ISPR khyali pulao served by their favourite baba.
Never happened.
No where Taliban have pulled such a stunt. Cause in rural Pashtoon society Women are absolutely untouchable.
Maybe a random lunatic can rpae etc but an identifiable force to publicly demand such a thing is laughable.
Had they attempted such a thing their surely would have been large scale uprising.
Its an acknowledged fact that with all of ANP backing, Khans and govt attempts their was not a single upsring in all of Swat that could be considered popular.
Infact at one point in entire Swat valley the govt did not have a single informant working for them. All police etc simply disappeared.
Fact is women strangely enough were very supportive of Fazlulah and donated alot of their jewellery to Talib.
(This has been reported multiple times in media here and there)
Explanation is Fazlulah Radio broadcast he made it a point to highlight women have a right to demand inheritance.
(In Pashtun society unfortunately Women are cut out of inheritance as Land is limited and their is alot of tribal family competition etc)
On Fazlulah rule. I remember at the time my Swati friends in Uni were against it.
Said Taliban were cruel their punishments arbitrary. Undoubtedly they were ruthless but they usually targeted those who they saw as a direct threat.
But I think media exaggerated the cruelty angle to a great degree.
Many ppl punished for example were actually criminals,drug dealers,timber mafia connected to crooked politicians or were informers etc.
Their was a certain class resentment playing out. Former nobodies suddenly were all powerful.
Swat lng existing patronage/Prestige system and power structures of Khans was wiped out almost instantaneously.
If you minded your own business and weren't big fish they didnt bother you to much and they wld compromise atleast before operation started.
But once I struck a conversation with couple of labourers from Swat coming back from Dubai about Taliban.
I was very surprised that they loved it. They said Taliban were the best thing that happened to Swat.
I asked for why and they explained basically Taliban just came in one day expelled the local Khan.
He attempted to get his lands back by hiring local thugs who werent liked in the community as they terorised it.
But Talibs caught them and executed them.
The land they redistributed on condition the new owner pay a tax which was much less then what the Khan wd take when they were tenents.
Basically Landless poor ppl were happy that the Taliban had chased out feudal Khan and redistributed the land.
The Landlords and Urban bourgeous hated them with a passion.
(Central Swat still has a feudal system where a few family own most of the land while rest are landless tenents. In 70's Mazdoor Kisan party was wildly popular in Swat but Khan who either backed ANP or PMLN mostly thwarted any electoral success. TNSM was then backed by ISI (Major Amir whose dad runs a madrassa in Buner) to stop JI from making inroads into Swat. JI has a stronghold in Dir and fear was they would become a force to reckon with in Swat)
They definitely had popular support as TNSM jalsa at the time were reported to have been the biggest in Swat hstory at the time.
So swat was divided roughly by class.
But after Army operation, I can safely say almost the entire population wants it gone as soon as possible.
Even my firends from Uni who hated the Taliban and were very pro Army in the beginning.
Many even go as far to say they are worse then Taliban. Completely out of control.
Like they use to force people paint Pakistan flag on their homes. In 14th August they wd beat up ppl who did not put Pakistan flag on their cars.
(You can ask from others)
Arbitrary detentions, arbitrary killing were common at start of Army operations. Even women and children in some cases.
Tactics they use certainly amount to war crimes. Worse being siege of Mingora where they just rained down artillery shells for weeks.
Its estimated maybe a thousand people were killed.
WIKILEAKS notes that it stopped only because Swat Taliban wanted the collective punishment to stop and they decided to pull out.
Army also managed to some how shoot up IDP covoys couple of times by Helicopter gunships.
After that the sweeps were very arbitrary. People were picked up, kept to months, deprived of food shelter.
Brutally tortured. Many were killed and dumped.
You had food shortages, curfews that made life hell. Daily humiliation in checkpoints.
Convoys that would not think twice to shot up your car if they got suspicious.
Really its an utter shame most in Pakistan has no appreciation of what sort of Hell Swatis were put through.
