I agree with most of what you write. But Pashtuns are not an innocent people either. They too carried out acts of aggression, violence and plunder (also in the name of religion and god) againt non-pashtuns, especially against hindus, and they were (and are) quite proud of it.

This bitter history is not to be used for settling scores (if that is what pashtunwali has been reduced to unfortunately) but to learn and admit one,s own (or ancestors,) sins, crimes and mistakes.

What do you think a hindu feels like when he sees Pashtuns glorifying Ahmed Shah Abdali or when he sees Pakistanis glorifying Mohammad bin Kasim, Mahmuds of Ghazni and Ghori, Aurangzeb, Tipu etc.? He feels insulted and provoked. “My ancestors were all honourable people, and my people today are all innocent” – that attitude is wrong. Putting the blame on Jalandar, Delhi, Bareilly, Virginia alone is unfair. This attitude of “I am the only innocent party and all others are the rogues” will not bring us further.

It has become the general attitude among muslims to consider muslims as the innocent noble guys and the non-muslims as the scoundrels. This attitude is damaging to peace, truth, justice and friendship.

The maltreatment and slander which Pakistan heaped upon Abdul Gaffar Khan (also called Frontier Gandhi) – the person who could have led the pashtuns, Pakistan and Afghanistan to a modern peaceful enlightened way of life – is taking its bitter revenge on Pakistan. That is the law of karma.

More information regarding the Swat deal between the government and the Taliban has come to light. It now appears that the Taliban were bought off by the government for a sum ranging between $6 and $10 million. What was essentially a bribe was labelled as compensation for losses and damage suffered during the fighting. On the other hand the destruction, executions, rape and pillage wrought by the insurgents have been condoned; so too the continuing abductions of district officials and military personnel. It seems that if the insurgents wish to talk to an official, the latter has no option but to either present himself or be abducted. Even military patrols have to obtain the prior clearance of the Taliban before setting out. No where else in the world does a national army have to obtain the permission of outlaws to patrol their own territory.

Similarly the mores of the inhabitants of Swat will now be vetted by the Taliban. Those, especially women, who do not conform to the Taliban’s obscurantist version of Islam will be punished and, if they survive, banished. No doubt soon, if not already, we will learn that as in Kabul under Taliban rule women will be banned from washing clothes on the river banks; or have their clothes tailored by men; or use make up or nail varnish; or laugh or speak loudly lest they “excite” men. All of which goes to show that in the search for peace and quiet the government has sacrificed justice and the rights of half the population of Pakistan contained in the Constitution…..

Click to read in full.

It seems history has dealt a very bad hand to the Pashtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Never in their history they have been so humiliated and disenfranchised as now. It is not the first time that their Pashtunwali code and their love for Islam has been exploited by outsiders. Let us name a few sponsors of Jihad in the Pashtun belt:

Syed Ahmed of Bareilly, India.
Gen Zia ul Haq of Jullundur, East Punjab, India.
CIA from Langley, Virginia ,USA.
Gen Musharraf of Delhi, India.
Osama Bin Laden of Saudi Arabia.
Pakistani Establishment, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Their Pashtun land is being used to fight forward defensive wars by Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, USA but most callously by the Pakistani establishment in Islamabad. Their subsistence level economy has been turned into a war and drug economy bringing money and power to the warlords on both side of the Durrand line. The Pashtuns have never had the trappings of a modern life only their dignity and now they are being dishonoured because of the little “Great Games“. Millions have died since 1979.

Somehow the Pashtuns are under the illusion that the Pakistani establishment is going to come to their rescue from these Salafi/Wahabi murderers not realising that the same establishment wishes to prolong their agony as much as possible so that a few more dollars can be milked out of the USA. The Pakistani establishment has misused their land ,their poverty and their love for Islam to gain strategic depth against India ostensibly to resolve the Kashmir issue on their terms.

One can only pray for the Kashmiris. Why would the Kashmiri want their womenfolk to be enslaved by the Deobandi /Wahabi Islam of Pakistan. Why would they care to join Islamabad that believes and thrives only on a war economy. Why would they join a state that perpetuates ignorance by letting the mullahs open up 15000 madressahs. A state that has abdicated from its responsibility for educating its young. Why would the Kashmiris join an intellectually corrupt and confused state that perpetuates a notion of a garrisoned Islam , a uniformed Islam. A country where one can be killed because one is a non believer in their version of Islam.

The Pashtun “ Common Defence against Invaders” has been the centuries’ old Pashtunwali code now much maligned by the Pakistani establishment. They call the FATA a lawless region to please their masters in Washington not realising that by doing so they implicate themselves. FATA is not a “Lawless’ region but has its own laws quite different from the poorly administered quasi Anglo-Saxon Law of Pakistan. A law that perpetuates the colonial legacy of control rather than empowerment of its population. The Pashtuns never agreed to the laws of the super British empire than why should they succumb to its poor and corrupt Pakistani version now.

The Pashtuns erroneously believe that Pakistani establishment is against these Deobandi/ Wahabi terrorists, not realising that these very terrorist are a big and a perpetual source of income for Pakistan and the ordinary Pashtuns are just cannon fodder. The state of Pakistan is irrelevant to them even in the best of times.

It is high time for the Pashtuns to call this bluff. The 1.5 billion dollar Biden-Lugar bill for which the Pakistani establishment is salivating will prolong this war for another 10 years. Pashtuns will remain refugees in their own country. The Mantra of three ‘Ds’ is so much Bull. The money will be siphoned off by the hordes of politicians, bureaucrats and generals. US aid to Pakistan is not worth even on a single Pashtuns life.

A comprehensive commentary on sad and shameful capitulation in Swat. Touting it as peace treaty by the concerned government officials is a conscious effort to lull the populace and transport it into a make-belief world. In fact they have been brow beaten into submission by a handful of self righteous, pseudo religious ruffians.

Regards.

P. Alam

“The loss of Swat is not the end of it. It is just another battle lost by us. This battle, and the many more to come, can only be won with more liberties, more freedom and more rights. And a state with a will to protect these at all costs. That’s the real battlefront of this war against terror and extremism.”

Click to read the full article.

These illiterate Mullahs think the Islam as followed 1400 years ago should be replicated as this is what has been decreed by the Alimighty. Another way is unacceptable. They have picked on those verses from the Qoran which can be interpreted as they want them to be understood by the people so that they can be suppressed and kept under their rule & thumb.

People have to understand that we are not the illiterate, ignorant and savage Bedouins that lived 1400 years ago. We do not need the same doctrine and treatment as they needed in order to be reformed. Religion has always been used to subjugate and exploit and in a feudal society like Pakistan it is very useful to perpetuate their rule. This axis of evil needs to be rooted out.

Dari