealand’s national cricketers to flight in 2002 after it exploded a bomb outside their hotel in Karachi, now works closely with an al-Qaeda/Taliban network in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

It has been blamed for several atrocities, including the bombing last September of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, for which al-Qaeda this week also claimed responsibility, in a message to the Saudi embassy in the capital. According to the intelligence source, the security forces last year caught an LeJ terrorist, who is still in custody. He has confessed to being trained to carry out a suicide mission during a proposed international cricket tournament last year that in fact was shifted elsewhere.

In a society beset by Islamist violence, including some 60 suicide-bomb blasts in each of the past two years, this latest attack was less bloody than many, but nonetheless remarkable. Sri Lanka’s decision to send its revered cricketers to Pakistan, despite fears for their safety, was a brave act of South Asian solidarity from a country with terrorism troubles of its own. Its foreign minister this week visited Pakistan and offered condolences for the deaths of those killed protecting his compatriots.

That Pakistan has proved unable to provide effective security for the Sri Lankans, despite extraordinary efforts by Lahore’s police in the face of a manifest threat to their lives, is dispiriting. It seems reasonable to suppose that many of Pakistan’s dwindling foreign visitors, of all stripes, will now stay away from the country. At a time of economic duress, partly related to the country’s deepening insecurity, this will have repercussions far beyond cricket.

For many Pakistanis, however, the outcome for the country’s favourite game will be bad enough. It is almost unimaginable that other national sides will want to tour Pakistan in the near future. Pakistan’s ambition to be one of the hosts of the 2011 World Cup is surely in tatters. Though not quite the source of public hysteria that it is in India, cricket is one of Pakistan’s few unifying forces. Moreover, at a time of national shame over the many atrocities committed by Pakistan-reared militants at home and abroad, their cricketers’ performances were an export of which Pakistanis could be genuinely proud.

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13240421

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Terror war comes to Lahore

Reality check Friday, March 06, 2009 Shafqat Mahmood They are destroying everything that made life normal. A game of cricket with a visiting foreign team, gave a message of well being. This made cricket an enemy. The resolve of the Sri Lankans to help Pakistan project an image of peace was heroic. This made them a target. It is about time we understood that the real enemy is within. It may be comforting to blame outsiders; and nothing can be ruled out in the murky world of spy wars. But, this cannot be an excuse to deny that we have a problem. This is not of American origin or Indian design. America began the rot by bankrolling a surrogate army to fight the soviets in Afghanistan. India raised the temperature by letting lose a reign of terror in Kashmir. But, we nurtured and nourished these non state actors as an adjunct to our normal security apparatus. What we did not consider was the cost to the country or the blow back that this will create. The power of the gun is a heady brew. Those using it become accustomed to attention and to intimidation to get their way. They were not going to melt away just because a certain politician or General said that time has come for them to go back to their shops or ploughshares. Even expecting anything like this was fool hardiness. Myths were also created to place these organizations in the mainstream of our national narrative. These are good people who will never fight the Pakistani state, we were told. Their enemy is only India and their theatre of operation the Indian occupied state of Jammu and Kashmir. Also, that they are within our control and will do as they are told. Time has shown these beliefs to be total fabrications. They have never shied from committing acts of terror within the country. From the bombing of French engineers in Karachi to sectarian wars in Punjab and now the attack on the Sri Lankan team, the footprints of these organizations are everywhere. They have reached a level of strength where they have become completely autonomous. There has been serious speculation for some time that the attack on the Indian parliament was carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammad. Pakistani intelligence operatives had no clue about it. The Mumbai attack is now recognised to be a Lashkar-e-Taiba event. The government has half accepted this and more is to come. Again, despite some reckless accusations by Indian politicians, Pakistan intelligence agencies had no advance information of it. Even later, it was only the investigation and reportedly confessional statements by some of the accused that lay bare the details of the plan. The legendary Pakistani agencies were clueless. Not being aware of operations by organizations that traditionally worked closely with them is not good for the intelligence agencies. While it creates plausible deniability, it also shows how autonomous these jihadi outfits have become. Spy games are not about mounting operations. Those are rare. Good intelligence is all about information. When available, it can help prevent the bad and encourage the good. No information means being completely out of the loop and having little ability to influence events. This is paralysis and a nightmare for the agency concerned. Ultimately, it reflects a weakness of the state. That seems to be happening in this case. There are reports on Wednesday evening, as I write this, that about five of the accused involved in Sri Lankan firing have been arrested. If these are the real people, it is possible that we may find out their true motive. But, without knowing much, I can predict that these attacks on the bus of the Sri Lankan cricket team had a fair amount to do with the arrest of LeT members and their expected trial in the near future. Horrendous as this tragic attack is in which so many policemen have lost their lives and some Sri Lankan players injured, this should be seen as test of our resolve. If we buckle under and start making appeasing noises, the terrorists would have succeeded. This is a time to keep the pressure on and show that acts of terror will not deter us from trying criminals who use our territory to wage war outside. We should also stop legitimising them by placing their acts in a context of anti-Americanism. This is what some people are doing when analysing events in FATA and Swat. The assumption is that if somehow the Americans would disappear from Afghanistan, all would be well. This is balderdash. American presence in Afghanistan has indeed created a sanctuary for some Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda in the tribal areas but extremist elements in other parts of the country have an agenda of their own. Pamphlets have begun to appear in Lahore markets and other places essentially targeting women. They should be modestly dressed and not shop alone etc. More is likely to come. The seeds of extremism have been sown in all parts of the country. It is now almost a cliché to blame the madressah system for the spread of extremism but like most clichés it has a great deal of truth in it. Particularly in southern Punjab, the impact of the madressahs largely funded by Saudi money is huge. These alternatives of education and nourishment are sucking in thousands among the poor. They otherwise would have no option but to depend on the state school system, which is in an abysmal state. It also does not provide meals. Mundane as this may sound it is not something to be scoffed at. Unless the state is able to compete with these alternatives, the battle for the hearts and minds of the poor is lost. To create the possibility of winning, the state will first have to acknowledge internal terrorism as a serious problem. Despite much mouthing of right words, there is no evidence that a comprehensive holistic plan has been made to fight extremism. This involves, besides better policing, a combination of better services and a much better access to health and education for the poor. In other words, investing serious money into the fight against extremism is essential. It would involve modernising the police force, creating greater capacity among prosecutors and court systems, and, investing in services for the poor. It is this three-pronged strategy that will possibly turn the situation around. This hand wringing and mouthing of pious slogans by the leadership would not get us anywhere. While hopefully someone will pay attention to this, let us pause and say a silent prayer for Pakistani cricket. For many of us, it was not a sport but a passion. A cricket match would be more than a sporting contest. It was a gladiatorial fight and a social event rolled into one. Now for years to come, no one will come here. Another element of our way of life has come to an end. This is not the passing of a torch from one generation to the other. This is a paradigm shift. We are not leaving a better world behind. Email: shafqatmd@gmail.com