Never happened.
No where Taliban have pulled such a stunt. Cause in rural Pashtoon society Women are absolutely untouchable.
Maybe a random lunatic can rpae etc but an identifiable force to publicly demand such a thing is laughable.
Had they attempted such a thing their surely would have been large scale uprising.
Its an acknowledged fact that with all of ANP backing, Khans and govt attempts their was not a single upsring in all of Swat that could be considered popular.
Infact at one point in entire Swat valley the govt did not have a single informant working for them. All police etc simply disappeared.
Fact is women strangely enough were very supportive of Fazlulah and donated alot of their jewellery to Talib.
(This has been reported multiple times in media here and there)
Explanation is Fazlulah Radio broadcast he made it a point to highlight women have a right to demand inheritance.
(In Pashtun society unfortunately Women are cut out of inheritance as Land is limited and their is alot of tribal family competition etc)
On Fazlulah rule. I remember at the time my Swati friends in Uni were against it.
Said Taliban were cruel their punishments arbitrary. Undoubtedly they were ruthless but they usually targeted those who they saw as a direct threat.
But I think media exaggerated the cruelty angle to a great degree.
Many ppl punished for example were actually criminals,drug dealers,timber mafia connected to crooked politicians or were informers etc.
Their was a certain class resentment playing out. Former nobodies suddenly were all powerful.
Swat lng existing patronage/Prestige system and power structures of Khans was wiped out almost instantaneously.
If you minded your own business and weren't big fish they didnt bother you to much and they wld compromise atleast before operation started.
But once I struck a conversation with couple of labourers from Swat coming back from Dubai about Taliban.
I was very surprised that they loved it. They said Taliban were the best thing that happened to Swat.
I asked for why and they explained basically Taliban just came in one day expelled the local Khan.
He attempted to get his lands back by hiring local thugs who werent liked in the community as they terorised it.
But Talibs caught them and executed them.
The land they redistributed on condition the new owner pay a tax which was much less then what the Khan wd take when they were tenents.
Basically Landless poor ppl were happy that the Taliban had chased out feudal Khan and redistributed the land.
The Landlords and Urban bourgeous hated them with a passion.
(Central Swat still has a feudal system where a few family own most of the land while rest are landless tenents. In 70's Mazdoor Kisan party was wildly popular in Swat but Khan who either backed ANP or PMLN mostly thwarted any electoral success. TNSM was then backed by ISI (Major Amir whose dad runs a madrassa in Buner) to stop JI from making inroads into Swat. JI has a stronghold in Dir and fear was they would become a force to reckon with in Swat)
They definitely had popular support as TNSM jalsa at the time were reported to have been the biggest in Swat hstory at the time.
So swat was divided roughly by class.
But after Army operation, I can safely say almost the entire population wants it gone as soon as possible.
Even my firends from Uni who hated the Taliban and were very pro Army in the beginning.
Many even go as far to say they are worse then Taliban. Completely out of control.
Like they use to force people paint Pakistan flag on their homes. In 14th August they wd beat up ppl who did not put Pakistan flag on their cars.
(You can ask from others)
Arbitrary detentions, arbitrary killing were common at start of Army operations. Even women and children in some cases.
Tactics they use certainly amount to war crimes. Worse being siege of Mingora where they just rained down artillery shells for weeks.
Its estimated maybe a thousand people were killed.
WIKILEAKS notes that it stopped only because Swat Taliban wanted the collective punishment to stop and they decided to pull out.
Army also managed to some how shoot up IDP covoys couple of times by Helicopter gunships.
After that the sweeps were very arbitrary. People were picked up, kept to months, deprived of food shelter.
Brutally tortured. Many were killed and dumped.
You had food shortages, curfews that made life hell. Daily humiliation in checkpoints.
Convoys that would not think twice to shot up your car if they got suspicious.
Really its an utter shame most in Pakistan has no appreciation of what sort of Hell Swatis were put through.
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