.Afghan conflict incites Pakistani border town
Known as the headquarters of the Taliban, Quetta's streets throb with anger at Kabul and Islamabad
GRAEME SMITH
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
QUETTA, PAKISTAN — The war in Afghanistan colours everything in Quetta. Just across the border from the battlefields of Kandahar, over the mountains into Pakistan, down in the ramshackle suburbs of this frontier city, the bloody conflict plays out more like an election campaign than a war.
Drab urban blocks are festooned with bright flags of the two sides: Those who want to destroy the Afghan government and those who favour protecting it. Black and white stripes mark the homes, vehicles, and even children's kites of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a political party that openly supports the Taliban insurgency.
Not far away, spray-painted on a rock or worn proudly on a baseball cap, the red, white and green colours of Pashtoonkhwa indicate the supporters of Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's President.
Those two symbols dominate the landscape in Quetta more than any other visual cues, overwhelming the clutter of mobile phone billboards and advertisements for gun stores.
If it seems strange to a visitor that the biggest debate in a Pakistani city could be over the future of the government in a neighbouring country, it's entirely natural for the residents of a city that acknowledges itself as the Taliban's headquarters.
"Our society has been hijacked," said Douran Khan, 25, a geology student at a local university, sipping tea after classes. "The mullahs have imposed their war on us." On a recent afternoon, Mr. Khan joined hundreds of other Pashtuns as they gathered on the outskirts of the city for a rally against the war. The cars, motorcycles and intricately painted trucks made a boisterous parade along the highway, honking and flying the flags of Pashtoonkhwa.
Officially known as the Pashtoonkhwa Millat Awami Party, the left-wing nationalist party draws support from the Pashtun ethnic group that dominates southern Afghanistan and the tribal belt of Pakistan's northern Balochistan.
Pashtun nationalists agitate on behalf of a group that feels marginalized by Pakistan's government and business elites, which are dominated by Punjabis from the country's northeast. Those same angry Pashtuns, their numbers swollen by the millions of Afghan refugees, fill the ranks of the Taliban supporters and, as they filter back and forth across the border, the insurgency itself.
The difference between the Taliban supporters and the Pashtun nationalists is that the latter's anger is directed at Islamabad, calling for either a Pashtun homeland inside Pakistan or recognition of Kabul's historical claim that Quetta as well as other territory belongs to Afghanistan.
Given their anti-government stand, Pashtoonkhwa leaders say, it's not surprising that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency quietly supports their rivals.
"They are saying Islam is fighting against America [in Afghanistan]," said Usman Khan Kakar, Pashtoonkhwa's provincial secretary, his voice rasping over cheap loudspeakers. "This is a lie. This is not the real fight. This is a fight between the Punjab and Kabul." His audience sat on a vast dusty field, listening in respectful silence.
"The ISI has started a war in Afghanistan," Mr. Kakar said.
Although the Pashtoonkhwa calls for peace in Afghanistan, the party is not pacifist. Like the Baloch separatists whose rebelliousness makes this province one of the most unstable corners of Pakistan, the Pashtun nationalists call for resistance against the government of President Pervez Musharraf.
"We will fight the Punjabis," Mr. Kakar said, to applause. "This is the duty of every Muslim."
For now, Pashtoonkhwa is losing the fight. The party remains in opposition, while its nemesis, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, is a member of the ruling coalition in Balochistan.
Maulvi Noor Mohammed, an open supporter of the Taliban and a senior leader of the JUI in Quetta, says that he cannot keep track of how many madrassas, or religious schools, his organization runs. The number has grown into the thousands, he said, with at least 400 to 500 around the city of Quetta itself.
"There is no data, because we are building more every day," Mr. Mohammed said.
The white-bearded leader denied that his party, or the Taliban, are helped by Pakistani authorities. Just the opposite, he said: Recent arrests of Taliban prove that Pakistan has turned against the insurgents. (Critics say these arrests are staged roundups of ordinary Pashtuns.) When asked to name Taliban leaders captured in Pakistan, Mr. Mohammed said he could not give any examples. Instead, he lashed out at the Pashtoonkhwa, saying the party makes baseless accusations.
"Pashtoonkhwa and others are opposing the Taliban and the religious parties," Mr. Mohammed said. "They are supporting the Americans, so they blame us, or the ISI, saying we support the war in Afghanistan.
But they don't have any proof. They can't prove the JUI or the ISI is involved in the jihad."
But Mr. Mohammed didn't bother to hide his sympathy for the insurgents. A few metres behind the cushion where he sat, one of his followers had painted a U.S. flag on a parking area, so the JUI party faithful could drive over the stars and stripes as they parked their motorbikes. A young JUI member, seeing a journalist's camera, rushed to pull out a another crudely painted U.S. flag and demonstrate how it could be used as a shoe mat. In case the point hadn't been understood, he crouched down and pretended to burn the flag with a pocket lighter.
"All of these young men are mujahedeen," Mr. Mohammed said, using a word increasingly popular among the insurgents, who view themselves as holy warriors of the kind who defeated the Russians two decades ago.
"They are fighting for their homeland against the Americans, against the American policy. The U.S. came here to capture countries and impose policies on Muslims.
