SONYA FATAH
Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Farmanullah Guljaan, 17 sits behind bars in Poli Charkhi prison, some 15 kilometres east of Kabul. He would have been home in Lodhikhel village in the tribal areas, finishing up his high school degree if he hadn’t been taken in by Taliban evangelists showing up every day at his school and weaving heroic tales of martyrdom, passports to heaven and countless virgins to tend to his every need.

But Mr. Guljaan, who says his village is not a Taliban stronghold, found himself intoxicated by the thought of early entry past heaven’s gates. He dropped out of Kamaruddin School, where he was in eighth grade and began attending classes at a camp some distance away. Every time he went away to the camp, he told his parents who had eight other children to tend to, that he was going to visit relatives in Peshawar. They had no reason to be suspicious.

Mr. Guljaan’s ‘relatives’ turned out to be trainers at a local camp not too far away. After two years of being brainwashed with anti-American propaganda, Mr. Guljaan was given an assignment – he was to kill the governor of Jalalabad. The weapon of choice: explosives attached to his body.

Mr. Guljaan, however, failed to complete his mission. Afghanistan’s intelligence agency received word about his mission, and foiled the attack. The day Mr. Guljaan and his partner, Abdul Qudoos, also 17 arrived in Jalalabad, the two were detained. They have since spent the last few months in the lock-up, after a series of investigations have revealed the manner in which they were recruited, taught and sent on missions.

Their stories are not unusual. Their confessions are part of a growing file documenting the experiences of other young, impressionable teenagers easily groomed for revolution and brainwashed with anti-western propaganda. Of the many men sent on suicide missions few are caught before the deed is done. But Mr. Guljaan joins a group of 15 young men who have been arrested in Kabul by Afghan intelligence authorities since 2005. Most of the young men pulled out to commit attacks end up successful. Among those caught, few find themselves in Afghan jails. If caught before their mission is carried out, they usually detonate themselves to avoid capture.

“According to our information most of the young men who commit suicide bombs are between 13 and 20 years in age,” says Saeed Ansari a spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, or NDS, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency. “They are indoctrinated with religious views.” In some cases, Mr. Ansari said, those assigned to a mission were informed of their specific role through a hand-written letter, a veritable passport to heaven.

The training camps, Afghan authorities say, are all in Pakistan, although those who carry out the attacks can be Pakistani, Afghani, Chechen, Arab or Kazakh. Despite President Musharraf’s public offer to give absolute assistance to jointly work to root out the camps, NDS officers say cooperation with the Inter Services Intelligence, or the ISI, is non-existent.

Earlier this year, Afghan president Hamid Karzai pardoned failed suicide bomber, Rafiqullah, 15, who was from Shamen Qile in Mateen District in southern Waziristan. Mr. Rafiquallah’s mission had been to kill the governor of Khost province. His parents had no idea that he had been recruited by a madrassa in their village. After their son was returned to his home village with the president’s pardon and $2000 USD, his parents withdrew him from that madrassa. A host of other parents followed suit. The villagers of Rafiqullah’s area were so opposed to the madrassa’s activities that they came together and fought against Baitullah Masood, the 37-year old Taliban commander from Waziristan. Eventually, Mr. Masood withdrew.

Mr. Guljaan hopes that the president will be so kind to him. He is lodged, at present, at Poli Charkhi prison, set against the landscape of barren land and dusty mountainside. Built in the mid-1970s during the time of then-president Mohammed Daoud Khan, it is legendary for nighttime executions of political prisoners by communist forces in the country. Thousands of peoples were shot and killed, and a mass graves bearing their remains was unearthed in December 2006. Today there are about 1,300 prisoners here, about 350 of who have links with the Taliban.

Mr. Guljaan says he is well looked after here. There is even a madrassa that he attends to get increase his knowledge of Islam. Prior to going on his mission for the Taliban, Mr. Guljaan didn’t know much about Islam. He had read the Quran only in Arabic, a language he can read but not understand. His inspiration came from other sources.

“I saw a video on my cell phone. A video of American soldiers storming peoples houses, killing little children, and stamping on the Quran,” he says. That angered him but he was also excited at the prospect of being fast tracked to heaven. His father, who was a labourer, is currently unemployed he says.

