Why Pakistan will never Defeat the Taliban by Fatima Ahmed Yousafzai

By Fatima Ahmed yousafzai
fatimakhan76999@gmail.com

A number of distracting explanations are being thrown around by the Pakistani intelligentsia to explain the violence perpetrated by the Taliban and the eventual military operations now underway in Malakand region. Most of these theories are self deceiving and dangerous distortions by vested interests which need to be put in the correct perspective. These are dangerous in the sense that they attempt to sweep the fundamental cause of the problem under the carpet and draw the attention away from the core issue of religious extremism and use of religion as tool for political exploitation to seek power over people and territory. For example some columnists in the mainstream Pakistani media are trying to present the violence as a class struggle between the landowning families - khans as they are referred to, and the peasantry. It couldn’t be far from the truth. In fact, such a veiw exhibits a complete ignorance of the Pakhtun culture. First and foremost there is no powerful feudal class in Swat as is common in Southern Punjab, Sindh or Balochistan. Neither is there an oppressed peasantry on the scale as found in these areas, whose lives are controlled by the feudals waderas. Terming the Swat issue as a class struggle is thus a gross distortion of the facts.

Taliban’s movement in Swat was never a struggle for empowering the peasantry against the Khans, as some of these analysts would like us to believe. The Pakhtun society does not suffer from the same disease of class and feudalism as in other parts of the country or to that extant at least. In Swat and in fact in most Pakhtun areas, the distinction between Khan and peasant is not as pronounced as propagated. On the social level, no Pakhtun, be he a farmer, a vendor or a daily wage worker considers himself inferior or subservient to any Khan. Nor are Pakhtun land owners used to treating their peasantry in the same mold as in Sindh or Southern Punjab, where they can not even marry off their daughters without the feudal’s permission. In the Pakhtun society, socially at least, all are by and large equal irrespective of their material holding or bank balance. This leads us to the question-why is this notion of a class struggle being created? One of the most probable motive seems to be a cover-up. This notion of a Khan vs Peasant in Swat is being created by the establishment on purpose to cover up its finger prints in the process of the rise of the Taliban in Swat. This is obvious from the fact that the overwhelming majority of those who suffered and are still suffering as a result of the Taliban violence are the working class and peasantry. The worst affectees of Taliban’s terror are mostly the poorest of the poor- be it those who were murdered or terrorized, be it the destruction of infrastructure or pillaging of property, overrunning business or burning schools. In the process some Landowning families were targeted too, for example the family of Afzal khan Lala was particularly targeted and suffered greatly, but for an entirely different reason. They were the prime targets of the Taliban terrorists because they have always been in the forefront of resistance against religious extremism and use of religion as a political tool in the area.

Another theory that is being spread around is that the Swati Taliban are fake. There are American and Indian agents fighting alongside the Taliban. That American, Israeli and Indian intelligence agencies are deeply involved in supporting the militants fighting in Malakand. This is another hypocritical assertion because these people in the very same breath glorify the Afghan Taliban as real heroes because they are fighting against the US imperialism and afghan forces west of the Durand Line. This is simply untenable, because Afghanistan has a legitimate and elected government almost as good (or bad) as Pakistan. The presence of US and NATO forces there is sanctioned by the United Nations with the consensus of the government of Afghanistan and even Government of Pakistan was part of the Bonn process in 2002. Besides, terrorists who slit throats, kill innocent people, burn schools and destroy peoples lives anywhere are terrorists - whether they are east of the Durand Line or west of it. Off course, one can not refute out rightly, the possibility of external support to the Taliban in Malakand, however that is a catalyst and not the primary cause of the extremist violence in the region. After all, Sufi Mohammad was protected form the wrath of the local population of Malakand by putting him in jail, on his return from Afghanistan in 2002 after he (mis)led hundreds of young people to Jihad and death alongside the Taliban. He was then presented as a savior in front of the people of Malakand in 2009, and astonishingly, has again disappeared from the scene after the military operation started there. It is not unlikely that after another few years, Sufi Mohammad reappears in another stunt as a mediator. Similarly, Fazlullah, Muslim Khan, Faqir Mohammad, Mangal Bagh and scores of others have grown to their present positions right under the nose of the Government and its intelligence agencies. That is why the majority of people consider Sufi Mohammad and his clique as proxies of the intelligence agencies rather than religious people fighting for Islam. The same example can also be quoted to refute the assertion that the Pakistani Taliban are any different from those fighting in Afghanistan. After all, as most people would say, Sufi Mohammad, Fazlullah, Muslim khan, Shah Dowran and the like have grown to become the alligators that they are today, under the patronage of the intelligence agencies just like Mullah Omer and company.

The fact of the matter is, that the Taliban and in fact all religious extremism is the product of two factors deeply entwined with the Pakistani state. First, the ideological dependence of the Pakistan on religion in the absence of any other rational social contract or consensus between the various nationalities, ethnicities, religious groups and classes which make up this country. Not having any other uniting factor, religion is the only glue that holds Pakistan together. If this glue is too thin, the bonds of the federation will dilute and the federating units representing various nationalities and groups will tear away. On the other hand, if it is too thick, it will result in use of religion as a tool in the hands of all those with vested interests. This is clearly manifested by the attempt of Ziaul Haq and subsequent governments to Islamize Pakistan to cement their own political power, the results of which we are witnessing today. Creating a correct balance has never been easy, or even possible because the Mullah will always used this weakness to hold the state and its citizens hostage by raising the slogan of “Pakistan Ka Matlab Kia- La Ilaha Ilu Allah” and raising the boggy of Islam under attack. The same slogans were used back in the 80s to take advantage of the Communist threat in Afghanistan as are being used today to describe the US and Zionist threat. The purpose, however, has invariably always been to get political power using religion. We may accept it or not, but even Pakistan’s creation was based on this exploitation of religion for political purpose. Pakistan was supposed to be for the Muslims of the Indian Subcontinent, yet a vast majority of Muslims living in Indian subcontinent couldn't even hope to be part of it. The remaining, particularly those making part of Pakistan today were not even affected by what was happening in the subcontinent then and did not come to support its creation till the very last moment. This exploitation of religion by the sub-continent muslim elite to achieve political power notwithstanding, the same elite did not hesitate to throw the cloak of religion away when it opted to kill more than 300000 Bengali muslims to prevent an unstoppable division of the country - with no remorse.

