Yesterday the Peshawar-based journalists were flown in the military helicopters to Nawaz Kot area in South Waziristan; where the Taliban had established a fake paradise. According to the journalists who took the round of the place, the walls of the rooms were painted with the rivers overflowing with milk and honey, picturesque valleys and the beautiful Hoors.

It’s clear now how these Taliban employed every technique in the book to lure and brainwash the teenagers; who would later be used as suicide bombers. The same house where make-believe paradise was created had a ‘slaughterhouse’ for murdering security forces and most probably those kidnapped for ransom.

Brainwashing

The dictionary meaning of the brainwashing is: Intensive, forcible indoctrination, usually political or religious, aimed at destroying a person’s basic convictions and attitudes and replacing them with an alternative set of fixed beliefs. In the literary context we find the best example of brainwashed people in George Orwell’s novel 1984. In the novel that is set in London of 1984 all the inhabitants are living mechanical lives with no freedom whatsoever. Those who try to rebel meet with tragic end! At the same time their country is at war… continuous and never ending war.

The idea of brainwashing could also be found in the unclassified CIA documents where they conducted a series of experiments on people in order to ascertain whether they could mold their thinking and then use the subjects for their interests. The concept of Manchurian Candidate is also the same. Where a person is controlled through several brainwashing techniques and his mind doesn’t remain in his own control. Such a person does what he’s been directed by his controller.

Preparing to Die

Preparing the young boys to die is not an easy task, not even if they hail from the poor and battered families. Still how these Taliban in the mountains can so easily prepare the brigade of suicide bombers? One thing is that since majority of these bombers hail from illiterate families with no religious or other education, their parents usually never take pain to transfer the ethics or principles of morality and simply hand over their children to the local Jihadis who promise education, food and shelter all under the same roof. That is the first step of recruitment.

Once the child is away from family these recruiters can do anything they like with them. It includes, training them to make bombs and carrying out suicide mission and gun battle etc. Every mission needs motivation in life. And these young would-be suicide bombers are motivated by making believe that this worldly life has no meaning; the real life is what awaits them in the paradise with all the voluptuous Hoors and the best of delicacies. It doesn’t take much effort to distort any Quranic verse or Hadith according to their own vested interests because these children are usually never trained to question. And those who have doubts have no choice; they’d either be slaughtered and if not then to blow themselves up. The use of inducing drugs couldn’t be ruled out either as one of the would-be suicide bombers, captured in Bajaur by the security forces said, he had been given drugs before sending out on his mission to kill the Imam of a local mosque.

Paradise of the Assassins

I was quite taken aback to read about the discovery of an artificial paradise. Till date we were only aware about the motivating religious songs and training videos; the posters of dead and would-be suicide bombers etc. But when I read about a make-believe paradise created by Taliban in the far flung area of Waziristan, instantly, a remarkable Urdu novel Firdous-e-Bari’n written by Abdul Haleem Sharar in 1899 came to my mind. My first introduction with this novel happened when I read a chapter from this novel titled Pario’n Ka Ghol in our Urdu text book. I found it quite interesting and bought the novel.

The novel talks about a secret society called the Sect of Spirituality. The main aim of this sect is to rule out Islam and for that reason they establish a fake paradise in the beautiful and unreachable mountains. Their network of spies is impeccable and when they successfully brainwash people they use them as assassins. Once the job is done, the assassin is drugged and brought to the artificial paradise. That is his reward for carrying out the heinous crime of assassination of a known figure while the assassin believes he is living an afterlife.

It boggles my mind as to how true and relevant the story of that novel is to this age. I am not sure about the truth of historical context of Firdous-e-Bari’n but here is one account:

Firdous e Bareen (or فردوس برین in Persian and Urdu) was the name of the garden, supposedly located in the fortress of Alamut, in the Elburz mountains of Northern Iran, in which Hassan-i-Sabah and his band of Nizari Ismaili Shiite Hashshashin took refuge.