Perhaps Mr. Guljaan’s less than convincing reasons for joining the movement also worried his Taliban commanders. Unlike most other suicide bombers, Mr. Guljaan was sent on his mission with a partner. The two were introduced to one another a day they set off for Afghanistan. The partner, Abdul Qudoos, was to egg Mr. Guljaan on, and set off the bomb by pressing a button on the remote control as Mr. Guljaan approached his target. He was then to return with news of their success.

But Mr. Qudoos and Mr. Guljaan were caught the night they entered Jalalabad, hours before they could complete their mission.

As he sits in jail contemplating his situation, Mr. Guljaan wonders what better fortunes awaited him if he hadn’t made what he describes today as a ‘big mistake.’ “I could’ve become a teacher, or gone into construction industry like my father,” he pauses. “I don’t know. How could I know?”

Some say the young failed suicide bombers reflect the tragic lack of proper guidance from community leaders, parents and the state.

“At that age your capacity to think is not developed,” said a senior NDS official who did not want to be named. “You are more a receiver of information or knowledge and haven’t shaped your own way of thinking yet.”

It’s difficult to know much about those who take their lives in suicide attacks but the testimony of youth like Mr. Guljaan, Mr. Qudoos, and Mr. Rafiqullah weave a tale of youth easily misled by fantastical visions, doctored videos and promises of passports to heaven.

Analysts are skeptical Afghan leader’s overture will alter Taliban policy

Sonya Fatah
THE TORONTO STAR, September 24, 2007

ISLAMABAD–As Canadian policymakers debate the possibility of a negotiated settlement to the Afghanistan conflict, the experience of neighbouring Pakistan in dealing with the Taliban offers a lesson in political realities.

When Afghan President Hamid Karzai summoned Canadian journalists to his palace in Kabul last week, he made a point of stressing the need to talk to the Taliban. Despite contradictory comments by purported Taliban members quoted in the media – such as preconditions that all foreign troops must first depart – Karzai insisted that reliable communication channels are opening up.

But in Pakistan, analysts remain skeptical that Karzai’s overtures are anything more than routine rhetoric, or that the Taliban are in a position to speak with one voice at a time when the battlefield remains in a state of flux.

Indeed, the Pakistani experience in negotiating with Afghan players along the border – diehard Taliban or ethnic Pashtun – has been an exercise in frustration.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been pushing direct negotiations for the past few years but with no concrete results to show for his efforts. A Pakistan-Afghanistan peace jirga (conference) held in Kabul over four days in early August was meant to decrease tensions on either side of the border.

That such a jirga was organized has been seen as a positive development, but critics say such efforts are superficial. Moreover, Karzai’s talks suggestion seems difficult to orchestrate given the response from Taliban representatives. Any dialogue is dependent upon the withdrawal of foreign armies, including 2,500 Canadian troops, Taliban elements have told the media. Such a withdrawal appears highly unlikely in the current setting.

“There is a lot of unnecessary excitement about Karzai’s comments,” said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a veteran journalist, who heads the Peshawar bureau of the English daily, The News. “There is nothing new in these proclamations.”

A month after the Kabul jirga, little has been done to push the bilateral peace process. A 50-member joint committee remains unformed. Neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan has nominated the 25 representatives that were to be a part of the reconciliation process.

“There is no change in Taliban policy,” said Yusufzai. “There is no change in Karzai’s policy. The peace jirga was just a political gathering with no real outcome.”

Moreover, critics say the meeting was something of a sham. A real jirga, they note, is a democratic process that can take anywhere from 15 to 30 days to conclude.

In Afghanistan, the meeting was seen as a positive step but many criticized the overtly Pashtun nature of the jirga, which excluded other ethnic groups.

“I think the jirga shows that everyone has realized that the best way to solve the current problem is through negotiations,” said Misbahullah Abdul Baqi, associate professor at International Islamic University, Islamabad. “Even the Pashtun nationalists who were at the table were saying they were for talks.”

One reason for Karzai’s interest in discussions has been tied to his Pashtun ethnicity. He is under considerable pressure to address the issue and to be seen as more than just Kabul’s ruler. And while Afghanistan deals with a more resilient insurgency, Pakistan is facing its own problems as recruits from the tribal areas head east into the country to set off suicide bombs.

