Arab terror in the land of Pashtuns
The land of Pashtuns has become a staging ground for Arab terrorists to exploit and use in the name of “Arab glory”. Various militant outfits from the Arab world under the umbrella of Al Qaida, has taken refuge in the land of the Pashtuns, but with a very high cost to the natives. Executions, target killings and suicide bombings are not uncommon in the land of the Pashtun people.
However, it all began from the day Afghanistan became a secular socialist state, which attracted eager Arabs to disrupt the progression of the people, and find some excuse to flood the region with their backward ideals. The likes of Osama and Abdullah Azzam spring to mind when one speaks of the Arabs who participated in Afghanistan’s destruction.
Osama Bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam, after many meetings between themselves decided to establish an organisation by name of “Makhtab al Khidmat” in Peshawar. Osama bin Laden, paid the tickets, the costs and living expenses of all the Arabs and their families who wished to participate in the destruction of Afghanistan, also hosting the HQ of Abdullah Azzam’s Jihadi magazine.
Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam had a vision to use the Arabs as an international fighting force to come to the aid of those who follow his ideology, and use Afghanistan as his main headquarters. After the soviets withdrew, the fight for Arab glory did not stop there, as according to Abdullah Azzam “Jihad will remain an individual obligation until all other lands were Muslim are returned to us.”[1], he refers to the lands that were occupied by past Arab imperialists, from Spain to Tashkent.
One can see, the motive of the Arab fanatics, who plagued Afghan society with Arab folklore and fantasies of a global Arab empire while on the other hand they ignored more important factors such what will be the outcome of the people of Afghanistan after the Soviets withdraw.
As usual and expected, infighting occurred between themselves, over issues such as “Takfir” for which Abdullah Azzam opposed, as he claimed it would bring disunity to the Arabs. The whole idea of an International Muslim force led by Abdullah Azzam and Osama was to secure the Arab footprint in the world, and bring them back into the role of Imperial leadership.
Many of the Arab fanatical leaders wanted their own interests to be given priority such as Azzam who wanted to liberate Jerusalem while he cowardly hid in Afghanistan instead of fighting for his people in Palestine, while Zawahiri wanted to take on the leaders in Egypt while he hid in Afghanistan too, it was a huge mess with the Afghan population suffering already from years of war, they were disregarded by the Arab militants and only seen as a strategic point for the Arab militants to use for their campaign of Arab glory.
One may wonder, who organised, who permitted these fanatics to operate so freely on Afghan soil, it was the ISI who took them into account. Pakistan was already going through a process of “Religious Radicalisation” and the prospect of an Islamist force with the Pakistanis as the head of operations of all militant groups was very attractive. Pakistan was always the one in charge of arming which Afghan faction to arm and train, choosing the most Islamist and Pro Pakistani over the rest, however in the case of the Arabs, Pakistan permitted the likes of Osama Bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam to use Pakistan as their field of command of operations in Afghanistan and around the world. According to Khalid Khawaja who was an ISI official claimed Nawaz Sharif would meet with Osama Bin Laden whereby both men would come to some agreement on Osama’s interests within the region.
It was the same Osama Bin Laden who came to Pakistan as a consultant to Prince Turki in 1979, who was the Saudi Liaison with the ISI. One can see how the relationship with the ISI was developing in stages, with Osama first meeting the likes of Sayaf and Rabbani while on Hajj in Mecca and became friends with them, with the history of Sayaf and Rabbani being part of the Peshawar Seven, goes to show how Osama Bin Laden had similarities with the Pakistani ISI in turning the land of the Pashtun people into another Subject state of the Arabs dream of Arab glory.
The author believes the ISI wanted to keep Arab militants and their influence intact in Afghanistan and used the Pashtun region to secure their presence. The reason for this is so that if a strong Afghan government takes power, Pakistan will lose its strategic assets, and its influence would be limited. The Arab militants played their part in securing Afghanistan’s Islamist influence while ISI allowed this to happen as long as Pakistan is not threatened.
The Pashtun people who are already traumatized by the continuous meddling by Arabs and their co-sponsors in the ISI were confronted by more problems such as suicide bombing as the worst. Many Afghan media outlets have reported Arabs from Saudi Arabia, Palestine and Iraq as opening up training camps in the tribal areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, there have also been many cases of the Afghan government capturing would be suicide bombers, who would testify they were sent by religious leaders in the tribal region and trained by foreigners.
Suicide bombing in the name of Arab glory, indoctrinated by Arab folklore, is a tactic does not have any origins in neither Afghanistan nor Pashtun society as a whole, but is an Arab/foreign Militant import into the region by the same criminals who used Afghanistan as a place to hid and spread terror.
In early 2006, the Afghan authorities arrested, a citizen of Mali, who was seeking to kill a governor of a northern province. Rita Katz of the SITE institution stated that most of the suicide bombings are claimed by the Taliban; however most of the suicide bombers speak Arabic on videos. According to the daily Al-Hayat in October 2006, there was an increase in Saudis who are participating in the war in Afghanistan, which the author feels contributes to most of the Suicide attacks on Civilians, NATO forces and the Afghan army.