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=165959

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For further information about Lashkar-e-Jhangavi, read:

Book Review: The True Face of Jehadis - By Amir Mir

ISI supported Lashkar-i-Jhangavi and Sipah Sahaba in killing Shias in Pakistan

For a detailed account of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi reign of terror in Pakistan, read:

http://letusbuildpakistan.blogspot.com/search/label/Lashkar-e-Jhangavi

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Swat: Talat Hussain asks some important questions

In his op-ed in daily Express, Talat Hussain asks several valid questions exposing the unholy nexus between the (rogue elements in?) Pakistan Army and the Taliban.

Talat asks:

1. Why did not Pakistan Army eliminate/defeat terrorists/militants in its military operation in Swat in December 2007? Why was that task left unaccomplished?

2. Why did the security forces loosen their grip on the Taliban hideout in Peochar. Why were the surrounded militants allowed to freely creep into the streets, villages and towns of Swat?

3. Why despite the military operation, Taliban have been able to maintain and expand their stronghold in Swat? Taliban regularly conduct Shariat courts, lash and behead people; they have maintained check posts on roads and streets? What are our security forces doing?

4. To make the situation less than transparent and worse, certain elements are trying to confound the situation by avoiding to identify the real culprits.

5. Why has the entire force of the State (e.g., army, police) failed to rescue the valley of Swat and its citizens from the ugly clasps of a few dozen or (a few hundred) militants?

6. Why does the Pakistan Army attack and kill ordinary citizens while successfully avoiding the Taliban militants and their hideouts?



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Robert Fisk: Posturing and laughter as victims rot

Mahmoud Abbas stepped further into humiliation by saying the only option for Arabs isto make peace with Israel

Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Independent.co.uk

The front page of the Beirut daily As-Safir said it all yesterday. Across the top was a terrible photograph of the bloated body of a Palestinian man newly discovered in the ruins of his home while two male members of his family shrieked and roared their grief. Below, at half the size, was a photograph from Israel of Western leaders joking with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister. Olmert was roaring with laughter. Silvio Berlusconi, arms on the back of Olmert's shoulders, was also joshing and roaring – with laughter, not grief – and on Olmert's right was Nicolas Sarkozy of France wearing his stupidest of smiles. Only Chancellor Merkel appeared to understand the moral collapse. No smiles from Germany.

Europe laughs while Palestinians mourn their dead. No wonder that in the streets of Beirut, shops were doing a flourishing trade in Palestinian scarves and flags. Even some of Palestine's most serious enemies in Lebanon wore the Palestinian keffiyeh in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Over and over again, Al-Jazeera television strapped headlines on to their news reports of Palestinians carrying the decomposing corpses of their dead: "More than 1,300 dead in Gaza, 400 of them women and children – Israeli dead in the war 13, three of them civilians." That, too, said it all.

All day, the Arabs also had to endure watching their own leaders primping and posing in front of the cameras at the Arab summit in Kuwait, where the kings and presidents who claim to rule them also smiled and shook hands and tried to pretend that they were unified behind a Palestinian people who have been sorely betrayed. Even Mahmoud Abbas was there, the powerless, impotent leader of "Palestine" – where is that precisely, one had to ask? – trying to suck some importance from the coat-tails and robes of his betters.

Slipping and sliding on the corpses of Gaza, these assembled supreme beings should perhaps be pitied. What else could they do? Saudi King Abdullah announced £750,000 to rebuild Gaza; but how many times have the Arabs and the Europeans been throwing money at Gaza only to see it torn to shreds by incoming shell-fire?

It has to be said that the two cowled Hamas gunmen who announced that they had won a "victory" in the ruins of Gaza were only fractionally less hypocritical. Still they had not understood that they were not the Hizbollah of Lebanon. Gaza was no longer Beirut. Now, it seemed, Gaza was Stalingrad. But whose uniforms did Hamas think they were wearing: German or Soviet?

"Israel has to understand," the good king said – as if the Israelis were listening – "that the choice between war and peace will not always stay open and that the Arab initiative (for Arab recognition in return for an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders of Israel) that is on the table today will not stay on the table." He knew that "an eye for an eye ... did not say an eye for the eyes of a whole city". But how many times – how many bodies have to be pulled from the ruins – before the Saudis realise that time has run out?

The Israelis briskly dismissed land for peace in 2002 but yesterday they suddenly showed their interest again. "We continue to be willing to negotiate with all our neighbours on the basis of that initiative," the Israeli government spokesmen said – as if his own country's original rejection had never been thrown at the Arabs.

