A party getting popular among politicians

Delawar Jan
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) seems to have sustained the pace of its popularity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as prominent personalities and politicians continue to join it and people show their willingness in discussions to vote for it.

With each joining, the party is getting stronger. The Imran Khan-led PTI that had hardly any electable candidates in the province a year ago has now several politicians who have the prospect to win seats and more are expected to join it.

Though it gained approval among the people fed-up with the tested parties and national leaders over the last two years, the Lahore rally provided a big fillip for the party’s prospect of electoral victory. Even after more than two weeks of the rally, it not only remains the topic of discussion in public but also in politicians. The debate as to whether a rally can make a party big is ongoing.    

Iftikhar Khan Jhagra, a former provincial minister, joined the PTI which provided it a candidate who is capable of winning election. Having a checkered political career, Jhagra is confident of winning any seat—provincial assembly or National Assembly—in the coming elections.  He had won KP-9 in 2002 when MMA candidates defeated heavy weights of politics but lost by 210 votes in 2008.

Though he said the party would direct him whether to contest election on provincial assembly or National Assembly seat, he said he could either run polls on PK-9, NA-3 or NA-4. “A large number of people have already joined PTI here in Jhagra and others are approaching us to make public their affiliation with the PTI,” Iftikhar Jhagra said. At the time when he was talking to this scribe, he was at a corner meeting in Joganrai where residents joined his new party.

“Previously, only young people had the tendency to affiliate with PTI, but now senior citizens are also joining the party,” he added. Jhagra said that he would turn up a “great number of people” who would enter the party fold at the Nov 25 rally in Jhagra where Imran Khan would make an address.  

Former Intelligence Bureau Director General and PPP leader Masood Sharif Khattak, who comes from the southern Karak district, has also joined Imran Khan’s party.  He contested election in 2002 from NA-15 but lost to MMA Shah Abdul Aziz. The PTI lacked a base in the southern districts but with his joining, it gained a toehold in that region. He is a person who could be fielded by the PTI in Karak.

Yaseen Khalil, a former nazim of Town-III in Peshawar, has also joined the party. In his KP-5, the PTI workers are overconfident to win the seat irrespective of the candidate’s influence.

The party that was run lonely by Asad Qaiser and his team in KP and had none other than him and Imran Khan available to hold public meetings has now other politicians like Jhagra and Khalil who are organising gatherings, at least in and around Peshawar.

The party has issued a schedule of public rallies where politicians from other parties will be announcing their affiliation with it. Among them are ANP dissident MNA Khwaja Muhammad Hoti and PML-Q veteran leader Nisar Muhammad Khan who will be coming into the PTI fold.

Khwaja Hoti’s son, Omar Farooq Hoti, has already joined PTI. Reportedly, the former has been waiting to win a promise from Imran Khan to make him party’s KP chief. So far, the PTI has resisted his demand, as it runs the risk to disgruntle party activists who stood with Imran Khan through thick and thin.

He is expected to announce joining PTI on December 16 at a public meeting with Imran Khan. But an aide to Khwaja created doubts about his decision. “December 16 is many days away and the political landscape might have changed by then. Who knows he might join PML-N,” he said. Khwaja Hoti could not be reached for comment.

Nisar Muhammad Khan, a former federal minister, will host Imran Khan in Charsadda to announce his joining in Tehrik-e-Insaf.

On Thursday, squash hero Qamar Zaman, who was affiliated with PML-Q, joined the PTI. What the party described an important joining was of Salim Jan Khan, a close relative of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan.

“We welcome all those who are joining PTI and will give them due respect in the party,” said Asad Qaiser, chairman provincial working committee. “But the party activists and leaders who worked hard to lift the party to this level will enjoy importance,” he assured PTI workers.

On the border, a village that turns ghost

Delawar Jan

SHALTALO, Upper Dir: A frightening silence prevailed in this ghost village, only broken by fluttering of tree leaves caused by wind. Daily life activities were missing—no human was seen or their voice heard.

A tiny market of the village was closed and deserted. A rocky and dusty road to Shaltalo had hardly any vehicle running. The maize fields were unattended. Schools were closed, with a couple of them burned down, and children missing from educational institutions—even from streets.

It seemed as if people had never lived in the village. An old man with a can of spring water, walking up the desolate bazaar, gave a sign of life. 

“Residents have migrated to Samarbagh area of Lower Dir. The village is empty,” said the resident, Khan Zameen, 60. “Aged persons like me have stayed back at each home only to look after property,” he added.

Shaltalo village was overrun by alleged Afghan Taliban earlylast Wednesday, and they brutally killed 27 officials of police and Levies manning a post there, causing terror in the area.

A village nestled in forested mountains that are dotted by around 60 houses, villagers said it was only seven kilometres away from Afghanistan’s Kunar province. 

Noticeable sites in the village were the destroyed school-cum-post and a nearby mosque. A Pakistani flag still fluttered at the rubble-strewn post, but it no more served as a school or a post. Students or personnel of the security forces were no more its occupants.

Sandbag bunkers still existed but remained unmanned. A trench outside the post was abandoned while belongings of the Levies and police officials littered in the fields.

A nearby mosque was also a scene of horror and devastation. It no more served as mosque, as people have abandoned it. Quranic verses on the walls of the mosque were riddled with bullet marks.

The Imam who resisted militants has been gunned down in the attack and the mosque vandalised. In this holy building, residents said, the militants had shot dead three personnel who had taken shelter here. 

People said they had a hunch that something of this intensity could happen. They said residents begged all administration officials not to establish a post in the village as it could attract militants to attack it.