Second and more importantly, the Pakistani State has always used religion as a tool to pursue its strategic interests even in its external relations. In the 70s and 80s, Pakistan used religious extremism as a tool to pursue its intrests in Afghanistan, at the behest of the US. They ensuing war and civil strife which continues till today has killed more than 3 million muslim Afghans. Millions were wounded and maimed, their homes and villages were destroyed, their towns and cities turned into rubble and their country ruined - all in the name of Islam. This destruction of another Muslim country did not pose any religious, ethical or moral challenge to those claiming to fight for the glory of Islam. The faulty and misperceived notion of seeking strategic depth and fear of a nationalist Pashtun movement demanding their due rights in the federation of Pakistan was at the root of this war waged by Pakistan in connivance with the West and Saudi Arabia. This use of religious extremism to fight off communism for the West and seeking strategic depth for itself, culminated in the creation of Taliban. The ultimate aim to control Afghanistan resulted in giving ground to the Arab extremists of AlQaeeda to convert into a terrorist colony. Unfortunately for Pakistan, the Arab extremists had a different and much wider agenda and hence came the 9/11.

The story does not end here. Pakistan had by then been engulfed so deep in religious extremism that there was no turning back, despite the decision to disown the Taliban in Afghanistan as a consequence of US pressure. The use of religion as a tool to get to power and use of religious extremism as a policy tool , courtesy Zia-ul-haq, has seeped into every institution and in fact the psyche of the nation. That is why we see that the state has been held a hostage by these extremist elements in various shapes, Taliban, AlQaeeda and a variety of Jihadi and sectarian organizations. The Swat Taliban are just a manifestation of these phenomena. On the strategic level, despite the reversal of its policy in Afghanistan and unraveling of its strategic depth folly, the state is still in a state of confusion whether Taliban are an asset or a liability. They haven’t completely disowned the Taliban assets in the hope that they can bleed the US and NATO into submission by using the proxy and eventually force their exit from Afghanistan. The dream of getting back Afghanistan as a colony has yet to die.

Another factor is that in the face of the overwhelming Indian superiority in the conventional military field and the existence of a nuclear deterrence, the only hope Pakistan has of getting a favorable deal in Kashmir anytime in future is to retain the jihadi card. The perceived aim is to force India into a compromise - a low intensity war below the conventional level but sustained enough to make it counterproductive for the Indians to maintain the status quo in Kashmir. And that is precisely why that on the one hand, the Pakistani intelligentsia and media are shouting hoarse to eliminate the Taliban in FATA and Malakand citing them as a threat to Pakistan itself, but on the other hand it allows the extremis ideologies to flourish. While on the one hand the State is using all tools of military power including Air Force jets,tanks, Special forces and gunship helicopters in Malakand with complete disregard for the miseries of millions of people, on the other hand it has turned a blind eye on Jummate-Dawa, Jaishe Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and scores of similar jihadi organisations.
The known Headquarters in Muredke, of the terrorist organisation Jummat-u-Daawa ( JuD), involved in the Mumbai attacks and declared a terrorist organisation by the UN, was shut down by hanging only a lock on its door by the local district police officer. But the entire population of Malakand and Swat is being subjected to the most lethal weaponry in the arsenal of Pakistan Military in pursuit of a few thousand militants. Isn’t it ironic that the known extremist Maulana Aziz of the Lal Masjid, who held the capital Islamabad hostage for weeks, confessed to having trained suicide bombers, forced the state to launch a military operation which resulted in the killing of hundreds of innocent children has been set free to return as a hero to the same mosque, while hundreds of soldiers, and civilians are forced into death and disaster by fighting in Malakand against the same religious extremists. Maulana Aziz was arrested red handed while escaping from Lal Masjid. His acts of terror were telecast live to the whole nation and there is no lack of evidence against him -yet he roams free to recruit more extremists, brainwash more children and create more hatred in the name of Islam. All this in the belief that it will be an asset in the long term,while in Malakand and FATA, bloody operations have been launched for years on the plea of killing militants.

The biggest rationale for all this and a very pragmatic one is that the killing of Taliban in Malakand and FATA bring more and more dollars, thus Pakistan must appear to be doing something from time to time, while retaining the strings to raise or lower the level of violence as it seems fit. This is the duplicity which suggests that Pakistan can never get rid of religious extremism. No wonder then, that it is the third operation in Swat alone in the last two years, yet the the centre of gravity of the Taliban - its central leadership like Sufi Mohammad, Fazlullah, Muslim Khan, Shah Dowran etc have never been targeted, just like FATA where Baitullah Mahsud, Maulavi Faqir, Haji Mangal Bagh etc roam free despite a number of military operations. As far as the killing and maiming of thousands of civilians and displacement of more than 3 million people of the region is concerned - NEVER MIND, THEY ARE PASHTUNS.