Abid Ullah Jan
It was Qadiani prince Rehman Malik who first announced Peshawar is under threat. where as the News put his claims to rest with this article: The Bara Operation is a lie, plain and simple.  Several credible sources debunked the lies from Rehman Malik. Anatol Lieven had this to say about the propaganda that Peshawar is under siege:

The situation in Pakistan is not nearly as bad as the more hysterical sections of the Western media would have it. The country is still a very long way indeed from collapse or revolution. I was warned before setting off for Peshawar that the city was “under siege from the militants,” and far too dangerous for Westerners to visit. A couple of nights ago, as I tucked into my eighth piece of tikka with Pakistani hosts at Green’s Hut, a delightful outdoor restaurant in the Peshawar, I reflected that so far–insha’allah, as one must say here–the biggest threat to long-term health in the city remains what it has always been, a combination of Pashtun hospitality and wonderfully rich local food. There have been a couple of bombs since my arrival, but this is a sprawling city of almost four million people. There is trouble not far from Peshawar, but the city itself is in no real sense “under siege.”

That was the time when Dawn was reporting: ““The security situation in Peshawar is grim. Officials in the home department, who evaluate the situation on an almost daily basis, believe declaring a state of red alert is now only a matter of time,” (Dawn, Tuesday. June 24).

Dawn added: “With militants knocking at the gates of the capital of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), even the more circumspect government and police officials now grudgingly concede that Peshawar, too, could fall in a few months.”

Dawn was joined by the other propaganda machine, Daily Times. Pakistan’s Daily Times noted: “These days Taliban fighters do not sneak in to Peshawar. They arrive in broad daylight on the back of pick-up trucks, brandishing automatic weapons, and threatening owners of music stores to close down. ‘They had long hair and flowing beards, and were carrying Kalashnikovs. They told me to close down the shop or face the consequences,’ said Abdul Latif, a clean-shaven 20-year-old, whose video store received a visit from the vigilantes last week. ‘I asked police for help but they said they are helpless,’ he said.”

The month of June went by. We are in December and the facts on the ground proved both the propaganda outfits wrong. Their claims and exaggerated lies stand exposed before the world. They gave an impression as if Peshawar was encircled by Taliban and they would enter and occupy it any minute. Time went by, but Dawn is committed to its mission. The linked editorial is the latest in the series of telling half truths and showing one side of the picture.

The latest editorial, given below, is carefully worded, giving the regime’s version of the story alone and ignoring the glaring realities. The editorial from November 15, 2008 fails to even mention the daily crimes, atrocities and military attacks against the innocent Pakistani-Pashtoons in the NWFP and FATA, Pakistan, committed by the Pakistan Army, Mush Mafia, PML-Q, MQM, NATO and PPP, etc. It doesn’t mention the millions who became homeless in their own country. The is a glaring example of journalistic corruption.

What does the Dawn expect Peshawar to become when the mercenary army’s operations in the internally occupied areas of Pakistan drive hundreds and thousands of refugees into the surrounding of Peshawar. Who started the aggression? Why were there no militants and insurgents in the past 60 years of Pakistan’s existence? Who provoked this violence? Who indiscriminately butchered and allowed the US to butcher Pakistanis and destroy their homes to provoke retaliation, so that it could be labelled as insurgency and terrorism?

Why can’t Dawn talk about the illegality of the US war, pre-planned war, on Afghanistan and its consequences for Pakistan. Why does Dawn ignore the fantasy of a border between Afghanistan and Pakistan — the Durand Line — which is the reason the brutal occupation of Afghanistan is so difficult to prevent becoming a deeper regional conflict.

With the Pakistani side of the “border” defended largely by the Frontier Corps, it’s not hard to understand why the NWFP and FATA on Pakistan side and Afghan areas across the Durand Line provide the victims of aggression on both side with a refuge. Thousand of Pakistani Pashtuns took refuge in Afghanistan, just as the victims of aggression on the other side ended up in Pakistan.

Created by the British, the FC retains a colonial structure: 80,000 soldiers drawn from the local population, commanded by officers from outside the region who apparently often “disdain the assignment.” FC soldiers are naturally ambivalent about fighting fellow Pashtuns, but the more heavy-handed the Pakistani Army becomes, the more the concept of Pakistan comes under threat.

American pressure on the Pakistan government to further crackdown on the victims-turned-militants it created, risks provoking a civil war. In that event, the benefit of such biased and incomplete analysis will go to those who are determined to undermine Pakistan and chances for Pakistan to survive as one state will be reduced to precisely zero.

Undoubtedly there are attacks inPeshawar and suicide attacks have become part of life there as well. However, this is not something unique to Peshawar. It takes two hands to clap. Eight years of Musharraf’s systematically following the warlords dictates have turned the whole country into a powder keg for a civil war. Public confidence in the US-dictated regimes has reached the lowest ebb. Those who are acting violently are not just Taliban or people motivated by some ideology alone. There are a host of victims of the regime’s aggression who have lost every hope. If people can burn themselves to death due to unemployment in Paksitan, it is any surprise to see victims of the state terrorism blowing themselves to settle scores for the loss of their homes and their families?

