Could Talibanistan be Reaching Pakistan's Capital?

In the words of a senior US military official in Afghanistan, “The bottom line is that Taliban can do what they want in the tribal areas because the Pakistan army is not going to come after them”. Ms. Samina Ahmed, a South Asia Director of International Crisis Group, is blunter when she says, “The state has ceded this territory. The Taliban have been given their own little piece of real estate”. Malik Sher Muhammad Khan, a tribal elder from Wana contends, “The Taleban walk through the streets shouting that children shouldn’t go to school because they are learning modern subjects like math and science….” Malik Haji Awar Khan, head of a 2,000-person tribe in North Waziristan claims, “This is a jihad dictated by outsiders. It is not a holy war. They just want power and money”.

Taliban have already carved out two safe havens in NWFP, South and North Waziristan. Last year they extended their influence up to Tank, and from there on to further north around Bannu and to the neighboring district of Lakki Marwat. Even Peshawar is not free from their impact; international chains of schools, such as Beacon House and Bloomfield have had to remain closed whenever the threat from the Taliban comes.

And now the Taliban factor has reached the very capital of Pakistan, Islamabad. If Afghanistan has a rich crop of warlords, Pakistan is having a bumper yield of Maulvi-lords. In the words of Mr. I. A. Rahman “both prosper in chaotic situations”.

In his Friday Khutba of April 6, Maulana Abdul Aziz of the Lal Mosque, did not mince any words when he categorically announced the setting up of an Islamic court to stop “vulgar activity”; warning the government of Pakistan of suicide attacks if it acted against the mosque. “Sharia or Shahadat”, is their popular slogan.

The Lal Mosque administration contends that it is a war between the ‘Lip-stick brigade and the Stick-brigade”, and their girl students are armed up to teeth with baton and Kalashnikovs. The impact, as say the human rights groups, has already begun affecting the citizens because they are “terrorizing ordinary citizens in the name of Islam”. Hordes of students of this Hafsa seminary affiliated with this mosque have already begun circling around the music and video shops.

Two-and-a-half months ago, students of this school took over the children’s library and held two police officials as hostage, till some “peaceful negotiations’ resolved the problem. Last week, once again female students of this madrassa abducted a woman whom they accused of running a brothel, and held her captive for two days. “Peaceful negotiations”, once again, saved the face of the government.

Unlike the government, this Maulana and his brother, at least, are clear in their minds. They openly say that the land (Pakistan) belongs to Allah; it is the government that had usurped this land in the last sixty years. They, however, conveniently exclude those areas from this land of Allah which fall under their purview. Now they are challenging the very writ of the government. Thanks to their sympathizers like Ejaz Ul Haque, the problem will again be amicably defused, as once he helped resolve the issue of the insertion of the religion column in the passports.

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