Help End the Humanitarian Crisis in Parachinar, Pakistan

2008-08-13T00:14:00.000-07:00

An Appeal to

All People of Conscience…

Please support the victims of organized terror in Parachinar, Pakistan

More than 200 people have been killed, another 2500 badly wounded in the last fifteen months in Parachinar. The main road that connects this remote area to Peshawar and the rest of Pakistan has been effectively blocked by criminal elements for the last ten months. Those who tried to travel through this road have been literally slaughtered. To get their daily supplies of food and medicine, the people of Parachinar are forced to take the longer route to Peshawar which requires crossing the Afghan border. The cost of daily supplies and travel to other parts of Pakistan has therefore multiplied five to six times. The Afghan route is not very safe either. At least twice, the passengers from Parachinar have been abducted by the same criminal elements, who move freely across the Pakistan-Afghan border. The Afghan forces were able to rescue the passengers in the first case. There is no sign yet of passengers in the second. Many fear that they have been killed already. The Pakistani state has turned a deaf ear to various appeals requesting security and emergency supplies to Parachinar. Rogue elements within the state institutions are actively backing the criminals in their protracted, low-scale ethnic cleansing of the Parachinar people.

The humanitarian crisis in Parachinar demands urgent action. We can’t afford to sit idle by and wait for the Pakistani state to attend to its responsibilities. Thousands of people are on the verge of death. The objective of the protracted, low-scale ethnic cleansing is to drive them out of their ancestral lands. The brave people of Parachinar have been able to defend themselves for many years now. But their capacities can't be compared to the organized terror machinery of their opponents. They are in desperate need of our help. In the name of God and in the name of humanity, please come forward and help your brothers and sisters in need.

- Concerned Citizens of Pakistan

What YOU CAN do!

Educate yourselves and people around you about the situation.

Organize prayers, vigils, and workshops in your localities - school, campus, public libraries, Friday prayers, mosques and community centers, embassies and press clubs. Prepare large posters with images and concise information.

Write op-ed columns and letters to your local and national newspapers with an informed perspective. Also write to your governments and local and international human rights groups. Hold poster and letter writing sessions in your communities.

Demand that the Pakistani state ensure the protection of all of its citizens. The state should immediately end the blockade of the Peshawar-Parachinar route. The government should set up an independent commission to investigate the complicity of security officials and intelligence agencies. They should also estimate the level of damage and compensate the victims duly.

Generate emergency funds in your localities through donation and public service. Establish these funds as part of a regular project (with a target amount to be generated each year) to help the victims of oppression in various parts of Pakistan and elsewhere.

As you help these victims with basic humanitarian aid (food, medicine, shelter), also empower them for the longer term by establishing and supporting sustainable development projects, relating to education, health, media/communications, micro-financing, and community building.

Keep up with the latest developments in Parachinar and other affected areas in Pakistan.

Historical Context: The Rise of Extremism in Pakistan

The current suffering of the Parachinar people dates back to the time of the Afghan ‘jihad’ in the 1980s. The jihad in itself was a legitimate cause against the invading Soviets, who wanted a permanent access to the warm waters of the Arabian Sea through Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, the actual shape that the jihad ultimately took - as a result of the competition for power and control among various factions and states, - also had long term negative consequences. The Afghan jihad was co-sponsored by the American and Saudi regimes and carried out in active cooperation between the CIA and the Pakistani ISI. The migration of more than three million poor Afghan refugees into Pakistan and the ISI’s recruitment of jihad volunteers from across the country resulted in a fundamental demographic and power shift in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Parachinar’s plight is linked to this history.

A skewed form of ‘jihad,’ emptied of its true Islamic ethics and discipline and filled with a disregard for human life and values, was developed and taught to these recruits in various madrassas and training camps. The US played an active role in the promotion of this narrow mentality. Mahmood Mamdani, a professor of Anthropology and Government at Columbia University, quotes in his book, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim (2004), that the University of Nebraska developed a curriculum for the Afghan children under a $50 million USAID grant between 1986 and 1994. The third and fourth grade books taught math with examples of killing the Soviets with semiautomatic machine guns. Other texts exhorted the children to pluck out eyes of their enemies and cut off their legs. The grant ended in 1994 but these texts continued to circulate in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The idea of cutting off limbs comes from the customs of particular local tribes in the northwestern region. The textbooks not only reinforced it but also spread it to other areas. The CIA created recruitment cells around the world, even in the US and Britain, turning this jihad into a global movement. It especially wanted the 'jihad' to spread in the Muslim populations of the Soviet Union. Saudi Arabia also made its contribution by feeding a narrow-minded understanding of Islam in Pakistan and Afghanistan areas .