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, of course, dismissed the whole initiative in Qatar last week as dead, insisting that Israel be declared a "terrorist entity". But Mahmoud Abbas stepped further into humiliation yesterday by announcing that the "only option" for Arabs was to make peace with Israel. It was Arab "shortcomings" that led to the failure of the 2002 Arab initiative. Not Israel's rejection, mark you. No, it was all the fault of the Arabs. And this from the leader of "Palestine".

No wonder America's man in Egypt – a certain Hosni Mubarak – repeated the tired old slogan that "peace in the Middle East is an imperative that cannot be delayed". And then the Emir of Kuwait invited Bashar and Hosni and King Abdullah of Jordan and the other King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to have lunch together – the menu was not disclosed – to end their feuding.

Al-Jazeera showed the ever-more putrid bodies being tugged from beneath cross-beams and crushed concrete as these mighty potentates debated their little disputes. There was really no adequate comment for this charade.
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The boss has gone mad —Uri Avnery

People are no longer shocked by the sight of a mutilated baby, nor by children left for days with the corpse of their mother, because the army did not let them leave their ruined home. It seems that almost nobody cares anymore

169 YEARS before the Gaza War, Heinrich Heine wrote a premonitory poem of 12 lines, under the title “To Edom”. The German-Jewish poet was talking about Germany, or perhaps all the nations of Christian Europe. This is what he wrote (in my rough translation):

“For a thousand years and more / We have had an understanding / You allow me to breathe / I accept your crazy raging // Sometimes, when the days get darker / Strange moods come upon you / Till you decorate your claws / With the lifeblood from my veins // Now our friendship is firmer / Getting stronger by the day / Since the raging started in me / Daily more and more like you.”

Zionism, which arose some 50 years after this was written, is fully realising this prophecy. We Israelis have become a nation like all nations, and the memory of the Holocaust causes us, from time to time, to behave like the worst of them. Only a few of us know this poem, but Israel as a whole lives it out.

In this war, politicians and generals have repeatedly quoted the words: “The boss has gone mad!” originally shouted by vegetable vendors in the market, in the sense of “The boss has gone crazy and is selling the tomatoes at a loss!” But in the course of time the jest has turned into a deadly doctrine that often appears in Israeli public discourse: in order to deter our enemies, we must behave like madmen, go on the rampage, kill and destroy mercilessly.

In this war, this has become political and military dogma: only if we kill “them” disproportionately, killing a thousand of “them” for ten of “ours”, will they understand that it’s not worth it to mess with us. It will be “seared into their consciousness” (a favourite Israeli phrase these days). After this, they will think twice before launching another Qassam rocket against us, even in response to what we do, whatever that may be.

It is impossible to understand the viciousness of this war without taking into account the historical background: the feeling of victimhood after all that has been done to the Jews throughout the ages, and the conviction that after the Holocaust, we have the right to do anything, absolutely anything, to defend ourselves, without any inhibitions due to law or morality.

When the killing and destruction in Gaza were at their height, something happened in faraway America that was not connected with the war, but was very much connected with it. The Israeli film Waltz with Bashir was awarded a prestigious prize. The media reported it with much joy and pride, but somehow carefully managed not to mention the subject of the film. That by itself was an interesting phenomenon: saluting the success of a film while ignoring its contents.

The subject of this outstanding film is one of the darkest chapters in our history: the Sabra and Shatila massacre. In the course of Lebanon War I, a Christian Lebanese militia carried out, under the auspices of the Israeli army, a heinous massacre of hundreds of helpless Palestinian refugees who were trapped in their camp, men, women, children and old people. The film describes this atrocity with meticulous accuracy, including our part in it.

All this was not even mentioned in the news about the award. At the festive ceremony, the director of the film did not avail himself of the opportunity to protest against the events in Gaza. It is hard to say how many women and children were killed while this ceremony was going on — but it is clear that the massacre in Gaza is much worse than that 1982 event, which moved 400,000 Israelis to leave their homes and hold a spontaneous mass protest in Tel-Aviv. This time, only 10,000 thousand stood up to be counted.

The official Israeli Board of Inquiry that investigated the Sabra massacre found that the Israeli government bore “indirect responsibility” for the atrocity. Several senior officials and officers were suspended. One of them was the division commander, Amos Yaron. Not one of the other accused, from the Minister of Defence, Ariel Sharon, to the Chief of Staff, Rafael Eitan, spoke a word of regret, but Yaron did express remorse in a speech to his officers, and admitted: “Our sensitivities have been blunted”.

Blunted sensitivities are very evident in the Gaza War.

Lebanon War I lasted for 18 years and more than 500 of our soldiers died. The planners of Lebanon War II decided to avoid such a long war and such heavy Israeli casualties. They invented the “mad boss” principle: demolishing whole neighbourhoods, devastating areas, destroying infrastructures. In 33 days of war, some 1000 Lebanese, almost all of them civilians, were killed — a record already broken in this war by the 17th day. Yet in that war our army suffered casualties on the ground, and public opinion, which in the beginning supported the war with the same enthusiasm as this time, changed rapidly.

The smoke from Lebanon War II is hanging over the Gaza war. Everybody in Israel swore to learn its lessons. And the main lesson was: not to risk the life of even one single soldier. A war without casualties (on our side). The method: to use the overwhelming firepower of our army to pulverise everything standing in its way and to kill everybody moving in the area. To kill not only the fighters on the other side, but every human being who might possibly turn out to harbour hostile intentions, even if they are obviously an ambulance attendant, a driver in a food convoy or a doctor saving lives. To destroy every building from which our troops could conceivably be shot at — even a school full of refugees, the sick and the wounded. To bomb and shell whole neighbourhoods, buildings, mosques, schools, UN food convoys, even ruins under which the injured are buried.