In both countries now, the targets are government officials who are seen to be pro-Western.

“It’s not just the Taliban,” said Misbahullah. “If you look at Pakistan – the entire tribal region from Darra Adam Khel onwards is filled with Taliban sympathizers. They have used military solutions in Waziristan (tribal area) but that has not worked. So, I feel there is a change in mentality because all other options have been exercised and have failed.”

What that means in terms of real concrete steps is difficult to ascertain. Long-time insiders say that Pakistan’s hands are tied because of its allegiance to the United States.

“There is no independent Pakistan policy on Afghanistan at the moment,” says retired Gen. Hameed Gul, former chief of the Inter Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s top spy agency that has been credited for creating and encouraging the Taliban to further Pakistan’s policy of strategic depth in the region.

A combination of military solutions and negotiations have served to swell the rising tide of extremism within Pakistan, increasing the number of suicide attacks and anger towards the Pakistani government, says Gul, who believes the Taliban have been alienated as a result of Musharraf’s policies.

Six years later, Pakistan has little power to negotiate with the Taliban, who now view its government as an extension of the American war on terror. “The Taliban simply don’t trust Pakistan anymore,” says Gul. “They are looking less and less towards Pakistan, and instead developing some kind of a relationship with Iran.”

The Globe and Mail, Wednesday, May 23, 2007
SONYA FATAH

ISLAMABAD — Peace in Afghanistan will not come at the barrel of a gun, Pakistan’s besieged President, Pervez Musharraf, said in a wide-ranging interview in which he suggested talks with the Taliban could be necessary to bring stability to the war-torn country.

“We have to have a multipronged strategy. In Afghanistan it is only the military strategy which is working now,” General Musharraf said in an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail.

“[The] political element is the negotiations between warring factions. Who are the warring factions? Warring factions are the Afghan government and the coalition forces on one side and the militant Taliban and even non-Taliban … so some form of negotiations between these two.”

“Maybe, there are groups who want to give up militancy and negotiate … so I can’t lay down whether you negotiate with the Taliban, but [if] they want to go on fighting, you don’t negotiate with them, take a military angle. You negotiate, you develop contacts with people who are not for fighting.”

Taking little responsibility for the growing sense of political instability in Pakistan and increased militancy along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, a defiant Gen. Musharraf insisted that Pakistan was the only country that had a military, political, developmental and administrative strategy to defeating extremism.

“I would tell everyone: Come and learn from us. We are sitting here knowing exactly what is happening on the ground,” he said. “You sitting in the West don’t know anything. So, don’t teach me, come and learn from us. Come and understand the environment. And then decide on what has to be done and what doesn’t have to be done.”

The President also did not back down from controversial comments he made last year comparing the casualties suffered by Canada and the Pakistani military.

“Unfortunately the people in the West think that their lives are more important than our lives. … They think the gun fodder should be from these countries like Pakistan and developing countries,” he said.

“If their soldiers, one soldier, dies, there is a problem, but 500 of ours have died. And then, yet they are blaming us. Isn’t 500 important? … And yet Pakistan is blamed for not doing enough.”

Gen. Musharraf’s confident assertiveness during the interview is at odds with the mood in Pakistan, where growing protests after his suspension of the nation’s top judge and riots in the country’s largest city present him with the greatest challenge of his nearly eight-year run as president and army chief.

Critics have assailed Pakistan over a controversial 2006 peace deal with pro-Taliban militants aimed at ending five years of violent unrest in the semi-autonomous North Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan. The accords brokered between the government and the pro-Taliban political party, the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam, after which the government released militants, were seen by many as a setback for the government and a victory for extremist forces.

But Gen. Musharraf defended the approach of reaching out to local power brokers as a way of breaking the cycle of violence. “These are the tribal maliks [leaders] and elders. Locate them. Identify them, deal with them, wean them away. That’s the strategy that should have been adopted a long time back, but we left the field open for the Taliban, so every one is now suppressed and they are scared. Either they have joined them or they are lying low.”

