Shaltalou: Where smell of blood hangs in the air

Villagers recall the violence after hundreds of militants overran Upper Dir.

SHALTALO:

On June 1, time stood still in a village of Upper Dir – literally. The clock in Shaltalou village’s mosque remains static at 4:50 am – the exact time its main hall was attacked with grenades – even a week after hundreds of militants overran a security check post in the area.

Blood-stained walls and burnt parchments of the Holy Quran are all what remain in the mosque now. And in the village, a couple of empty houses stand with a handful of security personnel camped outside beneath towering mountains.

From the glaciated tops of Nusrat Darra bordering Kunar, Afghanistan, to the schools and the mosque in the centre of the village have all seen their share of bloodshed in the ambush on June 1, which killed 27 security personnel.

A sense of fear and the smell of blood still shadow the residents of Shaltalou. With a Parkinson’s stricken gesture towards the schools where the first explosions occurred, an elderly local recalls the horrific night when five to 10 armed militants stood at every doorstep.

“The venom in their hearts could be felt in their words; they were of no religion, let alone Muslims. They were blood-hungry predators,” says Masal Khan, an elderly local.

The militants first fired rockets destroying the schools, after which they tied up 18 levies and police personnel and brutally shot them dead in the field adjacent to the schools.

“Our hearts have not been quenched of violence as yet, keep on firing,” Khan quotes the militants as saying, as tears trickle down his wrinkled cheeks. “We tried our best but we could not save any of them. We were unarmed and were warned that if anyone so much as touches the bodies, they would meet the same fate,” he added.

Apart from the two schools in the village, the militants also burnt down eight schools throughout the Barawal area. The militants, who were from across the border, took control of the area and played havoc that lasted more than 36 hours.

“They were all over the mountains and the ravine. Almost 30 of them in groups everywhere,” said Jabir Khan, an elder who assisted the security forces. “Putting the rest aside, how could they hurl grenades and slaughter people in the mosque?” he wondered in disbelief.

The Imam of the mosque, Taj Muhammad, was shot dead by the militants after he resisted them from entering the mosque. Gul Hakeem, the uncle of Taj Muhammad, says the militants spoke different languages, had long hair and wore attire similar to that of commandos. “Some spoke Pashto, but most of them had an accent that was not native,” he recalled.

“Three personnel of the police were brutally tortured and killed in the mosque. One can sense the smell of blood in here,” he recalled.

The only three security personnel who managed to escape were the ones who were given refuge by an old lady in the village. In the early hours of the morning, she gave the men clothes as well as cattle, so they could get past the militants – who had formed their own check post outside the village – undetected.

When one of these police personnel, Saifullah, was contacted he was unwilling to talk about the incident, saying “I have suffered a trauma, which is indescribable.”

Much has been said about the attack since then, with the government blaming the US and Nato forces along with the Afghan Army for the attack and a rebuff from the US embassy claiming the accusation as “false”.

It is evident in the village, as it is everywhere else in Pakistan, that it is innocent people who suffer the most whenever terror strikes.

As the Sun sets in Shaltalou, the village sleeps under an eerie sense of calmness as only three residents who witnessed the catastrophe remain along with a number of security personnel and a few others keeping guard of the tainted border post. The rest of the villagers have fled.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2011.