A great number of Pakistani madrassas - especially in the FATA region, belonging to certain schools of thought within the Sunni branch of Islam - now became the breeding fields of mindless extremists. The actual military training would be given in special training camps, where the CIA and ISI would supply sophisticated arms and guerilla training. Not all of these recruits ended up in Afghanistan, however. Scholars estimate that these camps produced between 30,000 to 80,000 trained volunteers from Afghani and Pakistani origins and from the (present day) Central Asian states, Middle East, and other parts of the world. These recruits joined various nationalist and Islamist resistance groups in the Afghanistan jihad. Later, one strand of graduates of these madrassas, most of them sharing the same ethnic background, formed the notorious Taliban movement. Since the formation of this movement, the Taliban have again and again played as (in)voluntary agents serving the interests of bigger powers. They were brutally crushed when they tried to assert their independence shortly after consolidating their control in many important areas of Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

Over the 1980s and 1990s, the Pakistani state actively pursued a policy of making these extremist groups and those tribes subscribing to a particular understanding of Sunni Islam dominant in the FATA region. Poverty and illiteracy, among other factors, provided a fertile ground for extremism. Where persuasion did not work, violence was actively employed to take over the mosques and properties of other Sunni tribes, especially those belonging to other schools of thought. Terror was often the weapon of first choice against the Shia tribes. Tribal rivalries now also took cover of sectarianism in various instances. Politics and state policies reinforced the sectarian divisions. The leaders in the local jirga committees who worked to promote sectarian and tribal harmony were systematically targeted with threats and violence.

It is hard to imagine that the numbers, the arm supplies, the training, the organization, and the autonomy that these extremist groups have today in the independent territories of FATA would have materialized in the short span since the 1990s without an active involvement of the Pakistani state apparatuses and investments of money and strategic support from outside. The continued ties of these extremist groups with rogue elements in the Pakistani state and their experience of guerilla warfare against the Soviets make their capacity to create organized terror far superior to other terrorist movements that CIA has created in the past, including the Renamo in Mozambique and the Contras in Nicaragua. Although not as strong as these organized extremist groups, the local tribes in many areas of FATA are to this day bravely resisting the extremist influx. The prominent among these areas has been the Kurram Agency, where Parachinar is situated.

Since 9/11, in the name of fighting the American ‘war on terror’, the Pakistani state has often breached the basic constitutional and human rights of its citizens, especially, in dealing with its political opponents in Balochistan, NWFP, and FATA. Hundreds of missing people, widely believed to be abducted by the intelligence agencies and kept at unknown places (documented by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)), is a case in point. A parallel to this political use of ‘war on terror’ is in Bush administration’s targeting of anti-dictatorial, anti-imperialistic, and anti-corporate-globalization movements in various parts of the world. These resistance movements are conveniently labeled as ‘terrorists’ and dealt with accordingly. ‘War on terror’, in this politics, is quite functional for the powers-that-be to maintain and expand their dominance. Many commentators have also argued that through their policies and manipulations these powers breed the same terrorists that then seek to fight off. Current bombardment by NATO forces in FATA areas are only going to result in the same.

Over the last eight years in Pakistan, the establishment has procured more and more resources for itself from the US in the name of fighting terrorism. The amount received is more than $10 billion in direct payment to the military establishment. By promoting the fear and threat of terrorism - succinctly termed the “terrorist card” by many - Pervez Musharraf has for many years now justified his dictatorial rule (and the army presence in politics) to the international audience as well as to the liberal elites in Pakistan. This logic, however, requires that the establishment (with or without Musharraf) simultaneously contain and promote the “terrorist card” in order to remain influential in politics. Recently, it also became apparent that in some parts of Pakistan, especially in the southern port city of Karachi, the dominant ethno-nationalist groups wanted to use this cover (of “terrorism” and the threat of “Talibanization”) to settle old scores with rival ethno-nationalist groups. The Karachi port also delivers about 85 percent of logistic support to the NATO forces in Afghanistan according to Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution. Any threat to this route can be an effective leverage in the hands of ISI to preserve its independence against any encroachment attempts by the civilian government or the US. The extremists groups in Pakistan, under the title of the Taliban movement and others, are once again being used as pawns in the political game of bigger powers.