Although Pakistan’s intelligence agency has been accused of helping establish the Taliban movement, Gen. Musharraf insists his country played no role, although he acknowledges it gave the extremists legitimacy by being among the only countries to establish diplomatic relations when Taliban mullahs took over the government of Afghanistan.

“I know for sure – 200 per cent – that they were not a creation of Pakistan. They were a creation of circumstances in Afghanistan,” he said. “They [Afghan warlords] were ravaging and killing and butchering each other. That gave rise to this.”

While admitting he was concerned about the growing domestic opposition to his government, Gen. Musharraf emphasized the achievements made by his administration during the interview.

Nonetheless, politically the General is still struggling to contain the fallout from his March 9 firing of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, recent violence in Karachi and an on-going stand-off between the government and hard-line Islamists holed up in an Islamabad mosque.

A rolling series of protests and strikes have been led primarily by legal bodies and supported by opposition parties. The Islamist coalition that allowed the General to stay in uniform, has become very vocal in its opposition to him.

May 23, 2007 at 2:00 AM EDT

The Globe and Mail: What is your vision for Pakistan in the next 10 years?

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf: Of course, I want Pakistan to be a very progressive and moderate Islamic country, and that is my broad concept.

Within that, my main focus has to be on sustaining the economic growth because from that flows the social and economic development of Pakistan.

And if we want to sustain all this, we have to defeat extremism and terrorism. That is the overall strategy that I have.

The Globe: Do you believe that this can be achieved only with you at the helm?

President Musharraf: No, nobody is indispensable.

I think we have set processes. We have introduced sustainable democracy in that all the tiers of government are functioning — the senate, the national assembly and the provincial assembly, and we’ve introduced the third year of government, the local government system. When all these assemblies are functioning, parliament is functioning, there is an automatic system of throwing up leaders. Nobody is indispensable.

The Globe: You have talked a lot about “enlightened moderation” and putting emphasis on education in the country. Do you feel that that goal has been achieved, or is being achieved?

President Musharraf: This is not such a short-term strategy that it can be seen in six months or one year, and basically at the grand strategy level . . .

I propounded this theory for the world, actually . . . because of the turmoil in the world, and the turmoil in the Islamic world. Therefore, I came up with this concept of “enlightened moderation,” which is a two-pronged strategy.

One of the prongs [is] to be delivered by the Muslim world and that is by rejecting extremism and terrorism, and going on the path of social and economic development through restructuring the OIC. It is the only organization representing the entire Muslim world. So this was their part.

The other prong of this strategy was to resolve political disputes and this has to be done by the West and the United States.

And I’ve always said that both these prongs have to work in tandem. You have to resolve political disputes so that the Muslims shun or reject extremism and terrorism. If you don’t do that, I don’t think you are going to succeed.

So, that is the broad concept of enlightened moderation on a global plane.

Then, of course, I’ve also said in the Islamic world plane [what's needed is] the restructuring of the OIC. That is happening — the restructuring of the OIC is going on.

On the other side — the other prong of resolving political disputes — a lot of activity is going on but we haven’t made headway because the core issue is Palestine.

Now when you bring this enlightened moderation down to Pakistan level, now you come to the domestic level and the regional level. Yes, at the regional level, as I said, the contribution is rejecting extremism and terrorism and going on the path of social and economic development.

That has a connotation regionally so we have to fight extremism and terrorism in the region, especially on our western border. And that is what we are doing, and going on the path of socio-economic development.

So, wherever there is extremism, we need to fight that, curb that, and bring moderate forces up domestically. So this is the entire concept. It has a global context, it has a Muslim context, it has a regional context, it has a domestic context. So this cannot be achieved overnight.

Let me hone in, then on education in Pakistan. Many analysts say the problems in Pakistan are exacerbated because there are a lot of young people who are jobless, a lot of people who are going through an education system that is not very good.

So, for instance, you may come out with an engineering degree but it’s hard to find a job because you have the qualifications on paper but not know-how. At an elementary school level, at a middle school level, at a high school level, at all levels there is a problem. There aren’t teachers coming to schools.

Many of the people who marched in the streets when the protests against the cartoons happened were there because they had nothing to do.

On one level, they see all this development happening, all these products that are available, and consumerism that they cannot have. So it is easy for them to move into thuggery or extremism.