"But the Muslims aren't willing to accept this," he continued. "They want to push back, by force, as is happening now in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan."
Globe and Mail
GRAEME SMITH
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
QUETTA, PAKISTAN — The war in Afghanistan colours everything in Quetta. Just across the border from the battlefields of Kandahar, over the mountains into Pakistan, down in the ramshackle suburbs of this frontier city, the bloody conflict plays out more like an election campaign than a war.
Drab urban blocks are festooned with bright flags of the two sides: Those who want to destroy the Afghan government and those who favour protecting it. Black and white stripes mark the homes, vehicles, and even children's kites of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a political party that openly supports the Taliban insurgency.
Not far away, spray-painted on a rock or worn proudly on a baseball cap, the red, white and green colours of Pashtoonkhwa indicate the supporters of Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's President.
Those two symbols dominate the landscape in Quetta more than any other visual cues, overwhelming the clutter of mobile phone billboards and advertisements for gun stores.
If it seems strange to a visitor that the biggest debate in a Pakistani city could be over the future of the government in a neighbouring country, it's entirely natural for the residents of a city that acknowledges itself as the Taliban's headquarters.
"Our society has been hijacked," said Douran Khan, 25, a geology student at a local university, sipping tea after classes. "The mullahs have imposed their war on us." On a recent afternoon, Mr. Khan joined hundreds of other Pashtuns as they gathered on the outskirts of the city for a rally against the war. The cars, motorcycles and intricately painted trucks made a boisterous parade along the highway, honking and flying the flags of Pashtoonkhwa.
Officially known as the Pashtoonkhwa Millat Awami Party, the left-wing nationalist party draws support from the Pashtun ethnic group that dominates southern Afghanistan and the tribal belt of Pakistan's northern Balochistan.
Pashtun nationalists agitate on behalf of a group that feels marginalized by Pakistan's government and business elites, which are dominated by Punjabis from the country's northeast. Those same angry Pashtuns, their numbers swollen by the millions of Afghan refugees, fill the ranks of the Taliban supporters and, as they filter back and forth across the border, the insurgency itself.
The difference between the Taliban supporters and the Pashtun nationalists is that the latter's anger is directed at Islamabad, calling for either a Pashtun homeland inside Pakistan or recognition of Kabul's historical claim that Quetta as well as other territory belongs to Afghanistan.
Given their anti-government stand, Pashtoonkhwa leaders say, it's not surprising that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency quietly supports their rivals.
"They are saying Islam is fighting against America [in Afghanistan]," said Usman Khan Kakar, Pashtoonkhwa's provincial secretary, his voice rasping over cheap loudspeakers. "This is a lie. This is not the real fight. This is a fight between the Punjab and Kabul." His audience sat on a vast dusty field, listening in respectful silence.
"The ISI has started a war in Afghanistan," Mr. Kakar said.
Although the Pashtoonkhwa calls for peace in Afghanistan, the party is not pacifist. Like the Baloch separatists whose rebelliousness makes this province one of the most unstable corners of Pakistan, the Pashtun nationalists call for resistance against the government of President Pervez Musharraf.
"We will fight the Punjabis," Mr. Kakar said, to applause. "This is the duty of every Muslim."
For now, Pashtoonkhwa is losing the fight. The party remains in opposition, while its nemesis, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, is a member of the ruling coalition in Balochistan.
Maulvi Noor Mohammed, an open supporter of the Taliban and a senior leader of the JUI in Quetta, says that he cannot keep track of how many madrassas, or religious schools, his organization runs. The number has grown into the thousands, he said, with at least 400 to 500 around the city of Quetta itself.
"There is no data, because we are building more every day," Mr. Mohammed said.
The white-bearded leader denied that his party, or the Taliban, are helped by Pakistani authorities. Just the opposite, he said: Recent arrests of Taliban prove that Pakistan has turned against the insurgents. (Critics say these arrests are staged roundups of ordinary Pashtuns.) When asked to name Taliban leaders captured in Pakistan, Mr. Mohammed said he could not give any examples. Instead, he lashed out at the Pashtoonkhwa, saying the party makes baseless accusations.
"Pashtoonkhwa and others are opposing the Taliban and the religious parties," Mr. Mohammed said. "They are supporting the Americans, so they blame us, or the ISI, saying we support the war in Afghanistan.
But they don't have any proof. They can't prove the JUI or the ISI is involved in the jihad."
But Mr. Mohammed didn't bother to hide his sympathy for the insurgents. A few metres behind the cushion where he sat, one of his followers had painted a U.S. flag on a parking area, so the JUI party faithful could drive over the stars and stripes as they parked their motorbikes. A young JUI member, seeing a journalist's camera, rushed to pull out a another crudely painted U.S. flag and demonstrate how it could be used as a shoe mat. In case the point hadn't been understood, he crouched down and pretended to burn the flag with a pocket lighter.
"All of these young men are mujahedeen," Mr. Mohammed said, using a word increasingly popular among the insurgents, who view themselves as holy warriors of the kind who defeated the Russians two decades ago.
"They are fighting for their homeland against the Americans, against the American policy. The U.S. came here to capture countries and impose policies on Muslims.
"But the Muslims aren't willing to accept this," he continued. "They want to push back, by force, as is happening now in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan."
Globe and Mail
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