The media devoted several hours to the fall of a Qassam missile on a home in Ashkelon, in which three residents suffered from shock, and did not waste many words on the forty women and children killed in a UN school, from which “we were shot at” — an assertion that was quickly exposed as a blatant lie.

The firepower was also used to sow terror — shelling everything from a hospital to a vast UN food depot, from a press vantage point to the mosques. The standard pretext: “we were shot at from there”.

This would have been impossible, had not the whole country been infected with blunted sensitivities. People are no longer shocked by the sight of a mutilated baby, nor by children left for days with the corpse of their mother, because the army did not let them leave their ruined home. It seems that almost nobody cares anymore: not the soldiers, not the pilots, not the media people, not the politicians, not the generals. A moral insanity, whose primary exponent is Ehud Barak. Though even he may be upstaged by Tzipi Livni, who smiled while talking about the ghastly events.

Even Heinrich Heine could not have imagined that.

Uri Avnery is an Israeli peace activist who has advocated the setting up of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. He served three terms in the Israeli parliament (Knesset), and is the founder of Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc)

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Swat: Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl - BBC Urdu dot com

Private schools in Pakistan's troubled north-western Swat district have been ordered to close in a Taleban edict banning girls' education. Militants seeking to impose their austere interpretation of Sharia law have destroyed about 150 schools in the past year. Five more were blown up despite a government pledge to safeguard education, it was reported on Monday. Here a seventh grade schoolgirl from Swat chronicles how the ban has affected her and her classmates. The diary first appeared on BBC Urdu online.

Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl (vi)

A seventh grade schoolgirl in the north-western Pakistani district of Swat has been writing a diary after Taleban militants there ordered schools to close as part of an edict banning girls' education. The ban was lifted in February, but before it was revoked militants seeking to impose their austere interpretation of Sharia law destroyed about 150 schools within a year. This extract of her diary covers the days after the Sharia law deal between the government and the militants. The diary first appeared on BBC Urdu online.

WEDNESDAY 4 MARCH

Today our teacher asked us how many girls listen to FM radio and most of the girls said that they used to but not anymore. But few girls said that they still listen to it. Girls were of the view that once FM radio transmission is stopped only then peace can return to Swat.

The Taleban say that they use FM radio to propagate teachings of the Koran but commander Khalil after a brief teaching of the Koran subtly switches over to threaten opponents. Announcements regarding fighting, activities and murders are made on FM radio.

During our recess today we saw helicopters flying. The helicopters fly very low over our school. Girls called out to the soldiers and they waved back. Soldiers seem to be tired of waving now.

TUESDAY 3 MARCH

My younger brother does not like going to school. He cries while going to school and is jubilant coming back home. But today he came back home crying and he said that he was scared. He said that whenever he saw someone he got scared that he might be kidnapped.

My brother often prays "O God bring peace to Swat and if not then bring either the US or China here".

There was another skirmish between the army and the Taleban and such incidents have taken place in the past few days. Today I heard the sound of mortar shells. People are again scared that the peace may not last for long. Some people are saying that the peace agreement is not permanent it is just a break in fighting.

MONDAY 1 MARCH

Attendance is getting better day by day and today 19 students were present out of 27. Exams are scheduled for 9 March and we try to spend more time studying.

Today I went to Cheena Market with others and shopped a lot because one of the shopkeepers was shutting down and had a clearance sale. Most of the shops in Cheena Market have been closed down.

Teachers greet each other in Mingora as a school reopens

We sleep well because there is no shelling these days. It is said that the Taleban are still carrying out their activities in their areas. They also loot the relief goods meant for the displaced persons.

My friend told me that her brother was quite amazed to see his acquaintance searching vehicles at night along with the Taleban. Her brother said that his acquaintance works as a labourer in the morning and along with the Taleban at night. Her brother asked him why he was with them if he was not a Talib. He replied that he earns in the morning and then at night while working with the Taleban.

FRIDAY 27 FEBRUARY

I was so glad to see my two friends in school today. During the operation they had gone to Rawalpindi. They said that there was peace in Rawalpindi and the standard of life was also good but they both were anxiously waiting for peace to return in Swat so that they could come back.

WEDNESDAY 25 FEBRUARY

My mother is not feeling well and father is out of town for a meeting so I prepared the breakfast and then went to school.

Today we played a lot in class and enjoyed ourselves like we used to before.

Nowadays helicopters don't appear frequently nor do we discuss much about the army and Taleban. In the afternoon my mother, cousin and I and went to the market. There was a time when I used to like wearing the burqa but not any more. I am fed up with this because it is a hindrance in walking.

There is gossip in Swat that one day a woman was wearing a traditional burqa. She fell and when a man tried to help her she refused and said "Don't help me brother, as this will bring immense pleasure to [Taleban leader] Maulana Fazlullah".

When we entered the shop in the market where we used to shop the shopkeeper laughed and told us he got scared thinking that we might be suicide bombers.

MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY

When I got up I was very happy knowing that I will go to school today. At school some girls were wearing uniform whereas others were in casual clothes. During assembly girls looked extremely happy and were hugging each other.

After assembly the headmistress advised us to cover ourselves properly and wear the burqa because it is a condition put by the Taleban.

There were only 12 girls present in my class because some have migrated from Swat and some were not sent to school by their parents because of fear.

Four of my friends have already left Swat and another told me today that they are also moving to Rawalpindi. I was upset with her and asked her not to go as there is a peace accord and that situation is getting better gradually. But she said that conditions were very uncertain.

I am very sad. Four of my friends have already left and the last one is also leaving.

SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY

Today we went to Mingora's "cheena" market where one can only find things for women. We were very scared on our way to the market as the Taleban have imposed a ban on women going out for shopping.

On entering the market we were shocked to see that there were only a few women there, where as earlier it used to be a very crowded place and women used to push each other.

SATURDAY 21 FEBRUARY

The situation in Swat is calming down gradually. Firing and artillery fire has also reduced. But people are still scared and they are afraid that the peace deal might be broken.

There are rumours that some Taleban commanders don't agree with this deal and say that they will keep fighting till their last breath. My heart beat rises when I hear such rumours. Why are they doing this? They say that they want to take revenge for Jamia Hafsa and the Red Mosque, but we are not the ones responsible for what happened there so why don't they take revenge on people who are responsible?

Moments ago Maulana Fazlullah (a pro-Taleban cleric) announced on his FM radio that he is lifting the ban from female education. He announced that girls can go to school till exams which are to be held on 17 March but they have to cover themselves.

I am very happy to hear this as I never thought this would ever happen.

Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl (v)

A seventh grade schoolgirl in the north-western Pakistani district of Swat has been writing a diary after Taleban militants there ordered schools to close as part of an edict banning girls' education. Militants have been seeking to impose their austere interpretation of Sharia law and have destroyed about 150 schools in the past year. This extract of her diary takes in the latest Sharia law deal between the government and the militants. The diary first appeared on BBC Urdu online.

THURSDAY 19 FEBRUARY: PEACE NOT WAR

My father prepared breakfast today because my mum is not feeling well. She complained to my father, asking why did he tell her about the journalist's death? I told my brothers that we will not talk of war but peace from now on. We received the information from our school headmistress that examinations will be held in the first week of March. I have stepped up my studies.

WEDNESDAY 18 FEBRUARY: HOPE SMASHED

I went to the market today. It was crowded. People are happy about the deal. I saw a traffic jam after a long time. In the evening my father broke the news of the death of a Swat journalist (Musa Khankhel). Mom's is not feeling well. Our hopes of peace have been smashed.

TUESDAY 17 FEBRUARY: HUSTLE AND BUSTLE

Today I started preparing for the examinations because after the peace deal there is a hope that girls' schools could reopen. My teacher did not turn up today because she went to attend an engagement.

The people of Swat have become tired of the violence

When I entered my room I saw my two brothers playing. One had a toy helicopter while the other had a pistol made of paper. One would yell "fire" and the other would say "take position". One of my brothers told my father he wanted to make an atomic bomb.

Maulana Sufi Mohammad is in Swat today. The media are here too. The city is witnessing a lot of rush. The city's hustle and bustle has returned. May God help make this agreement successful. I am optimistic.

MONDAY 16 FEBRUARY: REOPENING?

Today I was very happy because the government and the militants were to sign a peace deal. Today the helicopters were flying very low too. One of my cousins remarked that with the gradual return of peace the choppers were coming down too.

In the afternoon people started distributing sweets. One of my friends called me to greet me. She said she hopes she could go out of her home now because she was imprisoned in her room for the last several months. We were also happy hoping the girls' schools might open now.

SUNDAY 15 FEBRUARY: DON'T BE SCARED

Some guests from our village and Peshawar came today. When we were having lunch, firing started outside. I had never heard such firing. We got scared, thought that the Taleban had arrived. I ran towards my father who consoled me by telling me 'Don't be scared - this is firing for peace'.

He told me that he read in the newspaper that the government and the militants are to sign a peace deal tomorrow and he firing is in jubilation. Later, during the night when the Taleban announced the peace deal on their FM station, another spell of more stronger firing started. People believe more in what the militants say rather then the government.

When we heard the announcement, first my mother and then father started crying. My two younger brothers had tears in their eyes too.

FRIDAY 13 FEBRUARY: FAZLULLAH CRYING

Today the weather is good. It rained a lot and when it rains my valley looks more beautiful. As I got up in the morning, my mother told me about the murder of a rickshaw driver and a night watchman. Life is getting worse with the passage of each day.

Hundreds of people are arriving daily in Mingora from surrounding areas while residents of this city are moving to other areas. The rich have moved out of Swat while the poor have no place but to stay here.

We asked our cousin on the telephone to take us around the city in this splendid weather. He picked us up but when he came to the bazaar we found out that the markets were closed and the road wore a deserted look. We wanted to head towards the Qambar area but somebody told us a big procession has been brought out there.

That night Maulana Fazlullah (a pro-Taleban cleric) came on his radio and kept crying for a long time. He was demanding an end to the military operation. He asked people not to migrate but instead return to their homes.

THURSDAY 12 FEBRUARY: HEAVY SHELLING

There was heavy shelling last night. Both my brothers were sleeping but I could not. I went to lie down with my father but then went to my mother, but could not sleep.

The closure of girls' schools in Swat have angered many Pakistanis

That was why I also woke up late in the morning. In the afternoon I had tuition, then my teacher for religious education came. In the evening I continued playing with my brothers amid fighting and arguments. Also played games on computer for a while.

Before the Taleban imposed restrictions on the cable network, I used to watch the Star Plus TV channel and my favourite drama was 'Raja Kee Aye Gee Barat' (My dream boy will come to marry me).

Today is Thursday and I am scared because people say that most suicide attacks take place either on Friday mornings or on Friday evenings. They also say that the reason behind this is is because the suicide attacker thinks that Friday has a special importance in Islam and carrying out such attacks on this day will please God more.

WEDNESDAY 11 FEBRUARY: EXPLOSION WARNINGS

I was scared the whole day and also bored. We do not have a TV set now. There was a burglary in our house while we were away in Mingora for 20 days.