Yes, this is the malaise of every developed country. Poverty, unemployment is a main malaise of every developing country, even developed countries.

Now, lets talk of Pakistan. Yes, indeed, like the developing world, we also have this problem. We have to curb or we have to reduce unemployment and poverty. This is what we have to do.

This also cannot be done overnight, that I take a policy decision today and we impact on it and remove all that in six months. No, it cannot be done.

Now, you have to see what direction we have taken. Yes, indeed, we are very very conscious of this.

First of all, this has a direct bearing on the economic performance of the country. So unless your economy is on an upsurge and moving fast, this cannot be addressed, so we are now, we have rectified the economy. Our economy is growing as at one of the best economies in the world. At 7 percent average [growth] over the last four years and we are going to maintain that this year also. Investment is coming into Pakistan in a big way and exports are expanding. New factories. New factories mean new jobs.

So with all this effort we have reduced poverty by [almost] 10 percent over the last five, six years from 34 per cent to 25.3 or 25.4 per cent. Now this is a big achievement but it is not enough because one in four is still poor.

So we are now taking more actions. What are more actions? We call them “targeted interventions.” That is, we now have an internship scheme. Anyone who has studied 16 years, through a higher education-recognized university, will be absorbed in the government at 10,000 rupees per month for one year without tests or without any interviews.

About 30,000 children are coming in. Already 15,000 have been taken in and more applications are being pruned. Now this is exactly targeting what you are saying.

Then we have launched the Roz Gaar Scheme. The Ros Gaar Scheme — the National Bank is going to give loans of 15,000 rupees or 20,000 rupees at an interest rate of only six per cent. And, with a down payment of only five per cent.

So there are thousands of people who have applied and got rickshaws, for example. A rickshaw is about 60,000 rupees to 75,000 rupees They just have to pay about 4,000 rupees, 5,000 rupees, and get a rickshaw and earn.

Recently they showed an interview of a rickshaw driver in Larkana and he said: “For 20 years, I was a frustrated man.” Now, he says: “I am earning about 20,000 to 25,000 rupees a month. I have to return only 3,000 to 4,000 rupees and I get the remaining in my pocket.

Similarly, we are encouraging girls and women to take this loan and open PCOs, public call offices, through a mobile telephone. That is also happening. So this is targeted intervention. And mobile utility source, etc. I don’t want to get into details.

So, this is the real crux, The government first has to rise economically and then convert that economic gain and then transmit it down to the people. And we have a strategy to do that. So, this is the way of doing it — to bring poverty down and unemployment down. That is what we are doing. No quick fix.

The Globe: The business community has been supporting you for a long time now, and despite the events of the past few weeks, it continues to support you. Could you talk a little bit about the economic reforms that have been brought in under your leadership?

President Musharraf: Yes, certainly, they are supporting me because they have all gotten richer by — I don’t know how-many times.

So when Pakistan’s economy is going up, they also go up, every businessman is going up. Every trader today is making tremendous amount of money because people — per-capital income in Pakistan has more than doubled.

That means what? That means people have more money and they spend more money. When they spend more money, businessmen earn more money and there is a great demand-supply gap because they have more money — they are buying more, supply is at the same level, it’s not growing at the same level that they are getting money. So therefore there is a big demand-supply gap. So, any businessman coming into business at this moment, because there is a demand-supply gap — basic economic theory — you profit, the profit is more, unless you cover this gap.

So, businessmen are laughing all the way [to the bank]. Look at the stock exchange. In 2000, the Karachi Stock Exchange was just about 900, 960 or something. Today, it has crossed 12,500. People have made trillions, not billions.

The Globe: And this is because of opening up the economy?

President Musharraf: Yes, that’s because of our basic strategy. I mean, how did we achieve this? How did you turn this around? Because of our basic strategy that we adopted of deregulation, liberalization and privatization.

This was the basic concept and then we went on to see where is the problem.

[We asked:] Why is our economy failing? Why are we a failed state?

And we saw that this was because of our local fiscal deficit, our expenditures being far more than our earnings. Our fiscal deficit was about eight per cent. It had even gone into double figures. This is terrible. You can’t spend much more than you can earn.

