Half a million stories: ‘These long-haired men destroyed our lives’

IDP says if anyone spoke against Taliban, in morning their head would be lying at their feet.

BANNU:

“Everyone feared being kidnapped by the Taliban at any time,” an internally displaced person (IDP) Ziaur Rehman said, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal about life under the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in North Waziristan, published in the US-based newspaper on Thursday.

“Everyone knew someone who was picked up by the Taliban.” Rehman, one of more than half a million people who fled the region as the military announced Operation Zarb-e-Azb, has taken shelter in Bannu.  In the report, locals say the TTP has killed hundreds of Waziristan elders since 2007, wiping out the traditional leadership, which could have led a resistance movement against the TTP. The Wall Street Journal reports that many refugees in Bannu are hesitant to speak of life under the TTP, fearful that the militants can return to take their revenge.

“If anyone spoke against the Taliban or gave information against them, in the morning your head would be lying at your feet,” said Gul Naeem Wazir, who came to Bannu from the Spinwan area of North Waziristan with 28 family members.

Wazir said the Pakistani Taliban “eliminated” the jirga system in the region as men in their 20s and 30s became Taliban commanders, heading ‘armies’ of gunmen and suicide bombers.

Locals told the Wall Street Journal that apart from Uzbeks, Tajiks and Uighurs from China, it was hard to tell whether the gunmen belonged to the TTP, local warlord Gul Bahadur or the Haqqani network.

The Uzbeks used to spend a lot of time in the Internet cafes of Miranshah and Mir Ali, said Nizam Dawar, who runs a nongovernmental organization that works in North Waziristan.

Meanwhile, the military said on Tuesday that it had killed 376 militants so far but reported no civilian casualties. Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa said some militants might have left before the operation, when the army surrounded the area. “There is no question of anyone escaping the cordon,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2014.