The Taliban and Its Impact on the War
Parachinar is the capital of Kurram agency which boarders with three different Afghan provinces, namely ningrahar to its north, paktia to its west and khost to south west.it is the nearest city of Pakistan to Kabul. It also borders with north Waziristan, Orakzai and Khyber agency.it comprises of the turi, bangash, mangal, mugbal, parachamkani, masuzai and alisherzai tribes. Turi and half of the bangash tribe are shia, while the rest tribes follow the sunni sect.
Administratively, the kurram agency is divided into three units: upper kurram, central kurram and lower kurram. Parachinar is located in upper kurram. most of the turi and bangash tribes live in upper kurram, while lower kurram has a small presence of the turi tribes.
The kurram agency has been in news for decades for conflicts, right from 1961 up till now. After Pakistan’s involment in afghan jihad, fata was used as a launching pad for the afghan jihad. Thousands of fighters with ultra-conservative wahabi ideology were brought to fata and with the widespread of wahabi and salafi ideology all over the world and after Iranian revolution, deep schism formed between the two sects of Islam. Even today, kurmiwal (citizen of kurram) think that it is a sectarian conflict but every single time the deep state had used sectarian war for its own benefit.
In the 1987 sectarian war ZIA wanted to suppress the Shias of Pakistan after the Iranian revolution. In 1996 when sectarian war started in Parachinar, the difference had grown so much that a school boy wrote anti Shia slurs on black board. A huge number of Pak army had come to kurram to stop this war but disappeared, only later did we came to know that our army had been called to occupy Kabul instead.
After 9/11 this area once again gained prominence, with the bombing of the famous Tora Bora caves of White mountain (koh sufaid) and the crossing of many Al Qaeda fighters into kurram which were arrested by local tribesman, including Sunnis came into governance.
Unlike other agencies kurram remained peaceful. This is what our government and deep state didn’t want. When the new wave of Talibanization stared all over fata, there were no Taliban in kurram. but in late 2005 and 2006, Taliban of other areas, especially Waziristan, were brought by our agencies to intrude into Afghanistan. After watching Taliban resistance in Waziristan, and spread of its movement from fata to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, people of kurram were very skeptical of the Taliban intrusion into Afghanistan. Taliban used to attack afghan and American forces from shahidanu dand in lower kurram to turi mengal in upper kurram. Taliban would openly move along with their weapons and they would freely move over FC check post. This phenomenon was disturbing to the people to kurram, and they protested to the local government to stop this from happening.
Taliban’s first attack on the turis was in the February of 2007, when Taliban killed two turi tribesman in the shabak forest area. shabak is a thorny jungle and the check post was to look after the forest. This place is used as hideout by Taliban and from this place they used to attack the afghan check post called babrak thana.
On 6 april,2007 armed conflict in kurram started when some state proxies of sipahe sahaba chanted anti Shia slogans on 12 Rabiulawal. Soon war engulfed the whole of kurram. Taliban in lower kurram torched two villages, namely jalamai and chardiwal. This was first Taliban involvement in that region. After this war, the Taliban movement in kurram agency stopped. After an unending series of war started, there would be peace for a month or two and then again war would start. The Taliban further strengthened its position in lower kurram by establishing camp in shasho village and occupying got hospital. The first TTP commander of lower kurram was an afghan, who died while fighting with the tori’s. Then a new commander fazal saeed haqqani was selected by TTP. Taliban movement into Afghanistan stopped for month, as turis were fighting against Taliban and were not allowing them to cross the border. According to Imran khan the peaceful “Taliban commander” wali u Rahman from Waziristan closed the only road which joins Parachinar with rest of Pakistan with the turis. He told them that he will not open the road unless they allow Taliban to cross into Afghanistan.
Our local administration and pak army have been silent spectators. They are not able to open the road and instead they were using the closer road to earn money. The army against Taliban. They were not able to open the road and instead they were using the closer road to earn money. the army used to arrange conveys for turis and they took Rs 20,000 from each truck that was carrying food to Parachinar. They used to sell foods at low prices that were no available due to the road closure. The only excuse they had was that to secure kurram they had to secure orakzai agency first. Kurram was like a heaven for Taliban – when army would start an operation in any of the neighboring agencies, Taliban would escape to kurram, where the army and Taliban would be in peace and Taliban fought with turis. When the people of kurram would demand for military operation in lower kurram to open the road, the military would start operation in central kurram. Even the conveys carrying turis would come under attack near FC check posts. Now, when the roads are secure and the security of Parachinar is with the army following the Murree agreement, 2008, so far four blasts have still taken place, which makes role of the army very skeptical in the eyes of the local tribesmen.
As roads leading to Parachinar were closed, there was shortage of medicines and many women died while giving birth. As there was continuous fighting, many injured would die as well because they had no access to Peshawar for medical help. People used to bring medicines through Afghanistan, which means you had to buy medication at triple of its price. Few times, the conveys carrying food and medicines were looted by Taliban and once they attacked an ambulance in which they also killed a nurse and student.
Schools remained closed as Taliban used to fire missiles into Parachinar in upper kurram. Many schools were destroyed and students were unable to attend schools and colleges. As the road leading to Parachinar was closed, the army used to arrange helicopter flights for students but this facility was reserved only for those who have connections with the powerful army and politicians. Therefore, students used to travel through Afghanistan to reach their school, colleges and universities. Students of Parachinar were unable to visit homes on vacation and they would stay for years in hostels. Even in Peshawar the turis were not spared. many turi tribesman were killed or abducted by Taliban which also include students.
When Taliban first came to kurram they recruited local people, as in those days the Taliban movement was spreading in the whole of Pakistan. This radical ideology also gained popularity among Sunnis, who were already radicalized due to the sectarian difference with their rival turis. When the war started in kurram, Taliban was operating from sunnis villages and when Taliban were defeated, many Sunnis left their villages and took refuge in Peshawar. Similarly, few turi villages were also torched by Taliban, like jalmai, chardiwal, arawali. Sydanu kaly and khiwas. The residents of these villages took refuge in Parachinar.
The war had devastating effects. The war crushed the economy of the region as the instability lead to the downfall of business leading to unemployment and inflation. The prices of the goods doubled leading to poverty. The war hugely effected the tourism as tourists discontinued to visit this beautiful valley following the insurgency. The war also caused destruction of the infrastructure with ruins of houses and buildings. The war had psychological impacts on the residents of the region. The terror and devastation were embedded in their minds and souls and many of them did not want to come back to their homeland after settling in Peshawar and Kohat because the memories only had negativity of war and the bloodshed of their dear ones and this wasn’t the memory that one wants to cherish. The memories and loss caused much pain to the people. The realizations were made by the masses that if they would have not spread that hatred and false propaganda, they would have not faced such consequences that only brought sorrow and grief to every soul belonging to that land.
