Once an island of resistance, Sultanwas now licks its wounds

BUNER: Unfortunate is the story of Sultanwas, a small town tucked away in the far corner of Buner district. Its people exhibited rare unity to stand against the tide of Taliban in adjoining districts and buttressed the town’s defences with steely resolve and courage. They had taken a vow not to allow any infiltration by the Taliban.

When the townspeople saw the ugly face of terrorism approaching their locality after ravaging nearby Swat, they formed a local force to stop it dead in its tracks. They had sensed the hidden agenda of the Taliban militia and decided not to let any militant inside the village. As district after district tumbled in the face of the Taliban’s deadly march in the province during the days of mayhem, Sultanwas proved an island of resistance. They fought with valour at every attempt at infiltration mounted by the Taliban. That is, until they were ordered – on April 11, 2009 – to empty the town by the authorities, a move some saw as striking at the roots of defiance.

The entire village was evacuated. What followed was death and destruction. As the army pressed ahead with the operation, the village was reduced to rubble. Houses, shops and mosques were flattened as jets and helicopters pounded their targets.

When the people at long last returned to their village, they found to their horror that their area had been turned into ruins. It was not even a shadow of its former self. Left with little choice, they began their lives afresh without any basic amenities.

Sultanwas, with a total population of 7,000 and 1,400 households, is still licking its wounds one year after its people returned from the internally displaced persons’ camps. The village shows the same grim picture of neglect as before, as if it’s caught in a time warp.

In spite of high promises by government functionaries, no practical work has been done to rebuild lives.

“We were living a prosperous life before April 6, 2009, but then the yahoos came and made a hell of our lives,” Kimiya Zar, a member of local peace committee, said bitterly. “We rendered sacrifices for the land...we fought the miscreants but what did we get in the end? These rubbles?” he wondered aloud. “Only Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) with the support of the UNDP has initiated projects worth Rs35 million,” he said with a sigh.

“From the very beginning we disliked the un-Islamic deeds of the Taliban,” noted Haji Rashid Khan, president of a village peace committee and a prominent social worker. “So we decided in a village meeting not to get involved in any anti-state activity.” He added, “We even took a bold step to stop militants from entering our village and a number of our people were killed fighting against them.”

An elderly widow, when asked about her home, said, “I am still busy removing the rubble from my house.” Cursing the Taliban, she said, “Those enemies defaced our village and now we are cursing them at every turn of our life.”

Regarding government help, she said, “I have not seen any government here but a couple of NGOs such as SRSP, who gave us animals, cash and provided farm input. That’s all.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2010.