According to some accounts, this garden, imitating paradise or heaven, was furnished with all luxuries of life, even a rivulet of wine and was used to recruit Sabah’s assassins. The recruit was drugged to simulate “dying,” only to later awaken in a garden and be served a sumptuous feast by virgins. The supplicant was then convinced he was in Heaven and that Sabah was a minion of the divinity and that all of his orders should be followed, even to death.

The novel Firdous e Bareen, written by Indian Muslim novelist Abdul Halim Sharar, gives a biographical account of Hassan, a youth lured and captured by Sabah’s men and then forced into his assassination machinery.

This only leaves me with certain questions. Are Taliban that advance and successful with their techniques to prepare the hoards of suicide bombers – the same bombers who come to cities and wreak havoc on the innocent people? Is there any way to counter the propaganda unleashed by Taliban? Can we change the minds of an illiterate youth who set out in search of the real paradise but end up in the paradise of fools?

Are you ready for the change? What difference will it make in the lives of ordinary people anyway? But there is something that hurts and it is ever growing instability in the country and extreme interference of the foreign powers in our internal politics besides of course the struggling economy and eternal corruption.

Excerpts from Dr. Shahid Masood’s article:

The main problem being faced by the US administration, which it may never admit publicly, is that the present set-up with Asif Ali Zardari as the de facto ruler, has no credibility at home and no ability to deliver on the promises he makes, either on the military side or on the war on terror or on governance issues.

Other officials I met were even blunter. They say the US abhors corruption, kickbacks and commissions anywhere in the world as a matter of policy.

A Pakistani, who knows a lot about developments in Pakistan and the US scene, said that apart from this purely legal and domestic scene, there were four possible ways through which Zardari could exit. These ways were repeated by others who had nothing to do at all with the previous source. They are: one, impeachment; two, voluntary resignation in the wake loss of credibility; three, ‘natural’ or man-made elimination of the president, and, four, an Army coup. The impeachment and coup scenarios are considered non-starter and impossibility.

Source: Americans see a change in the air in Pakistan

Every morning we wake up thinking that the new day might bring some good news but the newspapers are littered with all types of discouraging news. A few days back I had read in the local Urdu paper that the militants (terrorists) had threatened to attack the Peshawar International Airport in 36 hours.

Terrorists usually don’t warn beforehand but in case of TTP we’ve observed they certainly do what they threaten. They without any penitence claimed the responsibility of Peshawar (PC Hotel) and Lahore blasts. And now, if they say that they’d target the airport building and commercial flights means they will soon act upon it.

The News carried a report today :

Documents available with The News reveal the Defence Ministry issued a “confidential” office memorandum on June 3 to the interior secretary, who was asked to take security measures around the approach areas of the country’s airports from possible ground fire during landings and take offs of commercial airlines.

In Peshawar where the runway ends, the villages of Bara begin where any civilian aircraft is a few hundred feet away and could become a sitting duck to a rocket attack. Referring to a news report that a banned militant/terrorist outfit has given a deadline of June 14, 2009 that they would target commercial jets if the government does not stop the military operation in Swat, the Defence Ministry said the Pakistan Airlines Pilot Association (Palpa) had also conveyed its concern regarding the threat to commercial aircraft.

“It is important to mention here that aircraft are most vulnerable to ground fire during landings and take offs. More attention for foolproof security may be given to funnel areas and areas adjacent to airports,” the ministry’s OM reads.

It would be catastrophic if the terrorists attacked any commercial flight (national or international). I think the international flights to Peshawar should be suspended in the wake of growing threats because the lives of 200 plus people can not be put into danger. I know that area. Both ends of the airstrip have thick population and residential areas. It would be quite an easy task for a terrorist to fire a rocket at any plane during landing or take off.

It’s not the first time the airport has come under an apparent danger. The airport has been attacked by rockets several times in the past 3 years but luckily no loss of life or property occurred. Similarly, on 26th December 2006, a bomb fitted in the car, parked in the parking lot outside the airport building went off.

