• News by AUN News correspondent
• Wednesday, October 26, 2022
• AUN News – ISSN: 2949-8090

Summary:

• She was one of the almost three million people who fled Swat for years, according to many.

• However, the TTP completely removed the women’s right to life instead of providing them with what they were promised.

• However, the Taliban’s entry is not brand-new and is not limited to Swat.

• The TTP, however, has taken credit for the majority of these attacks.

• Residents of various KP towns and cities, including Khawazakhela, Kabal, Matta, Mingora, Charbagh, and Madyan, have been demonstrating against the rise in terrorist attacks for a few weeks now.

Many residents still experience flashbacks of what they went through 15 years ago when militancy increased in Swat.

Dr. Yasmin Gul can vividly recall the day she and her family were forced to leave their hometown of Matta in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) picturesque Swat valley, along with thousands of others, days before the Pakistani army launched an offensive against the militants of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Operation Rah-e-Rast after the latter’s 2009 failed peace agreement.

The mayhem that afternoon is what Gul remembers, not simply the “excruciating” discomfort of running with her braces on (she is a polio survivor).

We fled with nothing except the clothing on our backs, and drove an hour from Matta to Madyan, where we remained with their uncle for three months. She was one of the almost three million people who fled Swat for years, according to many.

The humiliation endured by “the women, the children and the elderly – some of them were being carried on the shoulders of their sons” after they fled for their lives under the sound of deafening “bombing” is something she can still remember.

The chadar, a traditional Pashtun garment that covers the body from head to toe, was not worn by the women who were fleeing for their lives that afternoon, she claimed. “The militants forced the burqa (a covering outer garment worn by women that completely covers the body and the face) upon us,” she said.

She firmly declared, “I never want to go through that again.” “This time, we won’t be fooled, and we won’t allow anyone to push us over the edge.”

Her elders’ hushed descriptions of young girls from her family being abducted, raped, and even forced into marriage with militant commanders, as well as accounts of defiant men who were punished in the most heinous ways possible, such as being beheaded and massacred, are still as fresh in her mind as the images of dead bodies on the streets. The victims were then displayed to the public. She remarked, “I was old enough to remember many things.

Gul remarked, “I don’t think I’ve recovered and gotten over the tragedy of anything I saw. “Neither has anyone else; we just keep it all inside and don’t talk about it.”

Mullah Fazlullah, a fiery cleric from Swat, established his headquarters at his hamlet near Imam Dehri in 2002.

Throughout the Malakand division of the KP province, which includes the districts of Bajaur, Buner, Chitral, Dir, and Shangla, he began courting the locals between 2004 and 2007 by promising the Nizam-e-Adal (Islamic justice system), not just in Swat but throughout. He did this through a number of illegal FM radio stations. By 2007, the TTP had established its rule in the valley, only 160 kilometres from Islamabad, the nation’s capital, as the 20,000 army personnel stationed there watched helplessly. In an interview with IPS from 2009, the Taliban’s spokesperson Muslim Khan stated: “We want to give women their proper role in Islam.”

Swat-born politician Musarrat Ahmad Zeb, who served in the National Assembly of Pakistan from June 2013 to May 2018, remarked, “People say it was the women of Swat who supported Fazlullah by donating significant gifts, even their jewellery, but no one asks why.”

Speaking to IPS from Swat, she said that the residents would receive prompt justice from the TTP, something they had previously experienced under the wali’s reign over the region but had lost since the princely state joined Pakistan in 1969. Zeb is the widowed spouse of Miangul Ahmed Zeb, the son of Miangul Jahan Zeb, the wali of Swat.

However, the TTP completely removed the women’s right to life instead of providing them with what they were promised. Teenage girls were prohibited from attending school, compelled to give up employment that required interaction with men, and prohibited from going to the market alone.

Neelum Noori, 21, is concerned that she could have to shut down her beauty salon in Mingora, the Swat province’s capital.

“We had a decent clientele, but over the past two months, the business has been dwindling. How will we be able to pay the rent and utilities if this keeps happening? Over the phone, she informed IPS. She supports her parents as well as pays for her own tuition. Noori is enrolled in the two-year certificate programme for female health visitors.

The “resurgence of terrorism” in KP is “of significant worry,” Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, the chair of the Senate Committee on Defence and National Security, told IPS. He recalled the sacrifices made by Pakistan’s armed forces and the populace to combat and control the “scourge.”

However, the Taliban’s entry is not brand-new and is not limited to Swat. They have been present for a very long time and are present all throughout KP. Since 2018, I have been bringing it to the attention of my fellow assembly members, said Mohsin Dawar, a lawmaker from North Waziristan and the leader of the nationalist party National Democratic Movement.

He told IPS that once the Taliban seized control of Kabul last year, the militants gained momentum.

Pak Institute of Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank, recently published a study that estimates that between August 15, 2021, and August 15, 2022, 250 attacks in Pakistan resulted in up to 433 fatalities and 719 injuries.

The government described them as “isolated acts of terrorism” and insisted that not one of them occurred in KP. The TTP, however, has taken credit for the majority of these attacks.

A remote-controlled bomb strike last month claimed the lives of eight six people, including Idrees Khan, the previous head of the peace committee. In 2007, Khan was at the forefront of organising opposition to the Taliban. Gilgit Baltistan’s minister was kidnapped earlier this month; in exchange, they sought the release of their companions implicated in the deadly 2013 terrorist attack on the Nanga Parbat base camp, which was intended to target international climbers. Additionally, they favoured ending women’s sports in Great Britain. Dawar recently stated in the assembly that “these high-profile instances cause dread among the general populace and are very demoralising for them.”

Although the “people’s resistance” had “controlled” the crisis, he cautioned that if action is not taken soon, it could spiral out of control and become “much more deadly than last time.”

Fazal Maula Zahid had high expectations for the valley’s young women as a member of the Swat Qaumi Jirga, a group of notables and elders striving for regional peace. No harm can be done to the valley, he claimed, if they emerge as an organised force.

“Today’s youth are energetic and have witnessed or heard about their elders’ struggles; they will not allow history to repeat itself,” Zahid said, adding that the populace lacked faith in government officials who had done little to safeguard the helpless citizens.

Residents of various KP towns and cities, including Khawazakhela, Kabal, Matta, Mingora, Charbagh, and Madyan, have been demonstrating against the rise in terrorist attacks for a few weeks now.

Zahid, who attended the event, remarked that it was enormous: “At Mingora, there were more than 80,000 at Nishtar Chowk. “I’ve been informed it was even bigger at Charbagh,” you said.

Sayed stated that the “gains of the recent past are not frittered away” and that it is encouraging that people have stood up against this comeback and demonstrated their willingness to never again allow this phenomenon to taint their society.

He stated that it was decided to “revitalise the counterterrorism infrastructure,” particularly the National Counter Terrorism Authority, at a committee meeting held earlier this month (responsible for making counter-terrorism and counter-extremism policies and strategies). He expressed his hope that there “won’t be a yawning abyss between words and deeds” and that the interests of the people and the state, rather than “political expediency,” will take precedence.

However, because segregation in public places is still a common practice, these were solely men.

Zahid noted that on October 21, a small number of women also demonstrated in Madyan, which was unprecedented.

Noori and Gul both declared their want to come out. Gul asserted, “I believe my family will grant permission if there are enough women.”