Fazlullah eliminated

Pakistan, Afghanistan and US forces have to earnestly cooperate to eliminate all symbols of terrorism in the region

At last the dreaded commander of the banned terrorist organisation, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has been eliminated in a US-operated drone attack in Kunar province of Afghanistan, reportedly conducted on 13^th June. Media reports also informed that the TTP has confirmed the killing of its chief whereas Afghan president Ashraf Ghani also echoed the reports of the killing of Fazlullah. With the killing, a very critical chapter in the history of terrorism in Pakistan has ended.

Fazlullah became the TTP head in November 2013 after the death of then TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud, who was also killed in a US drone attack in Waziristan. The killing of Fazlullah hours after a day-long visit of Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa to Kabul speaks volume of the importance of cooperation — which is unfortunately quite lacking — between Kabul and Islamabad in jointly fighting the menace of cross-border terrorism. Fazlullah had been hiding in Afghanistan since 2009 when the army recaptured the scenic Swat district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa from the Taliban. His most despicable crime was claiming the terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, 2014, which killed more than 150 people, including schoolchildren.

Firebrand cleric Fazlullah emerged in Swat from oblivion in 2006 and initiated the Talibanisation there, which had reached its apex in May 2009 with the proclamation of enforcement of Fazlullah’s writ euphemistically and mistakenly called ‘Shariah’ by the cleric and his followers. The militants associated with Fazlullah had taken control of the area and patrolled in heavy vehicles fitted with heavy and sophisticated weapons. At one point in time the state paraphernalia just evaporated in Swat. Taking advantage of the situation, which they created for themselves, Fazlullah’s militia took over control of the area. The militia’s control of the area was evident from the militants taking control of the traffic management system on the Mingawara-Kabal road and inside Kabal tehsil of Swat.

Fazlullah also known as Maulana FM radio had established an illegal court at the Maam Dheri village where a sprawling mosque-madrassa edifice had been erected. The complex, which started with the donations given by local people, had become a base and a virtual court of Fazlullah’s fiefdom. Subsequently, Fazlullah had announced the imposition of Ushr (a land tax), which was urgently needed to run the affairs of his parallel administration. Whereas he had also warned the government that if any operation would be launched against his shadow ‘government’ in Swat, it would be a do-or-die situation. With his killing, his words have proven exactly that after nine years.

Maulana Fazlullah’s drive of radicalising Swat began when his militants and activists began torching a large number of TV sets, CDs, VCRs and related gadgets in various parts of Swat in their struggle to purge the area of ‘agents of vulgarity’. Besides, cleric Fazlullah had been in full swing propagating extremism on his illegal FM radio channel. Though the authorities at the outset took action against Fazlullah’s followers and also closed down his radio station, the state could not resist the influence of religious extremism and ultimately set his arrested men free without punishing them. Then what the world saw is history. Fazlullah, then the head of Swat-Malakand chapter of the deadly TTP, overran Swat in no time and his men were just 100 kilometres away from the federal capital, Islamabad. Consequently, the military had to launch a grand operation in the region that required displacement of the region’s 3.5 million population. The operation in Swat against Fazlullah is Pakistan’s success story in its fight against terror even though the person himself could not be eliminated as he fled to Afghanistan, where according to Pakistani agencies he enjoyed official patronage. It was in Afghanistan where he assumed charge of the TTP’s commander-in-chief but by that time the TTP had become extremely weak due to its internal strife.

The continued presence of the TTP head in Afghanistan unscathed for so long had been raising many eyebrows in Pakistan. Now his killing in a US drone attack has come as a huge relief for the country. It now seems that the efforts to revive the TTP would be extremely difficult and this is good news for Pakistan’s peace and security. Here the effectiveness of the border fence being constructed by Pakistan on its 2,400-kilometre-long historically porous border with Afghanistan becomes apparent due to which militants like Fazlullah and followers have been finding it increasingly difficult to sneak back into Pakistan. Now Pakistan, Afghanistan and US forces in Afghanistan have to earnestly cooperate to eliminate all symbols and vestiges of terrorism in the region. This is the only way forward for lasting peace in the region.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2018.

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