My sister who was in the international lounge at that time when heard the loud blast called us up. People inside were fine. But every single act of terrorism damages the psyche of a person. I don’t know the exact location of that car or since how long it was parked there but I believe we had just passed close to it because the bomb went off when we were on our way to home.

The government’s plan

It asked the Interior Ministry to direct quarters concerned to ensure security of these areas with focus on the following:

a) Proper record of personnel living in these areas including maintenance of their antecedents;

b) Deployment of intelligence staff to keep an eye over new entrants into these areas;

c) Round-the-clock monitoring of activities in these areas;

d) Frequent combing be carried out as a deterrent;

e) Effective patrolling to ensure extra vigil;

f) Special care may be taken at those airports which fall within the populated towns/cities and/or located in troubled areas.

Although the current threat has been exclusively issued to Peshawar airport but terrorists can access everywhere. It could be any airport in the country that might be on the terrorists’ hitlist . Keeping the present threat in view the security of all airports across the country has been beefed up.

I truly wish that the terrorists don’t resort to a mean act of mass murder of innocent people. With every such act (which they claim is to force the US to leave our territory) would only strengthen them more.

I was happy to see Pakistan made to the Super 8 in cricket. We had our dinner and at 10:00 (daylight saving time) when the light went off we went outside and sat on the veranda. I was talking with my father when I saw a huge ball of light. The stars were twinkling in the summer sky so I knew it wasn’t sky lightening.

I drew my father’s attention to it saying that I just saw a very unusual bright orangish light in the sky. He asked me the direction. I pointed my finger towards the North-East and while I was telling him… a huge boom followed. The ground under our feet shooked and our entire house vibrated like something. I felt strange sensation in my eardrums and felt as if my heart slipped into stomach and then it began to beat violently.

That was a bomb blast. I murmered.

PESHAWAR: At least five people were killed and 35 others injured in a powerful blast at a five-star hotel in Peshawar area of Saddar at Khyber Road, Geo News reported Tuesday.

The injured include mainly the servants of the hotel.

According to Geo News correspondent, the blast was so powerful that windowpanes of the nearby buildings broke. Soon after the blast, the power supply to the area has been suspended. The whole area is plunged into darkness.

The blast site is awash with smoke. The building caught fire soon after the blast. Several vehicles were destroyed in the blast. The sounds of gunshots are still being heard in the area.

At least 34 injured are being rushed to Lady Reading Hospital.

A large number of security personnel arrived on the spot and cordoned off the area. Khyber Road has been blocked for traffic.

DCO Peshawar said the blast occurred at PC Hotel, which killed 5 people and injured 25 people.

According to Geo News correspondent, miscreants drove two vehicles towards the hotel; however, they found barricades there, they turned to firing and moved to the mosque where the blast occurred.

According to sources, the extremists attacked the check post of the security
guards.

Source: Geo News

The local Urdu newspaper have been reporting since some time that the different government departments often receive threatening letters allegedly from Taliban. In one such letter the district government was asked to sack a lady councilor or else they’d bomb the building.

Before that, the doctors and the administration of all three big hospitals of Peshawar received such letters where they were ordered to change their dress code. Most of the doctors now wear only traditional shalwar kameez along with a white skullcap. Some of the docs have gone to the extent of growing beard. The same order was issued to the employees of a private insurance company as well as to the medical representatives. One of the medical reps. was beaten in a broad daylight in the busy area of Dabgari Garden (where medical centers as well as private clinics are in abundance)… he was brutally hit with the rifle butt and was left unconscious and bleeding on the road. Before leaving the terrorists stuck a note in his pocket which said that it was a warning for all and sundry. They (the Taliban) shouldn’t be taken lightly or else they’d repent.

