VIEW: Of interventions —Gulmina Bilal Ahmad
VIEW: Of interventions —Gulmina Bilal Ahmad
Courtesy to "Daily Times"
We are not fighting only a military war. It is a war against
mindsets and attitudes that are discriminatory and bigoted. It is
actually a war against a paranoid mindset
Comedy of errors
or a case of what goes around comes around? For years now, human rights
activists have highlighted the plight of the ‘missing persons’. From
demonstrations to contacting politicians to even approaching the
Supreme Court, the families of the missing persons have continued their
protests and agitation. It is alleged that the missing persons were and
are in the custody of the security agencies, specifically the ISI. The
ISI initially denied the charge but then accepted having some people in
its custody. However, now the boot is on the other foot. A former ISI
agent, a foreign journalist and, ironically, a defence lawyer of the
missing persons have gone ‘missing’ as the media put it. In reality,
they have been kidnapped by a group called the Asian Tigers who
apparently are ‘avenging’ the way the Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul
Aziz was ‘deceived’ into wearing a burqa and trying to escape.
According
to media reports, the three men had gone to the tribal areas to make a
documentary on the Taliban. A legitimate reason. The presence of the
former agent, ‘Colonel Imam’ perhaps was necessary as he is reputed to
not only know the tribal areas like the back of his hand but is
considered by many Taliban as a teacher, given his work during the
1980s and 1990s. Thus, it came as no surprise that the Afghan Taliban
are now trying to secure his release from the Pakistani Taliban.
However, apparently there are various factions within the Pakistani
Taliban and one faction that appears to be inspired by the Lal Masjid
clerics looks upon Colonel Imam as a spy. According to media reports,
“The Taliban commander said that the Punjabi Taliban groups, including
the one led by Ilyas Kashmiri, were extremely annoyed with the former
ISI agent, because they believed that he played an important role in
the arrest of all their operatives and leaders.”
In another
instance, the Swat Taliban claimed responsibility for the recent
suicide bombings targeting the police in Timergara, Dir, and the
killings of five anti-Taliban activists in Swat. The Taliban
spokesperson in his statement has warned the people of Swat and the
general public to refrain from interacting with the security forces,
police and other government agencies. According to media reports, “He
threatened the military that the death of each and every Taliban
militant would be avenged and that Allah’s writ instead of the
government’s writ would be restored in Swat and the whole of Malakand
region.” The spokesman also asked the people of Swat not to buy the
property of Khans in the district, as their lands were disputed and the
Taliban had to settle scores with the landlords.
The operation
in Swat and the Lal Masjid operation were two different operations, at
different times, by different military and civilian commanders. They
affected two different groups of the Pakistani Taliban. The Swat
operation directly affected the Tehrik-i-Taliban and the sub-faction of
the Swat Taliban, whereas the Lal Masjid operation affected the Punjabi
Taliban more. The Lal Masjid operation was carried out in July 2007
whereas the Swat one is of course recent. However, we are still
confronted with the residuary implications of both these operations.
The recent killings by the Swat Taliban and the kidnapping of the
former officers of the intelligence agencies underlie the point that I
have tried to make previously too in this space. Military operations on
their own are not enough. We are not fighting only a military war. It
is a war against mindsets and attitudes that are discriminatory and
bigoted. It is actually a war against a paranoid mindset. Dr Ayesha
Jalal while speaking at the Concerned Citizens Forum a few days back
hit the nail right on the head when she pointed out how our mindsets
and attitudes are partially based on paranoia and partially on a
bigoted worldview. This is true, tragically for most of us, but for the
Taliban more so than others. The statement of the Swat Taliban
spokesman said it all when he said, “Allah’s writ and not the
government’s writ will be established” in Swat. Does he mean to state
that the rest of the country is Godless? If I were a religious scholar,
I might flirt with the idea of actually inviting the spokesperson to
defend this remark of his. By saying that the Swat Taliban want to
establish “Allah’s writ in Swat and Malakand region”, he can be
suspected of saying that actually Allah’s writ, i.e. His will, is not
prevalent in other parts of the world. Is he cognisant of the full
implications of this statement of his?
This is actually a war of
mindsets and attitudinal change. It cannot be won by military action
alone. Military action is an important first step. However, other steps
are needed in this process of behavioural change such as debriefing of
the captured militants, facilitating them to re-examine their
worldview, providing them alternate forms of thinking based on
diversity and pluralism. In other words, as the military actions rage
on in North and South Waziristan and as slowly citizens and internally
displaced people resume their lives, a comprehensive rehabilitation
programme for the Taliban needs to be also developed and rolled out.
Only military action will just cause resentment and hatred, leading to
even more intense militant and extremist attitudes. Cases in point are
the recent tragedies of kidnapping of the former agents and foreign
journalist as well as the tragic killing of the Timergara police and
five anti-Taliban activists. The tragedies of today are the direct
result of yesterday, i.e. The Swat and Lal Masjid operations. In order
to avoid tomorrow’s tragedies resulting from today’s actions, we need
to focus on military and social interventions. Just what exactly these
interventions can be or how to design and develop them are pertinent
questions, which need to be discussed at least. Military interventions
are not sustainable in the long run, nor have they ever produced
attitudinal changes. The sooner we realise this the better.
The writer is an Islamabad-based consultant. She can be reached at contact@individualland.com
In : Gulmina Bilal Ahmad
Notes