The foreigners, from other lands, are the ones who are causing the most problems in Afghanistan, with their double standards and no regard to the development of Afghanistan as a whole, even the citizens from the West, never spare the Afghan people, take the case reported by the Der Spiegel in March 2008 whereby German authorities stated a Turk by the name of Cunyt Ciftci from Bavaria, Germany was responsible for detonating himself on the 3rd March 2008 in Khost, Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban and Al Qaida have been pushed to Pakistan, there has been a large number of suicide bombings in Afghanistan by foreigners, according to General Raufi, who is an Afghan national army corps commander, "it is obvious that the Taliban....have professional people who help fix the wires and assemble the bombs, the explosives come from Pakistan, and the drivers come from Pakistan and foreign countries". [2]Another tactic used according to one Afghan police official "they used Afghans to drive cars to a target and not tell them that there were explosives inside".[3]
Afghanistan aside, the region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has not been spared from the influence of Arab inspired militancy. Take the region of Waziristan as an example, which is a hot bed for Arab/Foreign militancy that engages in attacks on Afghanistan, Most of the suicide bombing camps are located within this region. The suicide bombing camps were initially led by the Arabs, but later taken over by the Taliban especially the Haqqani faction.
The Pashtun youth are preyed upon to become suicide bombers by the Taliban and Al Qaeda, by promising them a better hereafter, a common tactic used by Al Qaeda in other countries. According to Imtiaz Gul, in May 2008, Noor Ahmed Wazir, who is from Waziristan told Imtiaz Gul in Peshawar, that three of his cousins from Miran Shah, in North Waziristan, had been through suicide attack training at a camp near Shawal which was ran by Qari Hussain and Siraj Haqqani.
The Militant Arab indoctrination through the likes of Baitullah and co has targeted the Pashtun youth. In May 2008 Baitullah stated, the suicide bombers are his atom bombs to strike at the infidels. The whole religious aspect in this has roots with Arab militancy, and their war on the West for Arab glory. According to Imtiaz Gul, in May 2008, a Taliban fighter stated “When these fidayeen are told that “hoors”(Beautiful girls) are waiting, looking out of the window in paradise to embrace them, these youngsters they all clamor to be the first to go on a mission. They want to see how many “hoors” out there are really waiting for them in paradise”[4]
Militant Arab indoctrination has plagued Pashtun society, and one can see the real motives behind using young Pashtun children to do the dirty work of the Taliban and Al Qaida. The whole “hoors”, which is another aspect of Arab Bedouin culture and folklore, the promise of virgins in the afterlife and the rivers of milk, have become common tactics used to target young Pashtuns who are already suffering under poverty and social problems.
The foreign militants inspired by an Arab cause for Arab glory, have not only attacked the youth, but have attacked the tribal elders too, to replace them with Arabs and other foreigners. In Waziristan alone, between 2005 and 2009, around 150 tribal maliks have been killed by the Taliban and Al Qaida/Foreigners. The reason for this is that any opposition towards the Arab cause or opposition towards the presence of Arabs and other foreigners would be seen as a call for punishment by the Taliban and Al Qaida. In June 2009, the Taliban led by Baitullah Mahsud, murdered 28 tribal elders with their bodies dumped on the side of the road because they had formed a peace committee to boot out the foreigners from Waziristan.
Ending note
Pashtun society, has been dismantled and divided due to the Militant Arab, who is using the Pashtun land, as a base for its global war in the name of Arab glory, they don’t suffer as a result or consequence of their actions, as they are not in their native lands, but in someone else’s and in this case the land of the Pashtun people. The Arab militant is a threat, a two faced and selfish person, who only seeks the betterment of his own nation then the rest. Abdullah Azzam was not a Pashtun, but a Palestinian, being the one who inspired Bin Laden to come to Afghanistan, and weaken it for ISI exploitation, and future NATO involvement. One would ask themselves a very important question, why didn’t Abdullah Azzam, fight against the Israelis for the freedom of his Palestinian people, but instead bring Afghanistan to its knees and turn it into a fail state. How come his Muslim task force of Arab militants couldn’t be accomplished in his native land of Palestine or Saudi Arabia, why did he use the land of the Pashtun people for his evil game?
Aymen Zawahiri and Osama are neither Pashtuns nor Afghans, but why did they come to Afghanistan instead of fighting in their own lands for their Arab causes. How come the Arab world is silent when an innocent Afghan has been killed by an Arab suicide bomber, why is there no protests nor any remembrance of all the innocent Pashtuns killed by foreigners who enter the region for only one aim and that’s to murder to get into paradise.
All these concerns need to be addressed by the International community and the Muslim world, Afghanistan and the other Pashtun areas should not be subjected to such terrorism by anyone, and the people of that region need to be safeguarded from such criminals and social rejects of the Arab world.
by
Amir Khan Maseed
Afghan Patriot
References
Assaf Moghadam (2008). The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the Diffusion of suicide attacks. USA: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 63-64.
Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism (2007). Suicide as a weapon. Holland: IOS Press. 127.
Imtiaz Gul. (July 2010). The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan's Lawless Frontier. Available: The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan's ... - Imtiaz Gul - Google Books. Last accessed 31 Oct 2011.
Johnny Ryan (2007). Countering Militant Islamist Radicalization on the Internet . Ireland: Institute of European affairs. 133
Royce Flippin (2009). Best American Political Writing 2009 . USA: Public Affairs. 267-268.
Robert D. Crews, Amin Tarzi (2008). The Taliban and the crisis of Afghanistan . USA: The President and fellows of Harvard college . 232.
Sean M. Maloney (2005). Enduring the freedom: a rogue historian in Afghanistan . USA: Potomac Books. 27.
[1] Assaf Moghadam (2008). The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the Diffusion of suicide attacks. USA: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 63-64.
[2] Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism (2007). Suicide as a weapon. Holland: IOS Press. 127.
[3] Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism (2007). Suicide as a weapon. Holland: IOS Press. 127.
[4] Imtiaz Gul. (July 2010). The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan's Lawless Frontier. Available: The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan's ... - Imtiaz Gul - Google Books. Last accessed 31 Oct 2011.