Earlier such incidents did not happen, but they have become rampant since the security situation in Mingora deteriorated so rapidly. Thank God there was no cash or gold in the house. My bracelet and anklet were also missing but I later found them. Maybe the burglar thought of them as gold ornaments but later found out they were artificial.

Maulana Fazlullah in a speech last night on his FM channel said that a recent attack on a police station in Mingora (the largest town in the Swat valley) was akin to a pressure cooker blast. He said that the next attack would resemble a cauldron exploding and after that a blast the size of a tanker exploding would take place.

At night my father updated us on the situation of Swat. These days we frequently use words like 'army', 'Taleban', 'rocket', 'artillery shelling', 'Maulana Fazlullah', 'Muslim Khan' (a militant leader), 'police', 'helicopter', 'dead' and 'injured'.

MONDAY 9 FEBRUARY: PRECARIOUS

Boys' schools in Swat have reopened and the Taleban have lifted restrictions on girls' primary education - therefore they are also attending schools. In our school there is co-education until primary level.

My younger brother told us that out of 49 students only six attended his school including a girl. In my school, only a total of 70 pupils attended out of 700 students who are enrolled.

Today the maid came. She normally comes once a week to wash our clothes.

She comes from Attock district but she has been living in this area for years now. She told us that the situation in Swat has become "very precarious" and that her husband has told her to go back to Attock.

People do not leave their homeland on their own free will - only poverty or a lover usually makes you leave so rapidly.

SUNDAY 8 FEBRUARY: SCHOOL MEMORIES

I am sad watching my uniform, school bag and geometry box.

I felt hurt on opening my wardrobe and seeing my uniform, school bag and geometry box. Boys' schools are opening tomorrow. But the Taleban have banned girls' education.

The memories of my school flashed before me, especially the arguments among the girls.

My brother's school is also reopening and he has not done his homework. He is worried and does not want to go to school. My mother mentioned a curfew tomorrow and my brother asked her if it was really going to be imposed. When my mother replied in the affirmative he started dancing with joy.

SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY: EERIE SILENCE

My brother and myself left for Mingora in the afternoon. My mother had already gone there. I was happy and scared at the same time at the thought of going back after 20 days. Before entering Mingora, there was an eerie silence in Qambar.

There was no one else besides people with long hair and beards. From their appearance they looked like Taleban. I saw some houses damaged due to shelling.

The streets of Mingora were thin. We went to supermarket to buy a gift for our mother but it was closed, whereas earlier it used to remain open till late. Many other shops were also closed. We had not informed our mother about our plans to go back to Mingora because we wanted to surprise her. As we entered the house she was quite surprised.

Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl (iv)

Many are opting to flee from Swat on foot with no belongings

A seventh grade schoolgirl in the north-western Pakistani district of Swat is writing a diary after Taleban militants there ordered schools to close as part of an edict banning girls' education. Militants there are seeking to impose their austere interpretation of Sharia law and have destroyed about 150 schools in the past year. The fourth extract of her diary is written during and after her return home from the relative safety of Islamabad. The diary first appeared on BBC Urdu online.

MONDAY 2 FEBRUARY: SCHOOL CLOSED ON TALEBAN ORDERS

I am upset because the schools are still closed here in Swat.

Our school was supposed to open today. On waking up I realised the school was still closed and that was very upsetting. In the past we used to enjoy ourselves on school closure. But this is not the case this time because I am afraid that the school may not reopen at all on the orders of the Taleban.

My father told me that following the closure of private girls' schools, private schools for boys had decided not to open until 8 February. In this regard notices have appeared outside the schools saying that they will reopen on 9 February. My father said that because no such notices have been displayed outside girls' schools, that meant they would not be re-opening.

SATURDAY 31 JANUARY: WHO WILL AVENGE THOSE KILLED?

On our way back to Peshawar from Bannu I received a call from my friend.

Swat has been hard-hit by Islamic militancy

She was very scared and told me that the situation in Swat was getting worse and I should not come back. She told me that the military operation has intensified and 37 people have been killed only today in the shelling.

We arrived in Peshawar in the evening and were very tired. I switched on the TV and there was a report on Swat. The channel was showing empty-handed people migrating on foot from Swat.

I switched the channel and a woman was saying "we will avenge the murder of Benazir Bhutto". I asked my father who would avenge the deaths of hundreds of people of Swat.

SATURDAY 24 JANUARY: 'MAKING A GRAVE'

The only good thing that has come out of the war in Swat is that our father has taken us away from Mingora (the largest city in the Swat valley) to many other cities. We arrived in Peshawar from Islamabad yesterday. In Peshawar we had tea at one of our relative's houses before travelling to Bannu.

My five-year-old brother was playing on the lawn. When my father asked him what he was playing, he replied 'I am making a grave'.

Later we went to a bus stand to travel to Bannu. The wagon was old and the driver was using his horn excessively. On our way the vehicle hit a pot-hole - and at the same time the horn started blowing - waking up my 10-year-old brother.

He was very scared and asked our mother: 'Was it a bomb blast?'

On arrival in Bannu, we found my father's friend waiting for us. He is also a Pashtun but his family spoke a Bannu dialect so we could not understand him clearly.

We went to the bazaar and then to the park. Here women have to wear a veil - called a shuttle veil - whenever they leave their homes. My mother also wore one but I refused to wear one on the grounds that I found it difficult to walk with it on.

Compared with Swat, there is relative peace in Bannu. Our hosts told us that there was a Taleban presence was in the area but there was not as much unrest as in Swat. They said that the Taleban had threatened to close down the schools, but they were still open.

Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl (iii)

A Pakistani seventh grade schoolgirl is writing a diary after Taleban militants in the troubled north-western Swat district ordered schools to close as part of an edict banning girls' education. Militants seek to impose their austere interpretation of Sharia law and have destroyed about 150 schools in the past year. In the third extract of her diary written in part from the relative safety of Islamabad, she chronicles her first impressions of the city after arriving from Swat and events leading up to her family's departure. The diary first appeared on BBC Urdu online.

WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY: TEARS IN THE EYES OF MY PARENTS

My father fulfilled his promise and we reached Islamabad yesterday. On our way from Swat I was very scared because we had heard that the Taleban conduct searches. But nothing of the sort happened to us. It was instead the army who conducted the search. The moment we left Swat our fears also subsided.

Many are opposed to the militants' policy of closing girls' schools

We are staying with our father's friend in Islamabad. It is my first visit to the city. It's beautiful with nice bungalows and wide roads. But as compared to my Swat city it lacks natural beauty. Father took us to Lok Virsa museum and I learnt a lot. We also have such a museum in Swat but I don't know if it will remain undamaged from the fighting.

My father bought popcorn from an old man outside Lok Virsa. When the vendor spoke to us in Pashtu my father asked him if he was from Islamabad. The old man replied: "Do you think Islamabad can ever belong to Pashtuns?"

He said that he hailed from Momand Agency, but because of an ongoing military operation was forced to leave his abode and head for the city. At that moment I saw tears in my parents' eyes.

MONDAY 26 JANUARY: HELICOPTER TOFFEES

I woke to the roar of heavy artillery fire early in the morning. Earlier we were afraid of the noise of helicopters and now the artillery. I remember the first time when helicopters flew over our house on the start of an operation. We got so scared that we hid.

The army is accused of not doing enough to protect schools

All the children in my neighbourhood were also very scared.

One day toffees were thrown from the helicopters and this continued for some time. Now whenever we hear the choppers flying we run out and wait for the toffees but it does not happen anymore. A while back my father gave us the good news that he was taking all of us to Islamabad tomorrow. We are very happy.

SATURDAY 24 JANUARY: NO NAMES ON THE HONOURS BOARD

Our annual exams are due after the vacations but this will only be possible if the Taleban allow girls to go to school. We were told to prepare certain chapters for the exam but I do not feel like studying.

As from yesterday the army has taken control of the educational institutions for protection. It seems that it is only when dozens of schools have been destroyed and hundreds others closed down that the army thinks about protecting them. Had they conducted their operations here properly, this situation would not have arisen.

Muslim Khan (a Swat Taleban spokesman) has said that those schools housing the army would be attacked. We will be more afraid of having the army in our schools than ever. There is a board in our school which is called the Honours Board. The name of the girl achieving the highest marks in annual exams is put on this board. It seems that no names will be put on it this year.

Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl (ii)

A Pakistani seventh grade schoolgirl is writing a diary after Taleban militants in the troubled north-western Swat district ordered schools to close as part of an edict banning girls' education. Militants seek to impose their austere interpretation of Sharia law and have destroyed about 150 schools in the last year. News of further attacks and a Taleban invitation to public floggings appears in the latest extracts of the diary, which first appeared on BBC Urdu online.

THURSDAY 22 JANUARY : VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION

I am quite bored sitting at home following the closures of schools.

Some of my friends have left Swat because the situation here is very dangerous. I do not leave home. At night Maulana Shah Dauran (the Taleban cleric who announced the ban on girls attending school) once again warned females not to leave home.

The Taleban routinely carry out public floggings in Swat

He also warned that they would blow up those schools which are used by the security forces as security posts.

Father told us that security forces have arrived at the boys' and girls' school in Haji Baba area. May God keep them safe. Maulana Shah Dauran also said in his speech on FM radio that three 'thieves' will be lashed tomorrow and whoever wants to see can come and watch.

I am surprised that when we have suffered so much, why people still go and watch such things? Why also doesn't the army stop them from carrying out such acts? I have seen wherever the army is there is usually a Taleban member nearby, but where there is a Taleban member the army will always not go.

MONDAY 19 JANUARY: ARMY IN THEIR BUNKERS

Five more schools have been destroyed, one of them was near my house. I am quite surprised, because these schools were closed so why did they also need to be destroyed? No one has gone to school following the deadline given by the Taleban.

The authorities are accused of doing little to protect schools

Today I went to my friend's house and she told me that a few days back someone killed Maulana Shah Dauran's uncle; she said that it may be that the Taleban destroyed the schools in anger at this.

She also said that no one has made the Taleban suffer but when they are hurt they take it out on our schools. But the army is not doing anything about it. They are sitting in their bunkers on top of the hills. They slaughter goats and eat with pleasure.

FRIDAY 18 JANUARY: NO POLICE IN SIGHT

My father told us that the government would protect our schools. The prime minister has also raised this issue. I was quite happy initially, but now I know but this will not solve our problem. Here in Swat we hear everyday that so many soldiers were killed and so many were kidnapped at such and such place. But the police are nowhere to be seen.

Our parents are also very scared. They told us they would not send us to school until or unless the Taleban themselves announce on the FM channel that girls can go to school. The army is also responsible for the disruption in our education.

Today a boy from our locality went to school and he was told by the principal to go back home because a curfew was to be imposed soon. But when he reached home he came to know that there was no curfew, instead his school was closed down because the army was to move through the road near his school.

Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl (i)

Source: BBC News

Private schools in Pakistan's troubled north-western Swat district have been ordered to close in a Taleban edict banning girls' education. Militants seeking to impose their austere interpretation of Sharia law have destroyed about 150 schools in the past year. Five more were blown up despite a government pledge to safeguard education, it was reported on Monday. Here a seventh grade schoolgirl from Swat chronicles how the ban has affected her and her classmates. The diary first appeared on BBC Urdu online.

