Pakistani tribesmen tighten noose around Taliban
Posted: Monday, June 22, 2009 3:03 PM
Filed Under:
Islamabad, Pakistan
By NBC News' Fakhar Rehman
UPPER DIR, Pakistan – "The noose around the Taliban is tightening," said 50-year-old Sirajuddin, the leader of a tribal militia based in Dhogbala, a town in the Upper Dir region of Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province. "Our fight will go on to the final victory."
Taliban militants have been pouring into Upper Dir for weeks, fleeing the Pakistan army assault in the adjacent Swat Valley. Sirajuddin, who goes by just one name, said that the army had been bombing the militants’ hideouts in the nearby hills and hit some shops in Dhogbala by mistake. The militants then swarmed down from the mountains, raided the shops and stole all the food.
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| Fakhar Rehman / NBC News |
| Sirajuddin, the leader of a tribal militia fighting the Taliban. |
Sirajuddin, tall and slim with a neatly cropped salt and pepper beard, spoke softly as he explained the militia’s determination to go after the Taliban. But his voice rose in anger and his lips quivered when he recalled the suicide attack by the Taliban on his mosque on June 5.
"Those criminals killed 40 innocent people at prayer, just because they would not support them. We had to bury 12 children that day," said Sirajuddin. "Tell me, what was their crime?"
The next day, after the funerals, 500 villagers gathered at the home of one of their elders and voted unanimously to avenge the deaths from the mosque bombing and go after the Taliban. Sirajuddin volunteered to give up his job as a laborer and lead the militia.
Treacherous route
The Pakistan army recently took us on a two-day trip to Upper Dir to see firsthand the battle between these local tribesmen, who are now backed by the Pakistan army, and the Taliban.
The four-hour drive from a Pakistani army helipad adjacent to the Swat Valley to Dhogbala was treacherous.
Carved out from the valley’s rugged lower peaks, the narrow single lane road zigzagged along the emerald green Panjghor River, which flowed down from the snowcapped mountains of the Hindu Kush. Maple and hazelnut trees hugged the route. Our seven-vehicle convoy weaved in and out of the oncoming trucks as we drove higher and higher through miles of mulberry and orange groves that led straight up to the Taliban hideouts.
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| NBC News' Fakhar Rehman |
| A mountaintop view in the Upper Dir region of Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province. |
Our driver, who was nervous and ill-tempered for most of the journey, told us afterwards that he had been sure we were all going to die along the way from a suicide attack or a head-on collision.
Dir, once a princely state in British India, is divided into two regions, Upper and Lower Dir, and borders Afghanistan’s Kunar Province in the west and extends into the Swat Valley in the south. The estimated 1.9 million people who live in the area make their living from forestry and agriculture.
‘Get out of my village!’
When we reached Dhogbala, we met 11-year-old Akhtar Khan. He had his Kalashnikov trained on the surrounding hills as he sat on the roof of a boarded up shop and kept watch. "I quit school," he said. "I am ready to sacrifice my life for my country and fight these people who are giving Islam a bad name. They kidnap and kill and loot and plunder. We want them out of our lands."
Niaz Wali, a 22-year-old laborer, came back from his job in Kashmir to join the fight. "I am furious over the people who were killed in our mosque," he said. "I say to the Taliban: Get out of my village!"
So far, says Sirajuddin, he and his 500 men have killed dozens of Taliban militants and burned dozens more of their homes and hideouts to the ground. The Pakistani army has come to help with air support, ammunition and weapons. It leaders say that more and more of the tribesmen are joining in the fight, which has already sent more than 100,000 people fleeing the violence in both Upper and Lower Dir.
"We are doing all we can do," said Sirajuddin. "The army is doing all it can do, too. Now the government must come in and help our people who have lost their homes and all of their possessions."
