[There, more than one million people have fled their homes
since the operation started on June 15. The military, which tightly controls
media access, has portrayed it as an unalloyed success, drip-feeding reports of
battlefield victories to the Pakistani media. On Saturday, a spokesman said its
forces had killed 531 militants and lost just 34 men.]
By Zia Ur-Rehman and Declan Walsh
 |
These child refugees seek to
escape the fighting between the military
and Islamist militants, but
the violence is spreading.
|
Five years ago, Pakistani soldiers flooded into Swat as
part of an operation to banish the Taliban from the valley. The offensive
became a cherished victory for Pakistani generals, who presented it as evidence
of their counterinsurgency prowess.
But a steady drumbeat of killings, by both militants and
soldiers, has whipped up fear in Swat in recent years and blighted hopes for a
return to normality in a place known for its beauty and tourist industry.
Taliban fighters have slowly crept back to attack and kill pro-government
community leaders. The army faces accusations of gross human rights abuses,
including the execution of at least dozens of detainees whose bodies have
recently been returned to their families.
And Maulana Fazlullah, the ruthless cleric and militant
commander who led the original Swat uprising in 2007, has evaded capture and
risen to greater heights as the supreme leader of the Pakistani Taliban.
“For a long time there was a narrative of the Swat
operation as a total success,” said Rahimullah Yousafzai, a veteran journalist
based in Peshawar . “Now that success is being questioned.”
Few doubt that conditions in Swat have improved
dramatically. Bloodied bodies no longer hang from traffic lights in the town
square where the Taliban once executed their enemies. Markets are bustling, and
more girls are attending school.
But the campaign of Taliban violence, though sporadic,
has rattled public confidence. “This is a controlled peace,” said Akbar Khan, a
38-year-old bookseller. And it offers a sobering check on the limits of
military engagement at a time when the army is engaged in a fresh anti-Taliban
drive in the tribal district of North Waziristan.
There, more than one million people have fled their homes
since the operation started on June 15. The military, which tightly controls
media access, has portrayed it as an unalloyed success, drip-feeding reports of
battlefield victories to the Pakistani media. On Saturday, a spokesman said its
forces had killed 531 militants and lost just 34 men.
Similarly triumphant claims
followed the 2009 Swat offensive, but some successes proved to be temporary.
Although hundreds of Taliban fighters were captured, many more slipped across
the porous border into the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan ,
where they have successfully regrouped.
In the last two years, small pockets of fighters have
infiltrated back into Swat, moving along remote mountain trails on horseback
and on foot, according to villagers.
One of their
most infamous attacks was on Malala Yousafzai, the teenageschoolgirl who was shot in
the head in October 2012 but survived her injuries and became a global icon.
But
for the most part, the Taliban gunmen have targeted the Village Defense
Committees — local militias, mounted by the army to keep the Taliban at bay —
which lost nine leaders to Taliban attacks in 2013, and eight so far this year.
In the most recent shooting, on Tuesday, gunmen opened fire on Umar Hayat Khan,
the committee leader in Takhta Band village, as he said his prayers in a local
mosque.
Two weeks earlier, gunmen killed Khan Saib, a landowner
who had just returned from self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia
The shootings have scared Swat residents because their
targets are prominent community leaders — often landowners or members of the
Awami National Party, a secular party that has borne the brunt of Taliban violence
across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province
The army itself has been another cause of concern in Swat
as it has cast a wide net for militants.
Human-rights groups say that hundreds of suspected
militants have died in military custody since 2009. In 2010, Gen. Ashfaq
Parvez Kayani, then the army chief, announced an investigation into a video that appeared to show
soldiers executing six detainees. The result of the investigation
was never made public; some activists questioned whether it ever took place.
Since April 2013, some Swat detainees have turned up
dead, their bodies quietly returned to their families for burial. Many have
reportedly been held in an army-run internment center in
Kohat, 30 miles south of Peshawar Pakistan
“Most of these detainees are in their 20s or early 30s.
It’s unusual for men of that age to die from a heart attack,” said Mustafa
Qadri of Amnesty International. In Swat, the wives and children of detained men
hold regular protests against the military. The most recent took place on July
20 in the village of Kanju
While
mistreatment of detainees offends rights groups, many Swat residents have a
more ambivalent attitude, said Mr. Yousafzai, the journalist. “The community is
very polarized,” he said. “Many people don’t want to hear about the suffering
of militants or their families.”
Public opinion had been further divided by plans for
three permanent military bases in Swat. Some citizens want the army to leave;
others fear a return to civilian rule would lead to a Taliban resurgence.
“People remember that the last time, the civilians ran away,” Mr. Yousafzai
said.
The tensions and violence have stymied efforts to revive
the local economy, despite some progress. The valley’s ski resort at Malam
Jabba, which had been destroyed by the Taliban, hosted a five-day “snow
festival” in March; a summer festival is scheduled for early August. The valley’s
musicians and dancers have returned from the cities where they fled in 2009.
But caution is widespread. Kiran, a dancer who would give
only her first name, said she refused to work outside the main town, Mingora.
Some business owners have left the valley over security fears. And tourism
numbers are way down, said Zahid Khan, head of the Swat hotel owners’
association.
Meanwhile, Mr. Fazlullah, the Taliban leader, is using
his Afghan sanctuary to step up the pressure. His fighters killed a
two-star general, Maj. Gen. Sanaullah Khan Niazi, in a roadside
bombing in neighboring Dir district in September 2013. His fighters have
infiltrated Karachi
More recently, Mr. Fazlullah has increased violence
inside Swat in a bid to shore up his authority inside the Taliban, following a
split in the militant ranks last May. In a rare video message released on May
19, he directed suicide bombers to attack “the forces of evil.” The military,
for its part, is focused on the campaign in North Waziristan . But that has also touched Swat, in the form of refugees
who have made an arduous journey across northwestern Pakistan
The authorities in Swat have registered almost 600
refugees from Waziristan , many of whom are living in cramped rented accommodations.
Speaking at a religious charity’s food distribution
event, Hajji Nooruddin, a 50-year-old truck driver from Miram Shah, said he was
sharing a house with 25 other people.
Asif Nawaz, 21, said he was stuck in a traffic jam for
two days as he fled North
Waziristan . During that time,
he saw two mothers take the bodies of their dead infants to the soldiers,
shouting that they had died from hunger, he said with tears in his eyes.
However, many of the refugees said they were glad to have
reached Swat — a place of relative safety, compared with North Waziristan .
An employee of
The New York Times contributed reporting from the Swat District in Pakistan .
