Do Pakhtuns want drone attacks?
By Jan Assakzai
The main stream media of Pakistan assumes that Pakhtuns are opposed to drone attacks.This assumption is over simplistic: it assumes that Pakhtun public opinion is monolithic but it is NOT.
Starting from Tribal areas of FATA, we do not exactly know what the people think of drone attacks. There are no political parties that can reflect the opinion of their support base. It has been cut off from the rest of the country and perhaps the least accessible area in the world at this moment. Any survey regarding people's opinion is inaccurate. People are scarred and under constant threat of militants. FATA is the de facto Al Qaeda headquarter and haven for Afghan, Pakistani- Pakhtun and Punjabi alike- militants. One can only imagine what life is under the hand of non state actors.
The so-called surveys in settled areas like Swat do not reflect the streams of residents' opinion either. Because people in these areas are also fearful to express themselves. Recently ( May 19) a prominent anti militant leader of Swat Shereen Khan was killed by Taliban. Organised political parties even can not hold public gatherings due to fear of suicide attacks from militants.The questioner set is often flawed. And representative samples are very much skewed making it near to impossible to reflect people's true sentiments.
But what the main stream Pakhtun political parties and other organisations say is perhaps the best indication to figure out some sort of Pakhtun public opinion about drone attacks. First is the Amen Tahriek that exclusively focuses against militancy and its effects. It fully supports drone attacks against militants. Another main stream Pakhtun nationalist force is Awami National Party which is at present heading the coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and has a representation in the Sindh cabinet. ANP has always welcomed drone attacks that target militants so does another prominent nationalist Pakhtun political party: Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PKMAP). PKMAP has considerable following among the Pakhtuns of Balochistan and to a lesser extent of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There are perhaps dozens of Qaumi Lashkars who virtually fighting against Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies in support of Pakistan's military operation in various tribal areas. (Thus- far-mentioned forces, though, have one caveat: as long as drone attacks are specific and targeting militants, they do not have any problem with).
However, It is not surprising that the right wing pro-Taliban and pro-establishment Pakhtun religious parties are opposed to drone attacks as most attacks target their allies with whom they share camaraderie and ideological affinity. It is alleged that some of their supporters even help Al Qaeda and its affiliated Taliban militants hide, recruit and fund their activities.
Some religious figures even claime to be a taking a neutral stance against Al Qaeda and its allies. But there is really no neural stance to take. Their seeming rejection or lack of rapid acceptance of the fact that Al Qaeda has safe havens in tribal areas, end them up in many ways supporting Al Qaeda.
Many among the Pakhtun civil society have strongly challenged the official version about drone attacks. Dr Farhat Taj, a Pakhtun woman intellectual in her piece in the Daily Times wants more drone attacks to get rid of Taliban and Al Qaeda, "The people of Waziristan are suffering a brutal kind of occupation under the Taliban and Al Qaeda. It is in this context that they would welcome anyone, Americans, Israelis, Indians or even the devil, to rid them of the Taliban and al Qaeda. Therefore, they welcome the drone attacks".
However, strong feeling is found among ordinary Pakhtuns against Taliban, by extension they support the drone attacks. A taste of their opinion can be seen in this letter send to a newspaper by a gentleman called Urban Soul : "The priorities, problems and (God forbid) the future, of Pakhtuns are different from other parts of Pakistan now due to the flawed foreign policy of Pakistan and especially the role of spy agency ISI. Punjab keeps Taliban and other extremists as strategic assets while Pakhtuns consider them as worst enemy, drones are the attack on Pakistan sovereignty but is a blessing for for Pakhtuns. Pakistan treats Kabul as enemy but for Pakhtuns it is a brother. Pakistan will have to change its policy towards Afghanistan to develop cohesion among its units, otherwise, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will be another Balochistan in near future".
They believe that Pakistan is playing a double game: targeting only "rogue" Taliban while protecting the "friendly" Taliban who have a use for extending Pakistan's proxy arm in Afghanistan.
Nazir Khan expressed his anger in this way: " At least you acknowledge what Pakhtuns have been demanding in FATA: more drone attacks to get rid of Jehadists and Al Qaeda. It should have been the job of Pakistan army to get rid of these Taliban who have occupied Pakhtun areas in FATA and laid siege to other districts in Khybe Pakhtunkhwa and now penetrating in Balochistan’s Pakhtun areas. Unfortunately, Army’s strategic game in Afghanistan has brought miseries and hardships as it uses Pakhtun territories as buffer areas in order to secure plains of Punjab from India".
Another Pakhtun, Nasir, is equally critical of Pakistan's foreign policy and wants sweeping operation against Taliban in the whole country: "A step forward in the fight against terrorism: its time that all our armed forces join the effort, these terrorists should be dealt with force wherever they are, not just in FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but also in the south Punjab, Sindh and urban areas like Karachi. I know that this would upset the influential Jihadists and their apologists but I guess its now or never; intellectual and sane minds of this country should challenge the ideological warfare of brutal Jehadists".
Now a shift in perception regarding drone attack is being seen even at national level. Support for drone attack came from unexpected quarter: a section of media. The national daily Express Tribune hailed drone attack in its editorial on May 18: "The bottom line is that over a dozen militants were killed and given that most, if not all, of these groups are waging war against the state and people of Pakistan, this is not an entirely unwelcome outcome. Of course, drone attacks compromise our sovereignty but it has been more or less established that they do not happen without the government’s tacit sanction, though publicly it often makes a fuss about them. In effect, they can be seen as part of the war against terror in this country and while they may help the Taliban rally recruits to their cause, they have been effective to a considerable extent in eliminating some wanted militants".
The official version of Pakistan regarding drone attacks is that it is affront to its sovereignty. It may be technically right. But Pakistan is facing a dilemma: on one hand it wants to keep its "Jihadi" infrastructure by which to continue to advance its foreign policy objectives in Afghanistan, and on the other hand, it acts against those Taliban and militants who are our of its control.
(For Islamabad, Al Qaeda and its allies is less of a threat than India so it can be managed in the border region, whereas for many Pakhtuns, Al Qaeda and its allies have become existential threat to their progress, values and culture who is trying to reverse them to stone age. Therefore, these Pakhutuns want to see all militants wiped out either by Pakistan or be the US in way of drone attacks).
The problem is that when the state by design fails to take action against a particular type of militants, it creates a policy void precipitating American drone attacks to fill in this gap. In other words, drone attacks are the by product of Pakistan's failure to take sweeping action against all shades of militants in tribal areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Secondly, Pakistan's foreign policy imperative of keeping the "good" militants while "wiping" the bad ones, has never been framed while taking the wishes of the Pakhtuns on board. Even at national level democratic forces are off any consultative process.
This is why overwhelming number of Pakhtuns favours drone attacks and sweeping operations against Al Qaeda and Taliban as opposed to the the government's policy: when it tends to wipe out one Taliban commander, say in Waziristan, and leaves the other well entrenched to be used for another day. And the people who are the victims of Taliban's brutalities do not shed tears when these militants are killed in drone attacks, contrary to the official narrative.
So the answer to the above question whether Pakhtuns want more drone attacks, is-unfortunately- a qualified YES.
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