Asia Times: Pakistani fighters face government's wrath


	December 13, 2001	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Pakistani fighters face government's wrath
By Nadeem Yaqub

PESHAWAR - Thousands of Pakistanis who answered the call to fight a holy war in Afghanistan are still missing in the country, while those who return face the ire of their government.

At least 8,000 to 10,000 tribesmen crossed into Afghanistan to fight against US forces. Pakistani authorities say that they went without government permission, using unmonitored mountain tracks. Now the government says that it will arrest and initiate legal proceedings against all of its nationals who crossed into Afghanistan to fight.

The hard-line Islamic group Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Mohammedi (TNSM), which mobilized tribesmen in the border area, says that at least 2,000 to 3,000 of its volunteers are missing and feared dead. The group's leader, cleric Sufi Mohammed, was jailed by Pakistan when he returned from Afghanistan last month with 30 other men.

One such volunteer who went to Afghanistan was Mohammad, the 23-year-old son of Shamsur Rehman, from the mountain town of Talash in the Malakand division of Pakistan's tribal area.

The young man, a college student, was among thousands of Pakistani volunteers from North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the tribal belt along the Pakistan-Afghan border who had entered Afghanistan in November at the call of the TNSM.

The TNSM is a militant Islamic movement that waged armed struggle in the mid-'90s for the introduction of an orthodox Islamic system in the Malakand division of NWFP. Just before entering Afghanistan, Sufi declared a jihad against America that he said was binding on all Muslims.

Shamsur Rehman received news of his son's death from an eyewitness who told him that he had been killed by some Northern Alliance soldiers near Sarobi, about 70 kilometers west of the Afghan city of Jalalabad. The young man was wounded in Kabul and was heading toward Jalalabad for treatment.

"My son had gone to Afghanistan to fight against US forces and not against Afghans. The Alliance people should treat the held soldiers as prisoners of war," says Shamsur Rehman,

Other "holy warriors" such as Mohammad were lucky enough to survive the heavy US bombardment, but have since returned to Pakistan with bitter experiences.

Haji Dawa Noor, a TNSM activist from the Buner district who led a group of 450 Pakistani fighters, said only 250 were allowed to proceed to Kabul while the rest were sent back from Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, after being considered physically unfit.

Once in Kabul, a batch of 35 TNSM men was selected to go to the frontline in Mazar-e-Sharif. But no sooner had they reached the capital when they were ordered to leave because anti-Taliban forces were closing in.

Dawa says that he is angry that Taliban commanders did not take the Pakistani fighters into confidence on any issue. "Wherever we went, the Taliban surrendered to their opponents without putting up a fight," Dawa said. Disgruntled by the Taliban attitude, he says he ultimately threw away his gun, disguised himself as a refugee and entered Pakistan at Chaman border post along with other refugees.

Unlike Shamsur, thousands of families are clueless about their kith. Small businessman Faizul Hassan, also from Talash, is desperate to trace his father, a retired army man. His father, a TNSM activist, had called from Mazar-e-Sharif a day before the fall of the city last month, says the family.

Indeed, concern among families in Pakistan started growing as news of mass killings of foreign fighters poured in. The exact number of missing Pakistanis is not known, but TNSM spokesman Maulana Qiyamuddin put the number at 2,500 to 3,000.

Hundreds of Pakistanis could be in jails or in the custody of the commanders of various parts of Afghanistan. One report said that in Khewa district in Nangarhar alone, some 100 Pakistanis were being detained in a shed in miserable conditions.

As the bodies of some Pakistani fighters begun arriving, unconfirmed reports also started going around that some commanders wanted ransom for the release of Pakistani fighters.

Likewise, as soon as the Taliban retreated and Northern Alliance forces took control, the hatred against foreign mercenaries among non-Pashtun Afghans came into the open. Many Afghans hold Pakistan responsible for the long drawn-out war and then imposing the Taliban, which Islamabad had supported until recently, on them.

The tough stance of the Northern Alliance forces against the Pakistani fighters then prompted the families of religious fighters in Pakistan to take steps for their release. Recently, a delegation of Peshawar-based Afghan leaders went to Kabul to track down missing Pakistanis and seek their release.

The People of Malakand division have constituted a body called Muslims and Pakhtoon Bachao Tehrik (movement for the protection of Muslims and Pashtuns) for the same purpose. Some of its members have warned that if Pakistani prisoners are not returned safely, they would be forced to take revenge from the Afghan refugees living in Pakistan.

This mood has raised concerns of violence among United Nations authorities. "The UN urges all parties both in Pakistan and Afghanistan to respect the rights and human dignity of those who find themselves in a minority situation due to ethnicity, tribal differences or political views,'' said a spokeswoman of the UN in Islamabad last week.

(Inter Press Service)