• by Ashfaq Yusufzai (peshawar, pakistan)
• Thursday, October 01, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Widespread reports of extrajudicial killings of suspected Taliban by the military do not seem to have raised alarm bells among a people that have been deeply traumatized by the militant group's atrocities.

A number of residents of the Swat valley in the northeastern part of the South Asian nation — where the militant group had long held sway — have expressed support for the army, which has been held responsible for the mass killings of alleged members of the militant group.

'They deserve much harsher treatment,' said one of them.

Swat is the administrative district in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan that had been captured by the Taliban until the insurgents were annihilated by the Pakistan army in July.

'These militants have slaughtered at least 100 innocent people, including women. All the people they killed were true Muslims,' said Shah Ali Khan, a political leader in Swat. 'They deserve this tit-for-tat response.'

Other officials have echoed this sentiment.

'The militants don’t need any sympathy. They have destroyed 200 schools, 500 music shops, and had killed dozens of women for venturing out of their homes,' said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, a senior leader of the ruling Awami National Party in the NWFP and the Province's Information Minister. 'The people want the government to eliminate them anyway.'

A local Swat official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the beheading of a police official in Sangota, Mingora in the district of Swat, on July 28 was a clear example of how brutal the Taliban are. 'Due to their execution of a soldier, they are further inviting the wrath of the army,' he said.

Residents still vividly recall the gruesome videos of the Taliban circulated in Swat in April. One of these depicted the beheading of law enforcers before young recruits who were apparently being forced into submission by being shown these images. Other videos showed similarly horrifying acts, which are still fresh in the minds of the people.

Although the Taliban are no longer around to sow terror, and some of their leaders have been arrested or killed, fear still looms large over Swat.

'Taliban have now completely been eliminated from Swat. They are on the run. The people are also forming Lashkars (armed groups) to counter the Taliban,' Hussain told IPS.

The people have reason to fear, he said, adding that the Taliban have broken all records of atrocities during their one-year control of Swat.

Now that the dark days of Taliban reign are over, human rights advocates are training the spotlight on the government troops. The Pakistan army has come under scathing criticism for the merciless killings of suspected militants in the once Taliban-infested Swat valley.

'We have documented evidence of extrajudicial killings by the security forces in Swat. Not only videos and eyewitness accounts, but there are mass graves,' said Asma Jehangir, chairperson of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

Newspapers carry daily reports of bodies of alleged Taliban insurgents scattered in Swat or hanging from electricity posts.

In a telephone interview with IPS from Lahore, Jehangir said that a fact-finding mission of the HRCP dispatched in August to embattled Swat found a number of mass graves stuffed with dead bodies of the Taliban.

The HRCP’s three-day mission found at least one dead body in Kookarai village in Babozai tehsil of Swat district and another in an area between Dewlai and Shah Dheri in Kabal tehsil. Citing eyewitness accounts of dead bodies being dumped in the fields, the report said that in some cases, the bodies appeared to be those of Taliban militants. It added that 18 to 21 bullet-riddled bodies had been found in Swat during the past few weeks.

The HRCP has expressed grave concern over the 'worrying development' and over credible reports of numerous extrajudicial killings and reprisals being carried out by government security forces.

Army spokesperson Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas vehemently denied the allegations leveled against the security forces carrying out the operations in Swat and Malakand Division, which comprises the district.

But eyewitness accounts may be hard to dispute.

Between late August and early September, villagers found a total of 84 dead bodies of suspected Taliban members, including a known commander of the group. The army described them as victims of ‘revenge killings’ by civilians.

In mid-September, Sher Mohammad Qasab, one of 15 Taliban ‘commanders’ carrying a head money of 200,000 U.S. dollars, was captured in Swat and killed the next day.

The already long list of militants allegedly killed by the army is still expanding.

The international lobby group said ‘Taliban justice’ has been rightly condemned for its brutal and arbitrary nature and was crucial in helping turn the public opinion against the extremists.' It stressed, however, that military operations against terrorism must be distinguished from the atrocities committed by the Taliban.

'Treatment of individuals by government must aspire to a higher standard,' said HRCP’s Jehangir. 'Human rights violations by security forces can only be discouraged if the State puts in place a transparent mechanism to monitor violations both during and post-conflict (situations), and fulfills its obligation of providing justice through due process.'

Abbas concedes that 'indeed extrajudicial killings are a heinous crime and even the most barbarous of criminals deserve a fair trial.

'However, it is intriguing, that one did not hear even a squeak from the HRCP when the miscreants, who intimidated the lives of the people of Swat, challenged the writ of the state, forcibly took young men from every home to be enlisted as terrorists and suicide bombers, launched a reign of terror in the whole country,' the official was quoted as saying in an interview on television.

Many Taliban, along with members of the notorious Islamist group Al-Qaeda, came to Pakistan in 2001 when they were forced to flee Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, by the U.S.-led forces, which accused them of carrying out the Sep. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

Most of the Taliban crossed over to the Pakistan’s side of the 2,400-kilometre border, and took refuge in the sprawling Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA), where they continued attacking the Pakistan forces.

FATA lies between the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and is adjacent to the settled areas of NWFP. It is directly governed by the federal government although it is located close to the NWFP.

In 2007, Taliban spilled over to the NWFP, and began blowing up schools and commercial establishments, and barring women from schools and bazaars. In Apr. 2008, Swat — which is one of the NWFP’s 24 districts — had completely fallen into the hands of the Taliban.

During their reign, women found in public places unaccompanied by a close male relative were subjected to whipping as a punishment. The severe restrictions imposed on women during the Taliban regime were widely condemned around the world.

On May 21, the NWFP government signed an agreement with the Taliban seeking to implement Islamic law in Swat. However, the militants, instead of waiting for the government to put in place a new Islamic Sharia system, extended their barbaric acts to the nearby Buner district, prompting the National Assembly to order a decisive military operation in Swat.

About 3.5 million people displaced during the Taliban reign from Swat, Buner and the adjacent districts were asked to leave the 25 camps established by United Nations in Mardan, Peshawar, Swabi and Charsadda districts before the launch of the military operations on May 27.

On July 18, the army announced the end of their operations and instructed the people to return to their homes, signaling the end of Taliban rule.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service