Please Bring the Old Swat Back!

My visit to Swat valley in the summer of 1999 is one of most cherished reminiscences of my childhood. I was just 12 years old when I took the trip with my parents from the scorching heat of Multan to the chilly hills of Swat Valley. We spent almost an entire week in the valley, and stayed at PTDC motels in Kalam and Malam Jabba Ski Resort. Although the weather and the young age did not allow me to enjoy the pleasures of skiing at the resort, catching a trout out from the ice cold water of Swat River was memorable fun. In fact, it was the only successful fishing experience of my life. When I look back to the Swat I visited a decade ago and the Swat of today, only a feeling of deep grievance takes me over.

Today Swat is the bolt hole of Taliban insurgency in Pakistan. It is like a state within a state. Few so called clerics, led by a 33 years old, Maulana Fazlullah, used FM radio to spread their influence and took over the state machinery. Fazlullah, also known as radio mullah, raised an army and formed a Taliban's Shura which implements his radical and politicized agenda in the valley. The situation is aggravating on day to day basis.

In November 2007, Pakistani security forces began its operation against the insurgents in Swat and by December they declared that the area has been cleaned by militants as they were on the run in the valley after the defeat. Soon after that the militants resurged and Swat was again in the hands of the Swati Talibans. The military operations against the militants has been continued since then with many halts in between. But the security forces operations represent a failure as the militant uprising is on its peak today.

The major victims of violent uprising of the Taliban's are the people of Swat. Swati people, consisting of Pashtun, Kohistani, Gujjar and Dardic ethnicities, are generally moderates. They used to send their daughters to school for education and mostly depended upon revenue from tourism industry for their livelihood. The Talibans destroyed the schools in the valley and stopped the parents from sending their daughters to the schools. Recently, the Shura issued the decree that women are not allowed to shop in the markets of the valley. Today, men buy all the stuff for the household as the Swati people have no other option than to obey the orders of the militants. People are now striped of their income as the businesses in the region are ruined with the destruction of the tourism industry.

Today, more and more people are adopting to obey the militant militants' so called government in the valley. "Most people in Swat are becoming regular listeners of the FM radio channel run by the Maulana Fazlullah-led Swati Taliban as they want to know about new threats or decrees issued by the militants," reported The News on January 5^th. Telling about why the Swatis are listening to the FM broadcast of the Taliban, a person qouted the following to The News anonymously , "to survive in Taliban-ruled Swat, we need to know about decisions being made by the Taliban Shura."

Along with Fazlullah, his student, Shah Duran is also using a nighttime broadcast on FM radio to spread the message of militant regime. He is known for using harsher language than Fazlullah when he speaks at the Radio. "On December 28, he claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing that killed 44 people, all civilians except two policemen and a government employee, at a polling station in Shalbandai village in Buner district. On another occasion, he proudly announced that Taliban had killed a female dancer, Shabana, in Mingora. Recently, he announced that anyone in Swat found using the new coins carrying Benazir Bhutto's image would be punished," reports Rahimullah Yusufzai for The News.

All these facts about Swat leave me in a bewildered state of mind filled with many unanswered questions. A person on FM radio is announcing that he was responsible for the murder of 44 people and the government is unable to catch him. Daily, in the evening, the terrorists go on air through FM radio and the government is unable to block their broadcast. The lives of the people of Swat is like an hell now and the government is issuing only statements.

I am also puzzled because I do not know what is the solution of this problem as military operations in the past have not worked out and the option of dialogue with the rogue militants seems to be impractical. But I want the people sitting in the corridors of power in the Capital to solve this issue.

I want to go back to the "Switzerland of Pakistan" again to refresh the cheerful trip of my childhood. I want the old Swat back.