The Crime
As I drove to his house, my mind kept going back to thoughts about him.I hadn’t heard from him for days, in fact no one had. He hadn’t been seen out of his home since the “war” had begun. It is funny how the media can turn a feud into a war and a war into a feud…
When I reached his mansion, I was surprised to see none of his fleet of servants around. The thick layer of dust on his cars parked in the garage gave away the fact that they had not been used in a long time. I rang the door-bell several times but no one answered so I let myself in, wondering why it wasn’t locked. Suddenly, a feeling of apprehension filled me as I nearly ran into the living room, expecting the worst.
And there he was, pacing up and down the room like a madman, unshaven and starved. He didn’t even notice me coming into the house, engrossed in his thoughts, he was oblivious to everything around him. As he turned around and saw me, he was visibly startled, almost jumping.
He looked up and said,” All those innocent kids, the young men and women, all those old people killed or forced to abandon their homes….” He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. “I don’t care who those bastards are, the army, the Taliban or insurgents, I want to pick them one by one and shoot out their brains for every innocent death!”
I smiled thinking of how convenient it was to think like this when one inherited a fortune without moving a limb. He looked at me and caught the brief smile. In a friendship like ours one didn’t need any words..
He thought for a couple of minutes, both of us still standing there in the living room; and then his eyes lit up, just for a few seconds and his lips curved up in a smile. “I know just what to do”, he said.
I thought best not to ask as he was in one of his moods. He asked me to sit and we had a chat. Nothing about the war, nothing about the American drone planes, nothing about our army killing our own people. Just a chat between two old friends as he didn’t have any family left to talk about…
I didn’t go to see him again for some time. I knew he needed some space. I wish I had. A week or ten days later , as I was browsing through the newspaper, I saw the piece of news:
“A rich Peshawari businessman was killed in an encounter when he was caught smuggling arms to the Taliban. It has been verified that he had sold all his assets and belongings after being recruited and brainwashed by the extremists….” On and on it went. I thought I would cry because only I knew.
I knew that after selling all he owned, he had tried to help the people, had distributed food, clothes and spoke kind words to the affected people. I knew he had gone to Swat and I knew his worst crime was listening to the Swati’s cries of Why? Where? and When? But was this what he deserved for his crime…?
May 25th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Indeed the stories of people of Swat are heart touching. Indeed they have been suffering since years. True! They have lost their dear ones, families’ members, their resources, their homes and peace of their lives. But who do you blame for this misery? Who came from outside and captured their land? Who started capturing people?
Okay fine, today they are forced to leave their houses and this is because of Army Operation “Rah-e-Rast”. But have you ever wondered, why army is fighting their? Who forced army to go there & start operation? Why army doesn’t starts an operation in Lahore or Faisalabad or anywhere else? It’s only because Taliban (I used to call them So Called Taliban, but in real they all are the same) compelled the army to do so.
Do you really want to listen what Taliban has been doing there?
1) It was February 09; I went to Pir Baba, a hub town in Buner distt. Today, Pir Baba is a tough head-quarter of Taliban. I went there for some official work in the guard of police and personal security. That was the time when people of Buner Distt kicked Taliban out of their area. People themselves fought against them and forced them to leave the area. Now what’s reason behind it? Only because Taliban were in basic criminals, who wanted to rule; who wanted nothing but their might. Now you may ask, people of other cities didn’t throw Taliban out? Because they were not in such a strength.
2) Taliban killed during Swat operation were found uncircumcised! This is the reality of Taliban calling themselves the “True Muslims”. Bodies of these people were placed at Islamic University Peshawar for long. Some of pictures are available at internet. I have seen a couple of nude and gruesome pictures. Unfortunately, they can’t be shared here. People anybody tell me, how can I call them Muslim?
3) Taliban have got the latest weapons; they pay so much to the youngsters they “hire”. They literally pay BILLIONS for a single suicide attack. Suspects captured after attacks revealed that Taliban paid them so much. Can anybody tell me, living in jungles where did they get all this money?
4) One incident from Swat: once an NGO delivered food items and other daily use stuff for people there. When Taliban knew about it, they took over everything. When they were leaving, someone asked, what you would do of it. They replied, we will eat food and use other items. Even though, Taliban never allowed anyone to say anything, but some courageous man asked, “you are taking this away from us calling that its Haram for us, how can it be hilal for you.” Now the biggest joke of the century, “It’s Hilal for us because it’s “Mal-e-Ghaneemat” for us.” Is this Islam? Are these Taliban Muslims?
