All Pashtoons Taliban? NO
By Helmand Khan
At this point in time, the west is trying to understand the causes beyond the renewed strength of Taliban's led insurgency in Afghanistan, fighting the war on terror in the remote mountains of Southern Afghanistan and closely watching developments in the tribal areas of Pakistan which has recently been dubbed as virtual mini Taliban state by an international Think Tank, ICG ( International Crisis Group). One obvious finger is being pointed towards one community called Pashtoons and is suggested that Taliban are pashtoons and pashtoons are Taliban. However, is it fair to associate the whole community- spreading over large swaths of Pakistan and Afghanistan, with extremist Taliban. The obvious answer is a big No.
It is not the first time that pashtoons are on the sponlight. When earstwhile Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, the whole free world rushed to this remote corner of the world, pursuing a a guerrilla war through its proxies in Afghanistan against soviet forces. The war sucked in thousands of pashtoons not only from Afghanistan but also from Pakistan's tribal areas, NWFP and Baluchistan. With the hind sight it is logical to concede that pashtoons were fighting the war of Soviet Union and the free world led by the United States of America. Hence they were caught in a cross fire.
Pakistan being a regional player, benefited the most from the Afghan war .
It's policy towards pashtoons was very much calculated: Pakistan's military establishment which was and is running the countries foreign policy, set up hundreds of Madrasas in the pashtoon dominated areas of NWFP, Tribal areas and Baluchistan. Religious political parties were established, and funded by Islamabad and their backers in the Middle East. Thus it became the defacto official policy of Islamabad to promote extremism and fundamentalism among the pashtoons.
Through out the Afghan war, Pakistan suppressed pashtoon democratic and secular forces as it was easy for the army to manipulate religious political outfits to its ends. Nationalist leaders were imprisoned, and no voice of civil society among the pashtoons was let to question the state policy of radicalising pashtoons.
Unfortunately, the west also tuned a blind eye towards Pakistan's deliberate policy of fostering extremism in the nearly 40 millions pashtoons( figures quoted by renowned journalist and regional expert, Ahmed Rashid). This policy also indirectly served the interest of the west to have more foot soldiers available for "Afgan Jihad". The steady supply of pashtoon foot- soldiers to Afghan war, created a quite impression in western capitals: that Afghans-read pashtoons- owing to extreme religious fervour, were ready to die in the name of Islam or Jihad. There was no direct communication between the pashtoon democratic and secular political parties and the west.
As the cold war was over and subsequent events proved, the west simply walked away form Afghanistan, leaving Pakistan in charge of the region. Among other objectives, with the rise of Taliban in Afghanistan, Islamabad pretended that Taliban's coming into power was in the interest of pashtoons in Afghanistan thus becoming champion of pashtoon rights in Afghanistan as well. The arrival of Taliban in Afghanistan, provided a great opportunity to Pakistan assure the world that Taliban are the natural choice of pashtoons: that pashtoons are Taliban and Taliban are pashtoons, so the whole world should support Taliban so that pashtoons' grievances are addressed in Afghanistan and by doing so end the internal fighting in the country. As there were no credible secular democratic parties among pashtoons of Afghanistan at that time, Taliban were touted as the only pashtoon force on the scene hence to be reckoned with.
The demonising of pashtoon community continues even today. The logic behind the recent deal in the tribal areas of Pakistan was this: local pro- Taliban elements were gaining support among pashtoons of tribal areas so in order to wane the support of pashtoons, Taliban should be part of any deal. However, in fact it was a recipe for further talibanisation of the area. Islamabad has never allowed mainstream pashtoon political parties to do political activities in tribal areas. But religious alliance of Mutahida Mijlas Amal (MMA) has MPs elected to Parliament form this area. It proves that Islamabad continues with its cold war policy of deliberately radicalising pashtoons at the expense of moderate pashtoon political parties, on one hand, and sending a message to the whole world that all pashtoons are Al-Qaeda sympathisers and Taliban supporters, on the other.
However, evidence suggests otherwise:
At this point in time, the west is trying to understand the causes beyond the renewed strength of Taliban's led insurgency in Afghanistan, fighting the war on terror in the remote mountains of Southern Afghanistan and closely watching developments in the tribal areas of Pakistan which has recently been dubbed as virtual mini Taliban state by an international Think Tank, ICG ( International Crisis Group). One obvious finger is being pointed towards one community called Pashtoons and is suggested that Taliban are pashtoons and pashtoons are Taliban. However, is it fair to associate the whole community- spreading over large swaths of Pakistan and Afghanistan, with extremist Taliban. The obvious answer is a big No.