3 – 4 years ago the music and CD shops would receive the same threats so gradually the owners started shutting their business. 3 years back I (like most of people) used to rent CDs and DVDs. One day I walked into a local CD shop for renting a movie, the whole shop presented a deserted look. I looked around, bewitched, the owner told me he switched his business to selling cell phone and calling cards and mobile phone accessories. I never stepped back into that shop again.

The same sort of letters were sent to the administration of various girls’ schools located in Peshawar University a few months back. The police, however, after brief investigation ruled them out as fake threats.

Bomb hoax in school is not a new phenomena. During my school days I remember as many as three different incidents when our principal received a crank call, we all would be filed out of the classrooms and sent to the huge playing ground. Then the mali, watchman and others would search the whole school. At times one or two constables could also be seen searching the various blocks and lawns. But those were different times. Back in 90s no school was ever bombed the way they are now destroyed.

My question is how much truth is there in those threats? We have seen such threats are usually followed by a violent incident. That opens the eyes of the poor, helpless people and then they realize it wasn’t a jest after all.

In their recent letter Taliban stated that they’ve concrete determination to purge the society from all evils. No one would be allowed to have illicit relationship. Those who play loud music in the cars would be dealt with severely and that they’d soon unleash a blood revolution in the whole society and victory would be theirs.

Quite ambitious huh! I don’t know whether the sender of those letters are genuine Taliban. I don’t know whether they’d be able to bring revolution but I know one thing for sure that they are the wildest lot and they sure have won the psychological warfare (always the first step) by instilling fear in the minds of ordinary people. The people have been left with no choice but to follow their directives and such hapless situation arises only when you have a corrupt system in the country.

He says:

Democracy is the system of infidels and all those who participate in it are infidels. [He once took part in elections. What would he call himself?]

Women should not be allowed to go outside their homes except for Hajj. [Women are women not prisoners...]

Women aren’t allowed to seek education. [That's the extreme of his jahalat]

Iran and Saudi Arabia don’t have Shari’ah in real sense. [So this means these countries are also evil in his view]

Jihad in Kashmir isn’t mandatory. [My take: I don't call it jihad at all...]

The government can’t appoint Qazis for Darul Qaza. [He wants to retain this right]

It’s sin to take photos of human beings or make video footage. [What a lout man!]

This man has lost it totally. He shouldn’t have been released from the prison. Not only he’s getting out of control but Taliban too don’t seem to listen to him. I n my view, both are the same sides of the coin anyway.

We should learn that Taliban will never:

1. Disarm
2. Be able to provide justice to ordinary people for they are so corrupt themselves
3. Accept girls’ right of education.
4. Limit their role. They want to rule.
5. Adopt a moderate path. They are extremists and will always remain so.

These are hard times and we are indeed dealing with a serious evil. The latest I read is that Sufi has distanced himself from the peace talks.

The sky is covered with thick, dark clouds. The cool and fresh wind is blowing that touches the soul creating that inner happiness, difficult to explain in words and it’s drizzling too. The weather is awesome and the day is beautiful but not everything is right. The merchants of darkness have plunged us into darkness once again. We stay without power for hours these days. Read it yourself:

Friday, March 20, 2009
Urmar power pylon blown up

Bureau report

PESHAWAR: Unknown miscreants Thursday blew up a 500-kilowatt power pylon in Urmar area, a suburban village in the environs of the provincial capital. Talking to media, spokesman for Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) said that perpetrators exploded the power tower in Urmar area by placing explosives at the four sides of the tower, which went off at around 5:00am. The blast disrupted power supply from 500-KV Peshawar-Tarbela Line and electricity supply to the city, cantonment and other parts of the provincial metropolis for more than eight hours. He said that the electricity supply was restored from alternative sources. However, he added, the tower repair would take at least five days.

Picture: The News

15th March 2008 (Sunday) Lahore

Photo courtesy: Yahoo

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Swat, led by Mullah Fazlullah, has grown into a meance that now seems beyond control. 

Yesterday, the newspaper report said that the Taliban in Swat have issued a list of 47 wanted people, most of them are former or present federal and provincial ministers. They’ve ordered them to appear in their court.