5) If I look at myself, I am a shaved person, I listen music, I don’t offer all five prayers daily, I wear jeans and t-shirts. If I go to Taliban area in such a condition, they would kill me! They definitely would but after taking all my belongings as “Mal-e-Ghaneemat”. So, please let me know, am I not a Muslim and should be killed?
6) Do you know who are with Taliban? Who called Taliban to come to our land? The criminals! The druggists, the thugs, the smugglers they invited Taliban to come here.
7) Do you see what they did to “Nizam-e-Adal Agreement”? The Prophet (PBUH) made an agreement “Sulah-e-Hudaibia”. See the difference between two. Prophet (PBUH) returned the person who wanted to come to Makkah when the agreement was in progress. While Taliban kept on marching.
Unfortunately, I have to leave now and I am unable to type further. Otherwise I have thousands of words to say. I have been a supporter of Taliban, I hated Army but until I went to those areas, areas nearby to Taliban ‘dynasty’, I met people from those areas, I thought about acts of Taliban. Might be back, if had enough time to waste talking about Taliban!
Lets not oppose Army Operation. Lets save our country from those Animals. Lets protect our Religion. Lets save Islam.
May 26th, 2009 at 7:23 am
All said and done, but some thing remains to be clarified.
How come so many of them came there. How any from where they obtained their weapons. ?
Who killed over 200 Maliks of tribes in FATA at the outset ?
Why America killed Faqir Muhammad who had signed peace agreement with the then Corp Commander Peshawar, Lt Gen Safdar Hussain ?
Why Pervez Musharraf removed Lt Gen Retd Orakzai as Governer NWFP ?
May 28th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Assalamoalaikum Raheel Bhai, it’s wonderful to hear your thoughts, as always. I know what you are saying is true, I have realised that no matter how many faults we have, we will always struggle and survive, for some reason, we have a spirit, that, evil doers hate, because they know that everyone will faulter but pakistani spirit will go on. I am in no position to perhaps criticise anything, since I am not around, I should be more respectable, otherwise I’ll become one of those, who sing from a distant, at those suffering, a song of criticsm about their strength. I Love my country, its food, its land, its dust, its crops, its people, yet I despise our leaders for being too weak. If it were a real Pakistani, born and educated in pakistan to be our leader, how beautiful would that have been? Instead either “daughter of the West” or some power and money hungry lunatic would lead us, making many mistakes. It is not just a feeling now, I remember as a young 12 year old, back then I think, 1994-1996 if I remember well, Nawaz Sharif was preceded by benazir and the cycle went on a few times, and each time the latter would accuse the former of corruption; I even as a child remember my surprise when they’d come back in power why did they come back, have people forgotten how he/she was corrupt, after a while I got disappointed and I thought we can only have these two croonies, who probably both are corrupt and we wont ever have a true leadership. I remember my mom crying when musharraf came as she really loved nawaz sharif, she was angry and sad at his humiliation and departure, and then his exile. We have been eaten as a nation for a long time, but we still support these people. I think that at the end we should respect them and guide them because no matter what they are our leaders, but the key thing here is my brother that foreigners have entered our beautiful land and they are corrupting it in a way never have has it witnessed, my question is why doesnt our gvernment put a stop to it? It is a powerful government, it has a powerful intelligence personnel and yet, we are struggling against a handful of foreigners killing and spreading mischief in Pakistan. THAT is what i am angry about, why is that pakistan knows america and india are doing it and Pakistan still says, we are friends, ” Allies”, I feel sick. I guess if Pakistan sent then a message of independance and power in the form of a few parcels of dead bodies of their kind instead of our own, they would get the message. Our georaphical and nuclear power has many advantages, we should be proud. years of living abroad hasnt made me change my passport or ID from pakistani to anything else, Alhamdolillah i am proud to say who I am, as opposed to many people, and it would be so nice to know there is no trouble back home. People are killed and my heart aches with hurt…
May Allah bless us all , ameen.
Iftikhaar , You are absolutely right, there are many questions, and the answer to all of them is to reunite and put a man in leadership from among us, not someone chosen by america for once..