Telegraph

Pakistan lets zealots cross border to die By Philip Smucker in the Swat Valley, North-West Frontier (Filed: 06/11/2001)

IN the Valley of Swat, where Winston Churchill once reported for The Telegraph on British attempts to subdue the locals, Pakistani administrators said yesterday that they had settled on a method of dealing with religious zealots.

Mohammad Zaman, chief prosecutor in the Malakand tribal district in the ancient Valley of Swat, part of the rebellious North-West Frontier province, said: "They had been blocking our roads and threatening us at every turn, so our attitude is let them go and die in Afghanistan beneath the wings of the B52s, if that is what they really want."

The new laissez faire attitude towards aspiring "martyrs" stands in sharp contrast to the official government stand expressed in the capital, Islamabad.

There, senior officials insist that they are doing all they can to block heavily-armed Pathan tribals crossing into Afghanistan.

Farman Ullah, an assistant sub-inspector with the Frontier Constabulatory in Swat, said he has firm orders not to interfere with the jihadi groups anxious to fight.

At least 1,500 armed Pakistani tribesmen crossed into neighbouring Afghanistan on Sunday and hundreds more left yesterday.

Shouting "Death to America", Pathan tribesmen crowded into vans and the backs of pick-up trucks, brandishing Kalashnikov rifles, rocket launchers and other weapons. From the loudspeakers of one truck, a local mullah sang a duet with his mother: "Mother dear, let me go there where my brothers are being bombed. Let me go and make a place for you in Paradise!"

The mother responded in song: "Go, Go, my son, but don't come back alive until you've defeated the infidels!"

Towering above Mr Ullah, the assistant sub-inspector, was the small but sturdy fort built by the British troops of the Malakand Field Force which Churchill joined during skirmishes in Swat in 1897. Written on the hillside beneath the battlements were the English words: "Winston Churchill's Picquet."

Mr Ullah smiled up and said: "Churchill looked down on this valley from those heights. Some people say he was a good man, but as far as I'm concerned he was just another infidel."

When the Queen visited 40 years ago, the Valley of Swat was still an autonomous region under rule of the Wali of Swat. In 1969, Swat was annexed by Pakistan, but the people of Swat have never looked kindly on the long arm of Islamabad.

Most of the valley's officials sympathise deeply with their ethnic kin being bombed across the border in Afghanistan. Many of the senior officials, however, are trying their best to remain above the fray.

Officials appear to have adjusted policies to take that into consideration. Mohammad Aslam, Malakand's chief magistrate, sat beneath the towering Himalayan peaks and signed court documents over tea yesterday.

He explained: "Going to fight in Afghanistan is a violation of the law, but these people are going of their own sweet will and it is way out of our control."

Mr Aslam recommended a fine old colonial-era hotel in nearby Mingaora, further up the breathtaking valley, which in 327 BC was conquered by Alexander the Great.

At a checkpoint only a few miles from the city, however, Frontier Constabulatory officials blocked the way. Sub-inspector Amir Bahadar said: "We are sorry to inform you that foreigners have been banned from entering the city."

Mr Bahadar then produced a list of seven religious militants who had just passed through the checkpoint and were, he insisted, "scouring the city for infidels".

To make his point clearer, the officer showed that he had meticulously written down the types of weapons each of the seven men were carrying, everything from Chinese machineguns to German pistols.

He said: "We beg your pardon, sir, but we are under orders not to interfere with them."

In Mingaora, which was reached late in the evening, jihadi groups were not nearly as cordial, although they were not hunting down infidels.

"We don't need the government," said Ikram Ullah, 27, a jihadi organiser who was signing up fresh recruits to do battle in Afghanistan. "We have our own arms and we will attack anyone who tries to stop us."

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2001