News of atrocities against “sinners” is reported
from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP)
every day. The suicide bombers’ murderous attacks
or remote controlled bombings are attributed to
Islamic extremists groups, particularly the
Taliban. The targets are usually music shops, net
cafes or military-related. Girls’ schools are
also targeted, but music-related shops are
favourites.

What makes Islamic extremists, particularly the
Taliban, a formidable force is their supposed
piety and extra-austere life, despite the use of
modern weapons, transport etc is common. The
austerity part needs investigation and no first
hand knowledge of it is available. Their leaders
live well. However, facts are less important than
perception and the perceptions of their piety are
common.

Propensity to like the Taliban is widespread
throughout Pakistan. It has to do with psychology
and cultural prepossessions of Muslims. Idea of
living piously like the early Middle Ages Arab
Muslims fascinates the subcontinent’s Muslims.
This is one strand but not the only one. Most
religious elements therefore demand Muslims must
live in accordance with Shariat; this has a wide
appeal, despite Shariat being uncodified or
commonly agreed. The Shariat mostly means a
system of quick justice that was traditional in
Arabia that Islam generally adopted, involving
cutting off a thief’s hand or inflicting 100
lashes or stoning to death on an adulterer.
Things like that.

In Pakistan, Gen Ziaul Haq in the 80’s instituted
four Shariat laws. They resulted in many women
being punished for being raped while rapists went
scot-free. The reason was that Islamic evidence
law requires four adult male witnesses of good
repute for conviction. Who will rape a woman in
the presence of four adult males? The result was
raped women became guilty of adultery by their
very complaint.

There was a case of an insane woman having been
raped and who served a long term for adultery,
leading to continuing howls by civil society.
Such anomalies abound. Propensity to love the
pious is but one among many: Sufistic tradition
of love and forgiveness is strong even in these
areas. The fact is that a semi-dormant strand has
become hyper-active because of developments in
Afghanistan, Middle East and even in Pakistan:
perception in the west is waging wars against
Muslims, arousing xenophobic sentiments and anger.

A climate of opinion has developed against
aggressive imperialists for being intent on
destroying Muslims. Resistance to them makes the
Taliban and other Islamic militants popular.
America’s imperial invasion of Iraq and
Afghanistan has made it all too plausible. This
psychology needs study for making counter
measures appropriate and adequate.

Islamic militants are waging a regular
insurgency, with initiative clearly in their
hands. They select targets for ambushes or remote
control bombings at precise moments when a
military convoy passes by. They receive excellent
intelligence of the military’s or paramilitary’s
movements and time the attacks accurately.
Intelligence they get is frequently better than
Pakistan security forces’. They are using what
are essentially guerilla techniques: attack here
and disappear. They are doing that in Afghanistan
to telling effect and are repeating it in Swat
and other areas.

Where do the Taliban or other militants
disappear? They go away to places where their
protectors are: institutions, madressas, mosques
or simple relatives’ houses. The point is they
have plenty of supporters, ready to protect them
from state intelligence.

US President George Bush is leading the fight
against Islamic terrorism in Pakistan, with
Musharraf cooperating. But his is a military
approach: go and kill. But go after who? By the
time soldiers or paramilitaries reach them they
have disappeared or have made themselves
unidentifiable amidst the local population. There
is no way of identifying them.

A whole area or a village does get punished in
accordance with colonial tradition. But this
means civilian casualties that make people angry
and support militants. The Taliban accuse
Pakistan’s forces are underlings of Americans,
fighting America’s war. If war is politics with
weapons, a military approach creates more enemies
than those killed. What is needed is to counter
the ideas motivating Taliban and the like.

The word “countering” is misleading. The need is
for flooding of the region with new political,
social, cultural ideas and politics. These areas
need to be opened up. The ancient Frontier Crimes
Regulation, the Bible left by the colonial
masters that Pak army and bureaucracy revere,
needs to be buried. Let normal Pakistan laws be
applied to all tribal areas in NWFP and
Balochistan. Why treat them separately?

These areas’ supposed independence militates
against Pakistan sovereignty. They are not really
independent nor were they ever. The British kept
them in a state of semi-independence so as to
create a buffer of sorts between India and
Afghanistan. The times have changed. These people
need being integrated into a relatively more
modern Pakistan.

Flooding these areas with new ideas means letting
all political parties come in and propagate their
ideas and programmes. Greater intercourse with
other parts of Pakistan is also needed. Let their
children study in all parts of Pakistan and other
Pakistanis should visit these areas. Then there
has to be more economic development to provide at
least such amenities as many Pakistanis enjoy
like piped clean water, pucca houses, a more
humane dispensation of justice and of course more
education and healthcare.

Tribals need democracy here and now. It is learnt
by practicising it; democracy is not a
theoretical course to be learnt in schools.
Ideological support to insurgents originates in
NWFP’s religious political parties that run
thousands of madrassas. Not until these areas are
impacted by new ideas and parties, mere killing
of militants with helicopter gunships and
artillery is not the answer. True, the military
has to defend itself. But the riposte must not
inflict excessive collateral damage. The solution
lies in political, social and cultural measures
to dilute and balance the ideas of the Taliban.