Monsters still dancing in our fairy land Swat

Th fairly land like valley of Swat  was once the hub of tourism industry in Pakistan but now world is  seeing it as a  war zone where even  children are being picked to kill by trained terrorist and whole state is seeing it as dumped and handicapped force of a country which is in state of war for last 12 years.When Swat was voluntarily merged into Pakistan in 1979, it was more peaceful than other regions of Pakistan because it was urbanized. Mingora  had a well-established silk industry. When Swat joined Pakistan it had the highest literacy rate, particularly among women.People benefited from a good economy, as tourism gradually turned into an industry along with other cottage industries.

The early signs of this crises appeared in Oct 2005 when several formally banned Jihadist outfits infiltrated in the area under the premise of relief efforts. In the early 1990s, local cleric  Sufi Mohd started a movement called Tehreek-e Nifaz-e Shariat-e Muhammadi movement for the implementation of Muhammad’s Shari’a.But after the U.S. attacks against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda] in Afghanistan, many of his followers  under Sufi Mohd went to Afghanistan to wage jihad. Many of them never returned but  that old cleric was returned  and further continued his instigating plus recruiting  mission. Due to intentional or unintentional negligence of government and weakened state’s  writ  local population supported that movement, as it was supposed to be peaceful and on the name of Islam.

The regular  phase of militancy began with an FM radio station. Maulana Fazal ullah , the leader of the Taliban in Swat and his friends used their FM radio to mobilize people and spread their message. Some downtrodden classes found his message of Islamic justice appealing the less literate class. Other people from the eastern Pakistani province of Punjab and elsewhere also joined that movement. It gradually turned into an armed insurgency.Over the next two years these militants were able to gain strength due to preoccupation of government in South Waziristan and other tribal Areas.The geo strategic importance of this region should be kept in mind as the only ground link to China and the possibility of this region as a ground link between India and Afghanistan is a factor that cannot be ignored when we analyze the involvement of foreign hands in Swat and FATA.

Furthermore the social and economical  problems for the local population were compounded by slow rehabilitation process and destruction of the tourism industry that was the major source of income for the majority .Failure of fake  government of MMA had deepened the  crisis  along with  the start of military operation by  the displacement of 1.5 million people who have lost everything they owned and  were become refugees in their own country.Musharraf for saving his soul highly ignored this area and started this war campaign during the caretaker government in November 2007.  Lack of justice, corruption of government institutions and lawlessness further compounded these problems. In this state of affairs people like Fazlullah were able to gain popularity in the eyes of people who were already facing ideological alienation from the center due to ongoing war on terror against the people by its own army.

Here again the blame was shifted to the  part of government, questions still need to be answered that where were the intelligence agencies at the time when such groups were tearing the writ of state by strengthening themselves with all kind of modern weapons ?

Why did the government do nothing to stop infiltration of weapons and foreign elements in the area when even the media had started giving hints of the worsening situation in the area .The poor people of Swat didn’t see any  kind of  reinforcement of  militia and police forces in the area well in time when their personnel were being abducted everyday and it was clear that government  forces will not be able to deal with better equipped militants?

The Musharraf careless or carefree  policy  only  worked to isolate the militants but the cost of this policy had to be paid by the innocent people of the valley. Destruction of families and social infrastructure  have provided the militants with fertile recruiting grounds.The Taliban of Swat now spread in different pockets  still  instigating the  landless peasants to rise up against the  khans who hold fertile lands of Swat. In a documentary for Al Jazeera(by Rageh Omar) the Army Brigadier states that the Taliban were immensely popular among the landless tenants and were being financed with jewelry etc donations by supporters. TNSM was holding the largest rallies in Swat history.

After 5 year of massive military operation the fairyland has  still  shown us the scene of horror and terror  and  last day daylight shooting of  A brave daughter of Swat ,Malala is self explanatory that where people is still living in mirage of peace that is all time  claimed by security forces many times in last years.This attack simply means that our forces  are still unable to clear that area that has almost dozen of security check posts and how easy it is for insurgent to do what they want and then flee safe from that area.

Now all establishment is running to save the soul of little girl whose presence there  is just like the candle in the wind .

Neither General kiyani(extended Chief) nor Rehman malik is ready to take the irresponsibility of such cowardly attack but still brain washing us as per habit that this war is compulsory for us and will continue until?? I am sure inside they want to die all of us like that as they , their spouses and children live in VIP security which are even not in dreams of brave little girl Malala.After seeing such kind of filthy leadership it is not clear  from which kind of dirty  mud Allah has made conscious of our ruling elite who never come forward to take the responsibility of this event as national crime but all time ready to declare war in our land where they enjoy they most secured environment.

Presently, the plight of the people of Swat  is not being highlighted as it should have been but Malala’s  murder plan has shown us real picture and clear apprehensions about  future of this area. There is  still need of social and moral rehabilitation programs other than Military -civilian friendship scenes. It is  proved social law that  poor regions that are isolated from the global community in terms of education, communication and commerce are the most fertile breeding grounds of terror networks. Making lies about real situation or failure  to initiate economic development  in destroyed valley surely culminate in victory of fundamentalist networks in this region. It is the need of the time to understand this that economy, welfare and development not military actions are the key to winning the war on terror bringing peace to this region.