THURSDAY JANUARY 15: NIGHT FILLED WITH ARTILLERY FIRE

The night was filled with the noise of artillery fire and I woke up three times. But since there was no school I got up later at 10 am. Afterwards, my friend came over and we discussed our homework.

The Taleban have repeatedly targeted schools in Swat

Today is 15 January, the last day before the Taleban's edict comes into effect, and my friend was discussing homework as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Today, I also read the diary written for the BBC (in Urdu) and published in the newspaper. My mother liked my pen name 'Gul Makai' and said to my father 'why not change her name to Gul Makai?' I also like the name because my real name means 'grief stricken'.

My father said that some days ago someone brought the printout of this diary saying how wonderful it was. My father said that he smiled but could not even say that it was written by his daughter.

WEDNESDAY 14 JANUARY: I MAY NOT GO TO SCHOOL AGAIN

I was in a bad mood while going to school because winter vacations are starting from tomorrow. The principal announced the vacations but did not mention the date the school was to reopen. This was the first time this has happened.

In the past the reopening date was always announced clearly. The principal did not inform us about the reason behind not announcing the school reopening, but my guess was that the Taleban had announced a ban on girls' education from 15 January.

This time round, the girls were not too excited about vacations because they knew if the Taleban implemented their edict they would not be able to come to school again. Some girls were optimistic that the schools would reopen in February but others said that their parents had decided to shift from Swat and go to other cities for the sake of their education.

Since today was the last day of our school, we decided to play in the playground a bit longer. I am of the view that the school will one day reopen but while leaving I looked at the building as if I would not come here again.

FRIDAY 9 JANUARY: THE MAULANA GOES ON LEAVE?

Today at school I told my friends about my trip to Bunair. They said that they were sick and tired of hearing the Bunair story. We discussed the rumours about the death of Maulana Shah Dauran, who used to give speeches on FM radio. He was the one who announced the ban on girls attending school.

Some girls said that he was dead but others disagreed. The rumours of his death are circulating because he did not deliver a speech the night before on FM radio. One girl said that he had gone on leave.

Since there was no tuition on Friday, I played the whole afternoon. I switched on the TV in the evening and heard about the blasts in Lahore. I said to myself 'why do these blasts keep happening in Pakistan?'

WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY: NO FIRING OR FEAR

I have come to Bunair to spend Muharram (a Muslim holiday) on vacation. I adore Bunair because of its mountains and lush green fields. My Swat is also very beautiful but there is no peace. But in Bunair there is peace and tranquillity. Neither is there any firing nor any fear. We all are very happy.

Today we went to Pir Baba mausoleum and there were lots of people there. People are here to pray while we are here for an excursion. There are shops selling bangles, ear rings, lockets and other artificial jewellery. I thought of buying something but nothing impressed - my mother bought ear rings and bangles.

MONDAY 5 JANUARY: DO NOT WEAR COLOURFUL DRESSES

I was getting ready for school and about to wear my uniform when I remembered that our principal had told us not to wear uniforms - and come to school wearing normal clothes instead. So I decided to wear my favourite pink dress. Other girls in school were also wearing colourful dresses and the school presented a homely look.

Swat has been a centre of militant activity

My friend came to me and said, 'for God's sake, answer me honestly, is our school going to be attacked by the Taleban?' During the morning assembly we were told not to wear colourful clothes as the Taleban would object to it.

I came back from school and had tuition sessions after lunch. In the evening I switched on the TV and heard that curfew had been lifted from Shakardra after 15 days. I was happy to hear that because our English teacher lived in the area and she might be coming to school now.

SUNDAY 4 JANUARY: I HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL

Today is a holiday and I woke up late, around 10 am. I heard my father talking about another three bodies lying at Green Chowk (crossing). I felt bad on hearing this news. Before the launch of the military operation we all used to go to Marghazar, Fiza Ghat and Kanju for picnics on Sundays. But now the situation is such that we have not been out on picnic for over a year and a half.

We also used to go for a walk after dinner but now we are back home before sunset. Today I did some household chores, my homework and played with my brother. But my heart was beating fast - as I have to go to school tomorrow.

SATURDAY 3 JANUARY: I AM AFRAID

I had a terrible dream yesterday with military helicopters and the Taleban. I have had such dreams since the launch of the military operation in Swat. My mother made me breakfast and I went off to school. I was afraid going to school because the Taleban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools.

Only 11 students attended the class out of 27. The number decreased because of Taleban's edict. My three friends have shifted to Peshawar, Lahore and Rawalpindi with their families after this edict.

On my way from school to home I heard a man saying 'I will kill you'. I hastened my pace and after a while I looked back if the man was still coming behind me. But to my utter relief he was talking on his mobile and must have been threatening someone else over the phone.

......

Urdu version:

Part 1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2009/01/090109_diary_swatgirl_part1.shtml

Part 2

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2009/01/090116_diary_swatgirl_part2.shtml

Part 3

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/interactivity/poll/story/2009/01/090123_diary_swatgirl_3_zs.shtml

Part 4

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/interactivity/poll/story/2009/01/090130_swat_girldiary_si.shtml

Part 5

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/interactivity/poll/story/2009/02/090206_swat_diary_5_zs.shtml

Part 6

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/interactivity/poll/story/2009/02/090213_swatgirl_diary_6.shtml

Part 7
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/interactivity/poll/story/2009/02/090220_swat_girl_diary_7_zs.shtml

Part 8
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/interactivity/poll/story/2009/02/090227_swat_diary_girl_8_zs.shtml

Part 9

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/interactivity/poll/story/2009/03/090306_swat_diary_9_rh.shtml

Part 10

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/interactivity/2009/03/090313_swat_diary_part10_aw.shtml

Read more...