It is not the first time that pashtoons are on the sponlight. When earstwhile Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, the whole free world rushed to this remote corner of the world, pursuing a a guerrilla war through its proxies in Afghanistan against soviet forces. The war sucked in thousands of pashtoons not only from Afghanistan but also from Pakistan's tribal areas, NWFP and Baluchistan. With the hind sight it is logical to concede that pashtoons were fighting the war of Soviet Union and the free world led by the United States of America. Hence they were caught in a cross fire.
Pakistan being a regional player, benefited the most from the Afghan war .
It's policy towards pashtoons was very much calculated: Pakistan's military establishment which was and is running the countries foreign policy, set up hundreds of Madrasas in the pashtoon dominated areas of NWFP, Tribal areas and Baluchistan. Religious political parties were established, and funded by Islamabad and their backers in the Middle East. Thus it became the defacto official policy of Islamabad to promote extremism and fundamentalism among the pashtoons.
Through out the Afghan war, Pakistan suppressed pashtoon democratic and secular forces as it was easy for the army to manipulate religious political outfits to its ends. Nationalist leaders were imprisoned, and no voice of civil society among the pashtoons was let to question the state policy of radicalising pashtoons.
Unfortunately, the west also tuned a blind eye towards Pakistan's deliberate policy of fostering extremism in the nearly 40 millions pashtoons( figures quoted by renowned journalist and regional expert, Ahmed Rashid). This policy also indirectly served the interest of the west to have more foot soldiers available for "Afgan Jihad". The steady supply of pashtoon foot- soldiers to Afghan war, created a quite impression in western capitals: that Afghans-read pashtoons- owing to extreme religious fervour, were ready to die in the name of Islam or Jihad. There was no direct communication between the pashtoon democratic and secular political parties and the west.
As the cold war was over and subsequent events proved, the west simply walked away form Afghanistan, leaving Pakistan in charge of the region. Among other objectives, with the rise of Taliban in Afghanistan, Islamabad pretended that Taliban's coming into power was in the interest of pashtoons in Afghanistan thus becoming champion of pashtoon rights in Afghanistan as well. The arrival of Taliban in Afghanistan, provided a great opportunity to Pakistan assure the world that Taliban are the natural choice of pashtoons: that pashtoons are Taliban and Taliban are pashtoons, so the whole world should support Taliban so that pashtoons' grievances are addressed in Afghanistan and by doing so end the internal fighting in the country. As there were no credible secular democratic parties among pashtoons of Afghanistan at that time, Taliban were touted as the only pashtoon force on the scene hence to be reckoned with.
The demonising of pashtoon community continues even today. The logic behind the recent deal in the tribal areas of Pakistan was this: local pro- Taliban elements were gaining support among pashtoons of tribal areas so in order to wane the support of pashtoons, Taliban should be part of any deal. However, in fact it was a recipe for further talibanisation of the area. Islamabad has never allowed mainstream pashtoon political parties to do political activities in tribal areas. But religious alliance of Mutahida Mijlas Amal (MMA) has MPs elected to Parliament form this area. It proves that Islamabad continues with its cold war policy of deliberately radicalising pashtoons at the expense of moderate pashtoon political parties, on one hand, and sending a message to the whole world that all pashtoons are Al-Qaeda sympathisers and Taliban supporters, on the other.
However, evidence suggests otherwise:
- The fact is that electoral successes by the religious right in pashtoon areas have always been engineered by Islamabad.
- Even today, moderate and secular pashtoon political parties are suspected as anti Pakistan just because they have opposed the policies of Islamabad on democracy, human rights, interfering in neighbouring courtiers and radicalising pashtoons and greater autonomy for minorities.
- Besides, the above parties, thousands of middle class pashtoons are in Europe and the United States who have strongly opposed Taliban and Al-Qaeda's presence in the region.
A new pashtoon middle class is emerging in Pakistan who believes in education, development, and above all moderation. - Pashtoon women are increasingly becoming educated and trying to participate in all walks of life. Now they have started to join non traditiona fields like NGOs, air force and media. They would never approve Taliban's restrictions on fellow women.
The west needs a long term strategy to deal with extremism in Pashtoon areas of Pakistan.
- It should not support Pakistan's so called peace deals with the pro Taliban militants in Tribal areas and help rid the area of parallel Taliban administration .
- It needs to put pressure on Pakistan's army to abandon its policy of radicalising Pashtoons by stopping the promotion of religious parties in the Pashtoon belt, introducing Madrasa reforms, bringing in the area a far with the rest of the country, and uplifting the socio-economic conditions of the pashtoons.
- Western capitals should link all their aid to Pakistan ,with political reforms in Tribal areas and genuine support for secular, democratic forces among pashtoons.
- General Pervaiz Musharaf's talk of "enlightened moderation" is a mere rhetoric that needs concrete actions so should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Concludingly, it will simply be naive of the west to let Pakistan deal in its own way with extremism in pashtoon areas.
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