Chitral now on the jihadi radar screen
By Philip Smucker
CHITRAL, Pakistan - Mountainous Chitral with its towering snow-capped peaks,
wild polo rivalries and unusual religious groupings looks, on the surface, like
an odd place for Islamic radicals to operate. A hike through forest and over
stream to the Afghan border, however, puts paid to any hint that Chitral has
remained immune to Pakistan's Talibanization.
Amid the glaciers and piles of goat dung, shepherds are happy to tell you how
anti-American insurgents from Afghanistan's Nuristan
province ply the remote mountain passes, resupplying for their fight and
dragooning new recruits in the valleys.
This
month, Pakistani soldiers intercepted four jihadis
who by all indications were on their way to lay
down mines for North Atlantic Treaty Organization
and US convoys in neighboring Afghanistan. The
men, remanded into police custody, were carrying
50 detonators, 10 kilograms of explosive powder,
13 batteries, 200
meters of electric wire, 35kg of white powder and one bundle of fuses -
about all you need to make a few dozen improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
An Afghan from Nuristan and three Pakistanis are under investigation and have
confessed to having undergone military training, according to official sources
in Chitral. In an indication that the arrests were an embarrassment for the
Pakistani government, however, the police official who first publicized the
arrests was reprimanded by superiors for being "out of line".
Usually off the jihadist radar screen, except for intermittent rumors of Osama
bin Laden's alleged hideout in the region, Chitral and its neighbor to the
south, Dir, are emerging as key staging grounds for jihadis fighting in the
neighboring Afghan provinces of Nuristan and Kunar.
These insurgent groups, while bolstered by foreign funding and logistical
support from al-Qaeda, are dominated by fighters loyal to America's nemesis
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, say both Afghan and Pakistani sources.
"They have weapons stocks that remain from the fight against the Russians, but
they are also buying up new weapons and have anti-aircraft guns," said a young
supporter of the militants, speaking on condition of anonymity near an open
bazaar in Chitral. "The Taliban is just a name; we prefer the name
'mujahideen', but most fighters are affiliated with [Hekmatyar's]
Hizb-i-Islami. They believe Allah is with them and that they are fighting for
freedom."
With little regard to his strong anti-Western sentiments, the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) helped build up Hekmatyar's militant organization and
political party during the Soviet era by funding him through Pakistani
intelligence circles. Maybe more so than bin Laden, whom Washington did not
fund, Hekmatyar's group is a prime example of what intelligence agents call
"blowback".
In Chitral and neighboring Dir, the increased militancy is ripping at the heart
of two regions that are technically outside of the country's troubled "tribal
belt". Both Chitral and Dir are classified as "settled areas" in North West
Frontier Province (NWFP) and have been a focus of the Pakistan government's
tourism promotion efforts this year.
It did not boost tourism last year when a US consular officer arrived in May to
open what was ostensibly to be a secret bin Laden monitoring post, but later
fled Chitral after radical religious groups demonstrated openly against his
presence in the streets.
The American, Paul Aurdic, explained to Chitral's police chief what he was on a
special mission to set up a "guesthouse" but refused to provide his name to the
police or - initially - to accept an offer of personal protection.
"The Americans are convinced that bin Laden is hiding up here in Pakistan, but
we think that is just an excuse for their failure to catch him in nearby
Nuristan," said a senior NWFP official. "I mean, how much of the taxpayers'
money have they already spent hunting this guy?"
Hekmatyar and his minions, who swore allegiance to al-Qaeda last year and made
dubious boasts about helping bin Laden escape into Pakistan after the battle of
Tora Bora in 2001, have, however, found safe haven in Chitral with like-minded
allies in the Jamaat-e-Islami Party (JEI), which renewed its bonds with
Hekmatyar after his forces were expelled from Iran in the wake of September 11,
2001.
The JEI is a national party with ties to rogue elements within Pakistan's
intelligence services. Indeed, in March 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was
apprehended in the home of a leading JEI official in Islamabad's military
suburb of Rawalpindi. In addition to strong national support within religious
circles, the JEI has ties to Saudi charities, and its "welfare" arm al-Khidmat
is a stepchild of Abdullah Azzam's own Mukhtab al-Khidmat organization set up
to facilitate Arab volunteer and jihadist operations in Afghanistan against the
Russians.
The Khidmat Foundation, a strong contributor to Pakistan's earthquake-relief
operations in the past two years, recently proposed setting up a diagnostic
unit in Chitral's main state-run hospital, a move that has been opposed by many
moderate Chitralis. But the foundation has succeeded in spreading its tentacles
across Chitral, paying particular attention (not surprisingly) to operations
along the Afghan border.
The International Crisis Group in a report last year warned that radical
charities like al-Khidmat operating across Pakistan provide a "convenient
recruiting base for militant activities".
In the southwestern Chitrali village of Bumboret, al-Khidmat operates a clinic
and heath-care program that competes with services offered to the indigenous
Kalasha community. It caters to thousands of Afghan refugees from Nuristan who
arrived in the valleys occupied by the Kalash, a small polytheistic religious
grouping that speaks a unique language and claims genetic ties to the armies of
Alexander the Great.
Many of the Afghan refugees from the war against the Soviets are now hosting
dissidents, militants and refugees from the most recent war in Afghanistan, say
residents. This atmosphere of transient persons provides an ideal base for
jihadist operations, say residents.
Far more threatening, however, than the refugees themselves, who speak a
similar language and share some cultural ties to the Kalash, is a radical and
expanding madrassa culture that is spreading hate and fear across the
region. In the Kalash areas alone, 15 new Koranic schools have sprung up,
according to leaders.
While the Islamabad government has promised to preserve Chitral as a model of
religious and ethnic tolerance, radical - often Salafist and Wahhabi-funded
schools - are making rapid inroads in the remote valleys of the region.
"We have already seen what little has happened in the last several years of
President [General Pervez] Musharraf's rule to stop these groups," said Dr
Fazal Marwat, a professor at the Pakistan Study Center of Peshawar University.
"If he cannot even implement minimal madrassa reform, what can be
expected to stop further radicalization?"
Officials in Chitral said they closed down several radical madrassas recently,
though, they admit, many more remain active.
Marwat said Chitral can expect further radicalization unless and until the root
causes of the militancy are addressed. "For young men, groomed in madrassas
in which they were presented with the virtues of jihad not only against the
Russians, but against all Kafirs, Jews and Christians, they cannot be expected
to differentiate between Russians and Americans."
Leaders of Chitral's more moderate ethnic and religious groupings, including
the Ismailis, who make up 35% of the 390,000-strong population, fear that
radical madrassas - well endowed with ideology and funds - are in a
position to radicalize the region further and siphon off the young generation.
"A lot in our religion are leaving to join madrassas because of what
they are being offered," said Lakshan Bibi, a female commercial pilot who runs
a non-governmental organization that supports the indigenous Kalash. "The young
generation feels they are getting something from the madrassas. They get
help for schooling and medicine when they are sick. They also get brainwashed
and learn how to hate and fight."
Philip Smucker is a commentator and journalist based in South Asia and
the Middle East. He is the author of Al-Qaeda's Great Escape: The
Military and the Media on Terror's Trail (2004).
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meters of electric wire, 35kg of white powder and one bundle of fuses -
about all you need to make a few dozen improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
