Pakistan should have attacked the Taliban a long time ago!



Interview with Inyatullah Khan, Pashtun leader

by Karlos Zurutuza

(translated from the Spanish by Daisann McLane)

We arrive a half hour late for the appointment but with a good excuse for the delay: this is Quetta. Avenue Nordar, the city's main artery lined with the government offices, had been sealed off this morning by concrete roadblocks. Rumor was that a truck full of explosives had entered the city. And so, only one hour away from the Afghan frontier and two hours from Kandahar, the heart of Quetta beats to the rhythms of the madrassa's whispers, the rumors of its bright bazaar.

Taliban in black turbans and women under blue burkas, Tajiks with aquiline noses and beardless Uzbeks, Hazaras with almond eyes...even the local Punjabis know that Mullah Omar lives here, protected by his personal Baluch guards as well as by the Pakistani Army. And the latest buzz circulating in the so-called "Taliban Capital" is that they're preparing another grand OTAN offensive in this area, and in the Dalbandin area to the south. Just because the army opened a front just a few short weeks ago in the northern Swat and Waziristan region doesn't mean that the southern Afghan mountains have been "forgotten".

From taxi we transfer to motor-rickshaw, and then to motor-taxi. Finally, Inaytullah Khan receives us with an embrace and the requisite three kisses on the cheek, the welcome ritual of central Asia. The Pashtun leader is a tall, graceful man with a calm manner, and he answers questions in perfect English--the British ruled over this land until the end of the second World War.

Just a few moments after the interview began, Aminullah Khan entered the compound; he is the chief of the Achakazai, another Pashtun tribe. We greet him with the respect worthy of his position, and his age. And then we return to the conversation.

Q. What is the current situation of the Pashtun people in Pakistan?

Pakistan is controlled by the Punjabis via a civil and military apparatus. The Sind, the Baluch, and the Pashtuns are no more than second class citizens, peoples crushed under the boot of Islamabad. You only have to see that the name of our region is still "Province of Northeastern Frontier", a leftover from the British times. The regional Pashtun government has already changed the name to Pashtunistan, but Islamabad doesn't accept this. We continue to live under a colonial regime although, in my opinion, the Pashtuns lived better under the British.

Q. You are the main political leader of the Pashtuns in East Baluchistan. Are there tensions between the two people (Pashtun and Baloch)?

Regrettably, there is no harmony between the Baloch and the Pashtuns. In this city (the main city of Balochistan under Pakistani control) we Pashtuns are more than 70 % of the population, but the Baloch won all of the positions of importance in the regional government--there's not a single Pashtun. The situation is more complicated than it might appear at first glance; we have lived together with the Baloch in this land for centuries, but it is certain that we have had a massive immigration of Pashtuns fleeing the wars in Afghanistan, since the arrival of the Soviets. It's important to remember, nonetheless, that none of them came here because they wanted to. At the same time, besides Pashtuns, came Uzbeks, Tajiks, Hazaras...you have to think about them too. Since the time of the British, the Baloch have proposed a power-sharing formula of 50-40-10: 50 for the Baloch, 40 for the Pashtuns, and 10 for other nationalities. However, as I mentioned before, this was not respected.

Q. Lumping the Pashtuns together with the Taliban is the usual practice in the West. Do you think this has "demonized" your people?

We Pashtuns are a people with a rigid, well-defined tribal and social structure. The Taliban and its mullahs are completely at the margin of this organization.

It's certainly true that, in terms of origin, the Taliban were all Pashtuns. But this doesn't mean that today all Pashtuns are Taliban. Many seem to forget that the Taliban are a very heterogeneous group that also includes Arabs, Baluch, Tajiks, and even Punjabis. There are around 25 million of us Pashtuns in Pakistan and between 15 and 20 million in Afghanistan. The Taliban don't represent even 1 percent of that total.

Q. What, in your opinion, is the origen of the Taliban phenomenon?

The Taliban were influenced by the mullahs with the support of outside agents, who had their own agenda during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. All those countries that supported the fight of the Afghan people against the Russians, some 120 of them, are responsible for the Taliban. These countries had their own political, sociological and strategic interests. When the Soviets pulled out, they also did, abandoning to its own fate a country devastated by war and immersed in a civil war between powerfully armed clans. Only two countries in the whole world recognized the Taliban government: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, although mainly it was the U.S. and Pakistan that created this monster. We were the only ones who rejected this foreign interference and we've been warning everyone about its consequences for thirty years now. The Pandora's Box is open, and today our people, yet again, are the ones suffering the most from its consequences.

Q. Where will the solution to this problem be found?

The Taliban can only be controlled by a strong coalition of the U.S., the U.K., China, India, Russia...on one hand, they have to get to the root of this problem, which is the inhuman underdevelopment of Afghanistan, which is a crucible for fundamentalism. On the other hand, you have to use decisive military force against their strongholds.

Q. So you think the military operations being conducted in the Northeastern tribal regions are justified?

Pakistan didn't react to the situation until they began to suffer attacks in Islamabad. They created the monster, and finally they realized that it was a real threat for everybody. Let me emphasize: for everybody.

In the last weeks there's been an important change of strategy. Since they captured Buner, the army has been concentrated in Swat. But the suicide attacks keep happening in Islamabad, and even in Lahore. And let's not forget the catastrophe that would happen in a sabotage of the Kahuta nuclear center. Today I heard that already there were female suicide attackers ready in Waziristan. I think that Islamabad should have been attacking the Taliban in Pakistan a long time ago. What I don't know is how long Islamabad can maintain the offensive.

Q Considering that the Taliban are hardly more than 10,000 or so, and the majority are illiterate, do you believe that they can get control of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal?

I'll answer you with another question: Do you believe that a group of illiterates is capable of engineering a 9/11?

Q There are those who say that a permanent destabilization of Pakistan to cause its collapse is, in fact, Washington's agenda.

It's clear that the US has a well-defined agenda based, as we all know, on the energy resources of the region. But the major problem for us is that Pakistan lacks any agenda at all, it is simply a dependent country that can be manipulated by external interests. Nevertheless, I don't believe that there might be any interest in having Pakistan disintegrate because this is something that wouldn't be in the interest of Washington, or India, or China or anybody. It's not possible to control the region with an unstable Pakistan.

Q In the Afghan elections at the end of this year, everyone is saying that Hamid Karzai, who is Pashtun, will be re-elected. Will he be a good president?

Karzai is very inteligent and he's played his cards well. Everyone knows he's Washington's man on the ground; disgracefully, he is the least-bad option. We have to accept that the only real possibility to reconstruct a country like Afghanistan will come from the hand of Karzai. There's no other alternative.

Q Speaking of elections, what's your opinion of the recent events in Iran?

All the information we receive is contradictory. I feel incapable of saying with authority whether or not there's been electorial fraud. Iran has been up until now a stable country but it's become evident that Ahmadinejad is confronting a situation unparalled since the 79 revolution. Nevertheless, I don't believe that the secret hand of the Western powers has been behind the opposition's demonstrations. If it were the previous U.S. president, I would have no doubt, but I think that Obama isn't interested in destablilzing Iran.

(original article: Islamabad tenía que haber atacado a los talibán en Pakistán hace mucho tiempo)