Some of the most ruthless fighters among the Taliban on both sides - TopicsExpress



          

Some of the most ruthless fighters among the Taliban on both sides of the Durand Line have been non-Pakhtuns. On August 8, 1998 Mazar-e-Sharif was recaptured by the Taliban. To reach the centre of the city, the Taliban sent in suicide squads. Jeep-loads of their fighters, each following the other after short intervals, were sent into Mazar-e-Sharif. The first four or five vehicles were destroyed by Northern Alliance rocket fire but each succeeded in advancing some distance toward the city centre. When this was finally reached, the Taliban ground forces entered the town and what followed was fierce fighting unparalleled in its savagery even by Afghan standards. I was in Kandahar at the time for a meeting with Mullah Omar when the one-legged governor of the city, Mullah Hassan Rehmani, made the startling disclosure that “it was our Punjabi brothers from Pakistan, not the Afghan Pakhtuns, who fought the most fiercely in Mazar-e-Sharif. We tried to restrain them because excesses violate our code, Pakhtunwali.” He explained that ethnicity was never important for the Taliban. They were entirely a volunteer movement and anyone who shared their ideology was welcome to join regardless of his ethnic affiliations. Nine years later, in December 2007, the TTP was established by Baitullah Mehsud. Like its Afghan counterpart it is also a multiethnic coalition of extremist outfits. Yet in one broad sweep the APC consensus resolution has stigmatised the Fata Pakhtuns by portraying the TTP as “our own people in the tribal areas.” But respected analysts such as Khalid Aziz believe that “the Pakhtun is prone to religious extremism and readily accepts membership into millenarian movements to resist reform of a centralising state...This is because he fears that his social conduct, ‘Pakhtunwali,’ will be endangered and he will lose his identity.” It is said that the lives of the Pakhtuns, from the cradle to the grave, are tailored in accordance with the dictates of Pakhtunwali. But this norm of social conduct has never been codified. It has always been oral and has been transmitted verbally from generation to generation. The only written references to this code of honour are to be found in Pashto folk poetry known as tappa. Here again one runs into difficulties because a huge number of the important tappa have also been oral. This is corroborated by scholars such as Farhat Taj who are convinced that “it was the non-Pushtuns, who reduced the code into writing in accordance with their own fanciful understanding of Pakhtunwali. These were the mighty of the age who confronted Pakhtun resistance to their power...They had a vested interest to write and interpret the Pakhtun code in line with their own objectives.” ........... The reason is that the Taliban have killed hundreds of tribal leaders and imposed their absurd interpretation of Islam in the area. They have all but demolished Pakhtun culture. For instance whether or not women should be veiled, attend school or university, seek employment have always been issues that are decided exclusively by the Pakhtun family. But all this has been replaced by a Wahabi way of life. ......... In his final days Mirza Ali Khan (1897-1960), better known as the Fakir of Ipi, was asked whether the relentless guerrilla war he had waged against the British through the 1930s till their departure in 1947 was for religion or for freedom. He gazed pensively into the distance for a short while and then answered that his entire struggle was for the liberation of the tribal Pakhtuns. This is what the government must keep in mind as it presses ahead with the peace negotiations with the TTP. ... thenews.pk/Todays-News-9-248103-The-grievance-of-Pakhtuns
Posted on: Sat, 10 May 2014 03:21:22 +0000

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