“Congratulations! You have the honour now”, a friend from Waziristan sarcastically said that to me in the aftermath of the newly selected TTP chief Mullah Fazalullah while Dir has been announced as the new headquarters of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). According to the latest media reports Mullah Fazalullah has already arrived in Dir.
According to reports, Fazalullah made it to Waziristan from Kunar in Afghanistan where he was hiding after being driven away, or after ‘being shifted’, as some cynics from Swat suggest, during the last military offensive in Swat in 2009.
The comeback of one of the most brutal commanders of TTP and his latest design to have his battleground, the Malakand division, as his headquarters raised fears on one hand and reinforced the usual conspiracy theories on the other. While ordinary people like us in Swat dread this new development as a reinforcement of the fear of the brute, most local ‘political analysts’ see it an arrangement by Pakistan’s powerful security establishment to warn the PTI and JI government in the province against their decision to withdraw troops from Swat and rest of Malakand division.
Despite the lapse of three years after the ‘successful’ operation in Swat, the conspiracy theories around the entire insurgency phenomenon have not ceased; regardless of the gory brutalities of the Taliban which continued meanwhile.
“We, the Urdu press people, regard Taliban and the military the same and do not differentiate between these two forces while you, writers in English, think otherwise and regard Taliban a separate entity”, a local Urdu daily columnist exhorted me recently.
“In the dark they used to be Taliban while in daylight these same men wore army uniforms”, an elderly social activist told this writer.
In the entire war against the terrorists this confusion is the most unfortunate; and consequently gives the terrorists an edge over the military and the public.
The people of Malakand division especially of Swat were generally shocked to know Mullah Fazalullah’s appointment as new TTP chief because most of them have already tasted the viciousness of this man, who was then known as Mullah Radio in Swat. At his becoming the TTP leader and his making it to Waziristan and now to Dir from Afghanistan, the question has come up once again that how come Mullah Fazalullah had managed to escape the grand Operation Rah-e-Raast back in the summer of 2009. During this operation, the people of Swat had to live amidst the curfews as long as 500 hours, the memory of which still disturbs every mind here. Many questions still haunt the minds of the people of Swat. Is it not a sheer failure of our powerful security apparatus?
“We will leave Swat for good if it is again ‘allowed’ for the Taliban. We will leave it for ‘Pakistan’ and its military. Enough is enough”. A taxi driver in Swat switched off the music and sighed.
“Enough” should now be the call from all and sundry to end this game which has so far rendered over 50,000 Pakistanis dead along with crushing the country’s economy worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Whether in the name of national interest, strategic depth, or national security, and whatever these ghosts are, the use of these proxies must be stopped now. Whether the Taliban and affiliates are lured by talks or cured by force, the government must bring permanent peace to Pakistan.
Many people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regard the talks with Taliban no more than a tactic to save Punjab from their attacks. They assert that in the Punjab dominated government and military, talks with Taliban are not meant to end the ‘terrorism franchise’ but to convince the Taliban not to launch terrorist attacks in Punjab. It seems to make sense. For instance sit-ins and protests against the NATO supply are always carried out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ignoring the fact that the supply route goes all through Sindh and Punjab. Imran Khan has chosen Khyber Pakhtunkhwa his final battleground against drones.
The people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are prone to be manipulated by politics of Punjab, Pakistan or the region. They have also been too unpredictable in choosing their leaders. They voted for the religious alliance Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) – an arrangement by General Musharraf in order to prolong his rule – and had to bear the brunt for five years. Then the same voters chose the Awami National Party which is a complete anti-thesis of MMA; and more recently the same people went for Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI). The latter is quite different from earlier governments especially with regard to its foreign policy while on the other hand it acts more like opposition than the government.
Contrary to it Punjab is more stable in choosing its horses. For the last many years the voters in Punjab remained consistent in electing their leaders despite the dramatic rise of PTI in the province. This could perhaps be one of the reasons that major national and international games are easily played in KPK.
While the terrorists being at the backyard, the conspiracy theories will grow ubiquitous and resentment in the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will naturally grow. As long as Pakistan adheres to its dubious policy regarding the entire ‘terror game’ the people of the smaller provinces, KP and Balochistan, will be further alienated from being Pakistanis.