“We told them (officials) that we could not withstand Taliban and therefore don’t give them an excuse for attack. But nobody heeded to our demand,” the villagers said.

They said army had already collected weapons from them, rendering them almost unarmed against the militants.  

Recalling the attack, they said the Taliban had threatened them not to resist, saying they had come only to attack the “infidel security forces.” They said it was a day of horror, as they had seen bodies scattered all over.

Villagers said they rescued around six personnel by dodging the militants. “We impersonated them as shepherds by giving them cattle, children in their arms and women to lead them,” a resident, Muhammad Riaz, said.

Though Zameen said two families returned to a nearby Sunrai, a few residents, who came out after seeing journalists, said people were terrified and didn’t want to come back.

“There is still fear of another attack by Taliban,” a young Hameesh Gul said. Riaz said he came to the village to see his abandoned home.

“I would have gone had I not seen you people,” he said. One Said Nawab said the elders of the village had decided not to open the market. But Zameen said it was of no use to open market when the village was vacant.

A large number of security forces have been deployed in the area. One saw army soldiers patrolling roads and leaving for other border areas.

Officials said they had established writ over the area and were in full control now. “Such attacks, in the first place, will not recur but if they repeat it they will not go Scott-free,” an official said, requesting anonymity as he was not mandated to speak to media.

The officials said they had established “a number of posts” along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at “threatened areas.” They said the entire area had been searched and no militant was found. “It’s purged of militants,” one official said.

Despite Pakistan’s demand from the US and Nato to take action against alleged sanctuaries in Afghanistan and to stop militants’ infiltration into Pakistan, officials said they didn’t have support from Nato from across the border.

“They (Nato forces) are not interested in taking action against Afghan Taliban. Instead, they are abetting militants in carrying out attacks inside Pakistan,” one official believed.

In Shahikot, a town approximately four kilometres short of Shaltalo, armed villagers patrolled. Residents in Shaltalo said that around 150-200 members of a lashkar, or village militia, were manning positions in areas near the border to stave off Taliban attacks.  

Cross-border attacks: Pakistan moves military to border with Afghanistan

PESHAWAR: When loaded military trucks rumbled up the zigzag road to Upper Dir and Chitral, it marked the first major deployment of troops in these districts in the seven-year-long war against militants in Pakistan.

It appears that a significant number of troops are being deployed in the two districts that have largely remained peaceful in Malakand division, a mountainous region controlled and destroyed by Taliban militants over the last few years.

The deployment in Upper Dir and Chitral was precipitated by the deadly attacks staged by Afghanistan-based Pakistani militants. They have mounted cross-border attacks on border villages and posts in recent months killing several dozen security personnel and civilians.

The latest attacks were carried out in Arandu in Chitral in late August that killed 32 security personnel. Several posts were also destroyed in the attack. The troops are being deployed on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border that snakes along Upper Dir and Chitral districts to ward off cross-border attacks, officials and locals said.

Residents of Upper Dir reported that troops had taken positions on far-off mountain peaks near the border. The soldiers are heavily armed and well equipped. A district administration official said the soldiers were being sent to the border region. “They are busy building their positions in the border villages though a couple of police posts continue to exist in villages near the border,” he added.

People in Upper Dir and Chitral have expressed some reservations over the troops deployment. In Dir, they feared, it would provide militants targets for attacks and cause deterioration in law and order situation.

Residents of Upper Dir said they were surprised by the huge influx of troops in their district, which, they argue, had no known pockets of militants. People said they supported the deployment on the Durand Line border but opposed presence of security forces in towns and villages away from the border.

“Army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas in a statement yesterday said the troops were sent to guard the international border and not for conducting operations in the populated areas,” said Sahibzada Tariqullah, former district nazim of Upper Dir. “If that’s the intention, it’s good and we hail it,” he added.

Some reservations were also voiced by people in Chitral. “People say they don’t oppose deployment on the border but fear the military might launch action in ordinary places and search houses in areas located away from the border,” a journalist in Chitral said.

Former tehsil nazim of Chitral Sartaj Ahmad Khan said the Chitral Scouts was capable of handling the situation if properly equipped. He argued that the Chitral Scouts conducted operations in Bajaur and Swat and could do the same in Chitral. “We don’t oppose army deployment but we think it’s unnecessary,” he said.

An official source dispelled the impression that the military might launch action among the population living in towns or villages sitting away from the border. “They are being deployed on the border to prevent cross-border attacks. They will carry out activities together with the Frontier Corps and augment their positions,” he said.

The border along these districts has remained undefended for decades. Only recently, a few border posts were established that were manned by the policemen and Levies personnel. Manning of the post by the Levies personnel and the police officials, not trained for border security, drew flak from people and local political leaders when militants mowed them down in June, July and August.

They had demanded deployment of regular forces on the border. Though the strength of troops sent to the two districts remained unknown, an official said the appointment of a general officer commanding (GOC), a major general rank officer, was being considered for Dir and Chitral districts. “No, no. It’s untrue,” another official source strongly contradicted it.

Retaken in the 2009 military operations, Swat, Buner, Lower Dir and Shangla were the districts infested by militants who operated under the command of the now fugitive Maulana Fazlullah. The militant leader and his supporters fled to Afghanistan and built a terror network in Kunar and Nuristan provinces.

The fresh deployment on the border is against the Fazlullah-led militants. They cross over from Afghanistan, launch attacks and go back to their sanctuaries. The Pakistan government has several times taken up the issue of growing deadly attacks from across the border with Kabul and asked it to take action against the militants, but to no effect so far. Some analysts believe the militants have support from the US, Nato and Afghan forces.