Taleban threat is biggest challenge to Musharraf: Pashtun leader
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Taleban threat is biggest challenge to Musharraf: Pashtun leader
Web posted at: 10/8/2007 3:55:39
Source ::: The Peninsula
Firoz Khan Afridi
DOHA • The most difficult challenge Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is facing is checking the growing influence of rowdy pro-Taleban elements in the federally-administered tribal areas near the Afghan border, says a prominent Doha-based Pakistani Pashtun community leader.
They are terrorising people, triggering a mass exodus, says Firoz Khan Afridi. An estimated four million Pashtuns live in the federally-controlled tribal region, while the overall Pashtun population in Pakistan is around 25 million, which is mostly concentrated in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Lawlessness continues to prevail in these rugged tribal terrains, where the famous Tora Bora mountain range is located.
There is a severe lack of infrastructure in the area which is spread over some 2,500 square kilometers. A 700-km long porous border with Afghanistan makes things even worse.
Poverty and unemployment are pushing the youth into the fanatical Taleban movement. They have access to the most sophisticated weaponry, including rocket launchers, anti-aircraft guns, hand grenades and stockpiles of AK-47s and AK-56s, Afridi told The Peninsula yesterday.
Armed Taleban operatives move freely in pick-ups and terrorise people. They burn down the properties of those who don't subscribe to their views. The irony is that they have political backing.
The situation, said Afridi, is worsening with two warring rival factions of the Taleban having taken control. "If you support one of them, the other targets you…My own house and those of three close relatives were burnt down in our native village in Khyber Agency, recently," he said.
A fellow Pashtun had to flee the village when he was threatened by Taleban with dire consequences if he did not shave off his moustache and sport a long beard to get an 'Islamic look', said Afridi.
One Taleban faction is pro-Deoband (which subscribes to the conservative Wahhabi school of thought), while the other is opposed to it. They have regional leaders and even private jails to punish people who defy their diktats.
People are fleeing the tribal areas and taking refuge in Peshawar, NWFP's capital city and in the neighbouring Punjab province.
This is an added suffering for the inhabitants of the region since the Pakistani security forces have long been engaged in an anti-terror campaign. Innocent people often become their target. "This is why some of the most violent protests against Musharraf's re-election as president were witnessed in NWFP," Afridi argued. "People are fed up," he said.
He sees two-time premier Benazir Bhutto and Musharraf and his conservative allies as strange bedfellows. "Benazir has socialistic leanings. She is ideologically opposed to what Musharraf and the ruling Muslim League stand for, so I don't think the alliance would last long," commented the Pashtun leader. "The deal has lowered Bhutto's standing in her own party."
Whatever has happened in Pakistan in the name of a presidential election was different this time as people are becoming more and more aware due to a relatively free media dominated by the mushrooming TV channels.
There are some 33 licensed TV channels in Pakistan presently and most of them are operational. They are being increasingly influenced by their untamed counterparts in the rest of the world, particularly India.
The coverage of the Pakistani presidential poll by the Indian TV networks, some of which are watched in Pakistan, could have been extensive and better, though, lamented Afridi.