analysis: Kamal Mehsud: did the ISPR cheat him?
analysis: Kamal Mehsud: did the ISPR cheat him? —Farhat Taj
Courtesy to "Daily Times"
Kamal Mehsud’s story is just one of the hundreds of stories of
horror in Waziristan. The other stories are much more brutal and
sinister in terms of the intelligence agencies’ collusion with the
Taliban
Kamal Mehsud was the most famous singer of
Waziristan. He died in January 2010 in a fire that broke out in his
house when his family was away for a wedding ceremony. The family
believes he has been target killed by the Taliban. The killers tampered
with the gas system of the house that led to the fatal fire breakout.
The family also holds the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) of the
Pakistan Armed Forces responsible for that. Following is some detail of
the connection among Kamal Mehsud, the ISPR and the Taliban. The detail
is based on my conversations with Kamal Mehsud before his death,
discussions with some Mehsud tribesmen, and Kamal’s family after his
death.
Before the first military operation in Waziristan, a
music composer from Peshawar contacted Kamal Mehsud for making an
audiocassette with peace songs from Waziristan. Kamal agreed. The
cassette was made. One of the songs was also videotaped. To his utter
surprise, Mehsud came to know that the audiocassette ended up with the
ISPR, which distributed it all over Waziristan in the army’s propaganda
campaign against the militants. The video song ended up in a PTV drama
‘Wana’, another piece of the army’s propaganda campaign against the
militants of Waziristan. No financial benefits were given to Kamal
Mehsud for the use of his work of art by the ISPR. The audiocassette
and Mehsud’s song in the drama invited the anger of the Taliban and
displeasure of the Mehsud tribe for Kamal Mehsud.
The Taliban
saw him as an accomplice of the army in their violent jihad. The Mehsud
tribe was gradually awakening to the perceived reality that the
military and the Taliban are one and the same. Together they are
implementing a deadly agenda on Waziristan to create safe havens for
the terrorists who escaped the post-9/11 US bombing of Afghanistan.
Leaders at all levels of the tribal society had to be eliminated to
create leadership space for the Taliban. In this context, some
tribesmen were left vulnerable to the Taliban through deceit and others
were encouraged to stand up to the militants, who were then given a
green signal to target kill them. The Mehsud tribe perceived Kamal
Mehsud to be part of the military’s plan of death and destruction in
Waziristan. Later, the tribe found that Kamal had been cheated by the
ISPR, and so it forgave him. The Taliban never forgive.
Kamal
Mehsud got many death threats from the Taliban. He and his family left
Waziristan; they sold their property in DI Khan and took refuge in
Islamabad. The threats continued and the family kept moving in
Islamabad from one place to another out of security concerns. His son
informed that eight months before his death, some militants stopped his
father in a street in Islamabad and warned that they had been busy with
other issues and had little time to deal with him. But they will soon
kill him. The Taliban also said he and his entire family are wajibul
qatl (worthy of murder). A couple of months before his death, Kamal
Mehsud got a threatening letter from the Taliban, so he took refuge in
a mosque in Islamabad. “The Taliban have finally killed him,” alleges
his family.
His family believes the ISPR first cheated him,
which left him dangerously exposed to assassination attempts by the
Taliban, and then abandoned him. No security was provided to him
despite requests. The security situation left him unable to work
freely. He faced financial problems. He contacted the ISPR for a job in
its FM radio in Waziristan. His request was turned down. No one from
the government of Pakistan or the ISPR contacted his family following
his death. During his lifetime, the government of Pakistan never even
recognised his great services to Pashto music with a symbolic gesture,
like a Pride of Performance Award.
Kamal Mehsud’s story is just
one of the hundreds of stories of horror in Waziristan. The other
stories are much more brutal and sinister in terms of the intelligence
agencies’ collusion with the Taliban, followed by the target killing of
hundreds of tribal leaders, doctors, teachers and government servants
in Waziristan. To my knowledge, Kamal Mehsud’s family is the only
family from Waziristan that has publicly spoken on this issue. The
other families are too scared of the Taliban and the intelligence
agencies to do that.
The protracted human tragedy in Waziristan,
perceived as the state’s collusion with the Taliban, has dangerously
damaged the Mehsud tribe’s trust in the state. I have even heard former
Mehsud soldiers of the Pakistan Army — who served it with their blood
in its wars with India — saying that they now hate Pakistan, its
military and its Taliban.
The intelligence security apparatus
has to undergo a great deal of accountability to restore the trust of
the Mehsud tribe in the state. It is a gigantic task. An appropriate
state response to the family of Kamal Mehsud, which has publicly spoken
up on the complaint against the ISPR, could be a small first step in
this direction.
A foreign policy shift needs to come about
before one could even think of accountability of the intelligence
agencies — a shift that looks at Waziristan not as a military map, but
as a human society entitled to basic human rights, like the right to
life. I am not sure whether the shift has come. Many Mehsuds are not
even sure whether it is possible. However, Kamal Mehsud’s family has a
hope in one section of Pakistani society — the media. His son and wife
said they hope the media of Pakistan would keep highlighting his
services to music and peace in Pakistan.
Kamal Mehsud will go
down in Pakhtun history as an icon of music and a symbol of resistance
to Talibanisation. I have had the good luck of having interviewed him
for my documentary film: ‘Waziristan — a culture under attack’. He said
during the interview that music is his cultural jihad against the
violent jihad of the Taliban and al Qaeda. He said he would never give
up music despite the death threats. If he gave up, the forces of
religious militancy will win. His life and services give the message
that Pakhtun resistance to Talibanisation must go on at all levels of
society, no matter how small it may be.
The writer is a
research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research,
University of Oslo, and a member of Aryana Institute for Regional
Research and Advocacy. She can be reached at bergen34@yahoo.co
In : Farhat Taj
Notes