By MAK Lodhi
Talibanisation spread fast during Musharraf regime. I have been an eye-witness actually. A friend of mine got me along to Kalam in August 1997. Some times small events of little consequence leave an indelible mark on the memory and can’t be forgotten even if one tries to. This journey was one like that. Cruising along river Swat, the picturesque valley of Kalam comes at a distance of about 270 kilometres from Islamabad in the foothills of Karakoram range of mountains. At one of the bosom-like hills of Kalam, my friend had built a villa with woodwork splendours. Looking down the valley from the hill is a sight unmatched by any of the best places on earth: snow-topped peaks beyond thick trees of deodar and its numerous waterfalls and glaciers cascading down from mountains, fretting and undulating, playing hide and seek in the thick foliage. My first impression was that I have come to a bewitched land and its impact has been everlasting. No one comes back to tell what paradise is like but when you think of it Kalam comes to mind.
An evening in August in Kalam is like one wintry December in Lahore but there can be no parallel to the charming surroundings. As we reached the locals learnt that a newsman from Lahore was the guest. A resident came over for a chat. After tea and barbecue in the light the pleasantly cool evening, I asked him why he was keen to see me.
Hazar Khan was a well-built and stout man, dressed well by the local standards. He was wearing a turban and I could see his revolver slung beneath his waistcoat in upholster. His 13-year-old son accompanied him. At dusk the atmosphere and chat became somber. Pointing his fingers towards a grove of trees, he said, “That’s the seminary where I was sending my elder son for religious education. But one evening the boy didn’t turn back and he lost contact with his family for ever.” He feared his son had been dissuaded by preachers and sent to Afghanistan to be a Jihadi. Hazar Khan didn’t know much about happenings in Afghanistan. In Kalam it was the first incident of this type. Then with a quivering tongue, he requested me to publish his son’s photograph in the newspaper.
The 9/11 had not happened yet. Kalam and the rest of Malakand were as sleepy and serene as their natural beauty. People from Punjab were still touring Kalam in droves to spend weeks away from the blistering heat of Lahore. There was no sign of Taliban anywhere all along the way. Nobody even thought of them in that part of the country. Tourists from Punjab could roam about, stay anywhere they liked and enjoyed spending their summers there besides providing succor and support to the people of the valleys.
I told the visitor that he was the first to lose his son in Kalam but back in Punjab there were several incidents of boys whisked away and thrown into the Afghan cauldron. After getting more details about the great mess that Afghanistan had become he lost all hope of his boy’s return. His blue eyes became lakes like many others in Kalam. He became silent and unconsciously hugged the younger son. On asking he told me that he was not sending his other son anywhere for learning. Besides this seminary in the hills there was no other government school.
I travelled down the memory lane after a recent statement by PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif who has blamed Pervez Musharraf for the spread of “Talibanisation”. I can vividly recall that Malakand was far from being “Talibanised” till the advent of Pervez Musharraf era. It was during the decade of 2000s that Malakand became the stronghold of Taliban. People of Punjab have always been fond of Swat valley. They invested in Swat and other valleys, built summers houses and employed locals. In summers they replenished their wallets.
For the last many summers Punjabis have totally stopped touring and staying in valleys of Malakand. They miss their association with the most beautiful part of their country, feeling nostalgic. They can visit it only at the risk of their lives.
After overthrowing Nawaz Sharif’s elected government in 1999, the dictator had gone for the political overkill. He connived with religious parties to build his own crutches for power. In return he gave them a free hand for raising a mushroom growth of seminaries and allowed militants to build their outfits where detracted boys were trained as suicide bombers. Of all the crimes that Musharraf had committed this was the gravest and most grievous that the nation is paying through nose. Musharraf’s other ills may be condoned but his accommodation to militants for their viral and contagious spread is an unpardonable crime. Today we have about 14,000 registered seminaries in the country but the count of unofficial seminaries exceeds 20,000. It flaunted free education up to secondary school level, at least in Punjab where more than half of the total seminaries are housed whereas most of poor children were going to seminaries. Hypocrisy of the previous government stands exposed.
A recent study has revealed that poor people prefer seminaries to schools for the simple reason that the religious schools offer boarding and lodging as well. The study shows that seminary children are not even allowed to watch TV or play any games. They have to observe a strict regimen of prayers and religious education and duties until they are totally depressed enough and become willing to do away with their lives. Studies also show that children are taught only a particular sectarian creed and nothing else. Such children who are totally brain-washed are handed over to militants for training as suicide bombers. Investigations have also revealed that young people are kept in a state of fear and under perpetual threats of dire consequences. When they are to be used as suicide bomber, a retainer takes them to the site of blast under a veiled threat.
Recently security forces apprehended a few terrorists from seminaries where they were living as guests. In a hypocritical dual, Maulana Fazlur Rehman protested against raids on seminaries. Obviously, he would. His JUI owns hundreds of seminaries from Karachi to Kabul. Interior minister Rehman Malik in his timid response said the government was looking for foreigners only and won’t touch seminaries.
Media is generally shy of investigating and exposing how seminaries are running their businesses. It is a daring act to visit a seminary for information and inquiries. However, some of the parents have apprised the scribe that they are retrieving their children from seminaries. A woman has brought back her daughter to a school as she found that nothing much was being taught in the seminary. Another mother got back her son after she learnt of a sexual assault attempt on the boy.
Educationists believe militancy cannot be overcome only by fighting with them out of their hideouts in the tribal badlands until seminaries are not taken over by the government or at least detached from parent religious bodies.
While armed forces are fighting a fierce war with hardened Taliban in their black holes, the political government has done precious little and is reluctant fearing a political fallout while the country is replete with sleeper terrorists and they are killing innocent citizens everywhere. Can army alone eliminate the Taliban threat? Few are optimistic unless government takes bold and long-term policy initiatives like taking over seminaries.