Labelling everything wrong as Taliban instigated or attributing the violence to the results of “Talibanization” is wrong. This kind of approach simply confirms the lies used by the warlords to justify invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and paves the way for the next milestone of the war of terrorism: neutralizing and balkanizing Pakistan. Zooming in on Taliban blinds us to all other facts and root causes of the problems at hand. A comparetive analysis of the Taliban crimes in Afghanistan and what we have witnessed since their fall from power can tell us that the issue is not Taliban at all, with whom Karzai is now dying to negotiate and have some kind of a deal. The problem is de facto colonization and the 21st century colonial plans in which Pakistan has no future as a state with present boundaries and military power.

Dawn and other propaganda outfits still have time to correct their approach; put the bigger picture and the root causes in perspective. They need to investigate and identify the real cuplrits behind the violence and instability. They need to give impartial analysis of the situation, rather than regurgitating lies of Rehman Malik, who has gone one step ahead of general Musharraf is making Pakistan history for his masters. They need to find out who are killing and abducting journalists. It is not Taliban. Faizullah Jan, a lecturer in journalism at the Peshawar University, said yesterday:

“Peshawar will become off-limits to foreign journalists, as the enemy is unknown and you don’t know who wants to kill you. In such a situation, it is difficult for journalists to work.” 

It is easy to blame this on Taliban as well. however, we need to see the motives and ‘who-benefits’ aspects of the issue as well. The goal of US, Indian and Israeli agencies is to spread fear and chaos. Also keeping the US attacks on journalists and media organizations in Afghanistan and Iraq should be enough indicator as to who could be behind the war on media and peace in Peshawar.

If a bomber gets up and kill soldiers (like this recent attack: Suicide bomber kills four soldiers in Swat ), it is duty of Dawn and journalists from other papers to go and investigate as to what actually brought this “bomber” to this level of desperation, hoplessness and utter madness that he didn’t hesitate in taking his life in order to kill Pakistani soldiers? Why now? Why not before? There must be something far bigger, far serious and far deeper than the shallow propaganda which makes us believe that the reason is insurgency, militancy, Taliban phenomenon, extremism, and radicalism. In fact, these are labels, not the root causes of the problem. What and who is holding media from impartial investigations into these issues?

A sane and normal person would not even cut a single nail off his body, let alone killing onself. These Pakistanis have nothing to do with Osama and Mulla Umar. Call their actions what you may, we need to know the reasons which are turning more and more Pakistanis against the ruling elite and the mercenary army. Our lies, self-deception and failing to understand the plight of millions of Pakistanis is only making the demise of Pakistan inevitable.

~*~*~*~*~*

Dawn Editorial

Taliban in Peshawar

IT is disconcerting that the NWFP’s capital has become the most dangerous town in the province, if not the country. On Thursday, Iranian Commercial Attaché Hashmatullah Attarzadeh was kidnapped and his guard, Sajjad Hussain, killed in Hayatabad, one of Peshawar’s upmarket localities. It was also in Hayatabad that Afghan Consul General Abdul Khaliq Farahi was abducted and his driver shot in September. The diplomat has not yet been recovered. On Wednesday, an American aid worker and his Pakistani driver were gunned down. In and around Peshawar too the Taliban are active. On Monday, they hijacked a convoy of Nato supply trucks on the Peshawar-Torkham highway, while the security authorities watched. It might be recalled that Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, was kidnapped in February on the same road. He was later recovered in May. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the Iranian diplomat’s kidnapping and the murder of his driver, but the Taliban have owned the murderous attack on the American official’s car.

Given the Taliban mindset, it is futile to argue with them. They have murdered innocent men, women and children, ‘executed’ spies, killed and hanged members of peace jirgas, and slaughtered UN aid workers, including women, on both sides of the Durand Line. They have also bombed Eid and funeral prayers and put the Islamabad Marriott on fire in Ramazan at Iftar time. Most Pakistani VIPs, whether in government or the opposition, are on their hit list. Given this backdrop, it was brave of the American aid worker, Steve Vance, to be there in the area in spite of the threat which the Taliban pose to all foreigners, whether tourists — if there are any — or officials. Vance was engaged in development programmes specifically meant for the tribal belt. Fata is generally reputed to be prone to violence but the incident occurred in Peshawar. The Taliban might have suffered reverses in Bajaur and Swat, but the series of commando-style actions in Peshawar clearly indicate the existence of Taliban cells in the city. It is a measure of the intelligence agencies’ failure that they have not unearthed the Taliban presence in the NWFP’s capital and have failed to crack down on it.