Understanding this historical context is crucial to identify the real players controlling the levers of power and their (more visible) agents at front responsible for disturbance and violence in the Kurram Agency and elsewhere in Pakistan. (It should be noted that this discussion is focused on understanding the rise of extremism particularly in the FATA region. Dynamics and specificities of the conflicts in other areas of Pakistan are not covered in this limited space.)

The Parachinar Crisis: Who is Responsible?

Parachinar, the capital of Kurram Agency in the north western FATA region of Pakistan, has always attracted attention of various local and regional powers due to its strategic location and the predominantly Shia Muslim population. Since the 1980s, the competition among various local and international powers has often flared up tribal and sectarian tensions in the area and its surrounding. Apart from sporadic clashes among various tribes, there have been instances of organized marauding, where militant bands, comprising of thousands of extremists as well as local bandits and thugs, systematically attacked various Shia areas in the Kurram Agency, including Parachinar and Pewaar (which is located right next to the Afghan border). The organized terror was meant to force the local inhabitants to migrate out of these areas. In 1988, a similar episode occurred in the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan in the North-eastern Pakistan. Gilgit-Baltistan region is another strategically important location, near the volatile Kashmir region and China and Afghanistan, and home to thousands of Shia Muslims. The local officials and security forces have usually stayed silent during such episodes of violence. No serious investigations have been carried out on these tragedies to this day. At times the state officials have also supported the criminal elements by providing safe harbors and supplies. Yet, it also should be noted that several times in these crises, people from surrounding areas belonging to different sectarian and tribal backgrounds have come to the help of these victims with food and shelter.

The ongoing humanitarian crisis is but a link in the long chain of atrocities and plots against the Parachinar people. The rogue elements within the Pakistani state institutions are directly responsible for their suffering. The newly elected civilian government has failed to enforce its writ so far. However, the solution to this humanitarian crisis is not in a brute use of force against the criminal elements. Such violence only breeds more violence. The solution is in controlling the hands that control these criminals. The rise of extremism in Pakistan is essentially a political problem and its solution is also in the political process. The civilian government and the establishment need to ensure the protection of basic constitutional and human rights of all citizens of Pakistan, irrespective of their color, creed, racial and ethnic affiliations. The criminals and those who supported them should be brought to justice, but through fair trial in the courts. Independent functioning of the civilian government and the justice system is crucial in this regard.

Lastly, in any assessment or condemnation of crimes against the Parachinar people, especially in the international media, it is important to hold accountable not only the front-end Taliban forces but also the hidden hands that created and promoted them over the years and that continue to use them to advance their political and economic interests. Focusing purely on the Taliban conceals the crucial role of the bigger powers in this game. The same powers can also effectively control these criminals. Therefore, these powers should be the main target of international pressures. Merely denouncing the Taliban without denouncing the powers that originated them and for whose interests they are still working develops a misperception in the eyes of the world that the problem is with Islam and its teachings. That is, it is purely a cultural/religious issue, ‘internal’ to Islamic doctrines, without any involvement of ‘external’ factors. This misperception then dictates that the solution should be sought in engineering Islam to fit the Western ethnocentric standards of ‘enlightenment’ and ‘civilization’. Geert Wilder‘s recent documentary, “Fitna” - a hate-speech against Islam and Muslims, released widely on the internet and given coverage in all major newspapers of the world - does exactly that. It also should be clear from the above discussion that the Parachinar crisis is not a Sunni-Shia conflict per se. It is a conflict instigated by rogue elements of the Pakistani state and militant elements for their shortsighted gains. Any simplistic characterization of this problem in “sectarian” terms erases more than it explains.

Useful Readings:

Ahmed Rashid. Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. (Yale University Press, 2001)

Ahmed Rashid. Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. (Viking Adult, 2008)

Ayesha Siddiqa. Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy. (Pluto, 2007)

Gyan Pandey. Construction of Communalism. (Oxford, 2006, 2^nd edition)

Hassan Abbas. Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism. (M.E. Sharpe, 2004)

Mahmood Mamdani. Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror. (Random House, 2004)

Shuja Nawaz. Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army, and the Wars Within. (Oxford, 2008)

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Help End the Humanitarian Crisis in Parachinar, Pakistan