In battered Malakand division, authority gradually transferred to civil administrations

Delawar Jan

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Army is working on gradual transfer of authority to civil administration in districts controlled and ravaged by Taliban militants in Malakand division but retaken in a major military offensive in 2009.

Pakistan’s efforts to stabilise Taliban’s previous bastions after their defeat and enable civil administration to take over charge are succeeding. Analysts believe clear, hold, build and transfer of authority to civil administration completes a successful counterinsurgency strategy. In most of the districts in Malakand division, according to officials, the government is working on the last phase: transfer of authority to local administration.

The military plans to hand over Malakand Agency, a district that was relatively less affected by militancy but held significance for being gateway to the highland Malakand division. “We may transfer authority to the civil administration in Malakand Agency by the end of this year,” said Col Arif Mehmood, spokesman for the military in the Malakand region.

It will become the third district where authority is transferred to the civil administration. Shangla and Buner districts, according to the official, had already been handed over to civil administration in April and May 2011.

Pakistan conducted massive military offensives in mid-2009 to quell Taliban insurgency in Swat, Buner, Shangla, Lower Dir, Malakand Agency. For two to three years, the army’s strategy focused on consolidating hold in the regained areas and preventing Taliban from staging a comeback, along with undertaking reconstruction of infrastructure and rehabilitation of affected people.

Nevertheless, many believe, the army’s victory would be determined by successful transfer of authority in Swat, the valley where militant commander Maulana Fazlullah was based and the area from where he directed Taliban franchises in surrounding districts. Three years after it conducted a massive offensive, the military still maintains a huge presence in the valley.

However, army is gradually reducing its footprints in Swat. On March 1 this year, it handed over responsibility of running affairs, including security, to the local administration in Bahrain and Kalam, two main towns and tourist destinations in the north of the valley.

Officials said the civil administration’s performance after reassuming charge in Bahrain-Kalam area was encouraging. “Civil machinery in Bahrain and Kalam is fully operating, looking after security and civic issues,” said Kamran Rehman, the district coordination officer of Swat.Gul Afzal, the district police chief in Swat, said affairs of the transferred areas were “totally” run by the civilians. He said the checkpoints on the road were administered by police.

Some think otherwise. Quwwat Khan in Kalam and Ihsanullah in Bahrain said army soldiers still manned checkpoints along with police officials, though other affairs were managed by the civil administration. This correspondent observed that at least 10 checkpoints operated from Mingora to Kalam just before Ramazan and the army was supervising all of them, including the one in the remote Matiltan area in Kalam.

However, military and civilian officials said the troops were there on request to assist local administration for the Kalam festival. “The security forces still conduct, with our permission, raids against terrorists. However, they don’t interfere in crimes related issues,” the DCO said of the army’s existing role.

Col Arif said the army soldiers in the area would act only on the call of the police as part of an effort to back up civil administration. The improvement in the situation has given the administration officials confidence and it showed willingness to take over charge of the entire Swat valley. “In consultation with the barmy, we are ready and capable of reassuming charge in Swat, including security, on a mutually-agreed future date,” said DCO Kamran Rehman. The district police chief also agrees but favours a gradual transfer of authority to the local setup.

According to the DCO, Swat has 3,200-plus police force, 17 police stations and a new Levies Force of 500 personnel which gives them confidence that they could better control the district. Swat largely remained peaceful since early 2010 but Maulana Fazlullah and his armed supporters are now increasingly menacing peace in the valley. Based in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, action against him men has become a catch-22 situation for Pakistan Army, making the threat this time more complicated.

On Friday, his group attacked hotelier Zahid Khan and severely injured him in the head. He is member of the anti-Taliban Swat Quami Jirga (SQJ) who fearlessly spoke against Maulana Fazlullah when he held sway in Swat. The incident troubled people, particularly other anti-militant voices.

“There is a gap between people and the army that could not be bridged during the last several years. Ideally we would want the authority transferred to the civil administration but the ground reality doesn’t suggest so,” said Ziauddin Yousafzai, who is spokesman for the SQJ.

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.