The Taliban in Swat have gained strong control as people from those areas say that they have established checkpoints next to the security forces’ checkposts and no one dare to question them.

The people are subjected to listen to the FM channel of Mullah Fazlullah and every person must have a radio set at home. TV isn’t allowed as from 2004 onwards I have been reading in the papers that local residents, being brainwashed, collectively burn their television sets in Matta and Dir areas. 

No one can talk against the Taliban because if they did then they’ve to pay price with their blood. The Taliban don’t even hesitate to kill the women and throw their bodies on the road. Bombing and torching schools (even the boys’ school) or the houses of their opponents are a common act. So are the slaughtering and defacing the dead.

From what we read in the papers and especially hear from the residents of those areas it seems that the security forces have totally failed to nab them. Although people loathe the Taliban but due to fear no one can say anything. 

Swat would be called the Switzerland of Asia. It’s worse than hell now!

I saw that man on TV walking the burning coal. That was weird and insane.

Age of madness

Tuesday, December 23, 2008
It quite often seems that, as a nation, we seem determined to climb backwards into the Dark Ages, leaving behind what progress has come our way since then. There are many examples of such madness. In a gruesome rite enacted recently in Dera Murad Jamali, a man was made to walk over burning coals to prove his innocence in a criminal matter. Such incidents have taken place elsewhere too. In Swat, militants hung out the body of a local ‘Pir’ who had died in a gun-battle against them after digging it out of the grave. In Orakzai Agency the local Taliban have imposed their idea of ‘Shariah’ and warned men not to allow women to move out of their homes. Other stories that reflect a mindset that is just as medieval continue to come in. Even within our cities, where ‘honour’ killings are not unknown, such mindsets seem to prevail.

The problem is tied in to the failure to educate people. Fifty per cent or more of the population remains illiterate. The quality of education imparted even to those fortunate enough to attend a school is often so poor that the learning is meaningless. Lack of development pins people to lives that have not changed in centuries. There are issues to that go beyond this. The lack of access to justice results in people taking matters into their own hands. The ‘jirga’ judgments that come in periodically are one example of this. The state seems to be absent from the lives of most people. Citizens cannot bank on it to meet even the moist basic needs. This appears to be another factor behind the descent into anarchy we see everywhere. The trend must be stopped. Our leaders must realize the dangers of allowing such madness to continue. If it is permitted to grow it could engulf all of us and the aspects of life that still place us among ‘civilised’ societies.

Age of Madness

Schools under attack

Wednesday, December 24, 2008
The militants have once more demonstrated that the city of Peshawar is no longer safe. Incidents over the past few months have made it obvious the writ of state has vanished from the city. A spate of kidnappings, murders and attacks on shops selling CDs or video tapes make this obvious. To drive the point home, a band of militants has now attacked three leading private schools, torching buses and attempting to demolish the gate of one with a grenade. The choice of schools – two of them institutes for boys – would suggest the motive was to create panic and target the elite, rather than to shut down schools for girls as has happened across NWFP. Threats to elite schools have been made before, in Lahore, Islamabad and other cities. Nothing can be more terrifying for parents, and indeed other citizens, than the notion that their children are unsafe even at school. All three of the schools picked out by the militants were elite institutions. Four members of the staff were injured at one of the schools, two of them critically, while attempting to prevent the band of some 15 armed militants from entering the premises.

The message to city authorities has been sent out loud and clear. The militants have once more demonstrated an ability to strike at will. Psychologically they have also picked a manner to do so which is most likely to create terror. Security at schools in Lahore was stepped up on Tuesday in response to the terrible incident in Peshawar. Mercifully, no pupil was injured. But there is no guarantee that other attacks will not follow this one. The only way to stop them is to begin an all-out offensive against terrorists of all kinds. Only by doing so can we eradicate the fear that today walks alongside every citizen and now enters school alongside the children who attend these institutions.

Schools Under Attack