And on the other side, the external balance of payments was in deficit by about $4-5 billion a year — again, earnings in dollars, foreign currency earnings, much less than expenditures. When you have this gap, where do you get this $4-5 billion. You run to IMF and World Bank.

And when your economy is not performing and your GDP is barely $62 billion, they give you interest at heavy rates because they don’t want to sink their money.

Therefore, all this had to be addressed and we addressed it. We reduced the fiscal deficit to under four per cent. Today, I think it is 4.2 percent. And we converted the external balance of payments deficit into a surplus. So this is what we did and the economy turned around.

The Globe: What are your thoughts on nuclear development in Iran?

President Musharraf: Our government policy is very, very clear. We are against proliferation. We don’t want anyone to acquire more nuclear weapons. In fact, with all this turmoil going on in the world, we should be talking of reducing nuclear arsenal. So, this is out policy.

Having said that, we at the same time believe that nuclear energy is the right of every country. This is our policy.

The Globe: So Iran should be able to go ahead with commercial nuclear energy?

‘
President Musharraf: Yes, absolutely. That is the right of every country.

The Globe: Do you favour negotiating with the Taliban to fight extremism?

President Musharraf: We have to have a multi-pronged strategy.

In Afghanistan, it is only the military strategy which is working now. We feel that it has to be multi-pronged, and the multi-pronged strategy must have a political element, also a reconstruction element. And that is what we believe. And that is what we are doing in our part of the tribal agencies. That is what we believe.

Now, when we talk of the political element, what is the political element. The political element is the negotiations between warring factions. Who are the warring factions? The warring factions are the Afghan government and the coalition forces on one side, and the militant Taliban and even non-Taliban — Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is not a Taliban. So some form of negotiations between these two. On the other side with those who are not for militancy.

Maybe, there are groups who want to give up militancy and negotiate a peaceful . . . so I can’t lay down whether you negotiate with the Taliban. But if they want to go on fighting, you don’t negotiate with them, you take a military angle. But you do negotiate, you develop contacts ,with people who are not for fighting. This should have been done a long time back.

Because here there is a tribal system, and in a tribal system — if anyone has read the history of this place — never have the Taliban reigned supreme. In a tribal culture, the cleric was confined to the mosque. It was the tribal malik who was the elder, who was listened to, who had the power in his respective tribe.

Now where are those tribal maliks? They are there. They were suppressed after the Taliban emerged in Afghanistan. This was the first time in centuries that the authority of the tribal maliks was eroded when the Taliban came up between 1995 and 2001.

And then the 9/11 disaster [happened]. They [the Taliban] were defeated. They were bombed and they ran helter-skelter. Now the same Taliban are regrouping and doing whatever they are doing.

But where are tribal maliks? Have they joined them? Are they against them, are they neutral?

The Globe: You tell me.

President Musharraf: Yes, indeed they are there. They are there but they are dormant. They have been suppressed. They are scared, maybe. We can bring them up if we were to adopt a strategy of seeing . . . you see the strategy that we have adopted. What is our strategy in the tribal agencies? Wean away the population.

Every individual is not a Taliban. Yes, indeed, every Taliban is a Pashtun. But every Pashtun is not a Taliban. So, where are the non-Taliban Pashtun? Who is contacting them? Who is encouraging them? Who is bringing them up? We must do that.

And this is the area where we can locate people who are not for fighting and militancy, who want peace and they held sway over their tribes in the past. These are the tribal maliks and elders. Locate them. Identify them, deal with them, wean them away. That’s the strategy that should have been adopted a long time back. But we left the field open for the Taliban so every one is now suppressed and they are scared. Either they have joined them or they are lying low. They are abetting, maybe they are encouraging, or abetting or they are doing nothing. They are neutral.

The Globe: Are you taking some responsibility for not having addressed this issue earlier?

President Musharraf: We have adopted this strategy for the last two years now . . . Now, I’m not taking responsibility. Every one has a responsibility for whatever failures and successes.

You see, now, when did the Taliban come up? After 9/11 the Taliban were defeated. All al-Qaeda who were in Afghanistan who were original mujahideen brought from all over the world, who coalesced into al-Maida after 1989, after the withdrawal of Soviets. What happened to them? After 9/11 they were in Afghanistan, all of them. They ran into Pakistan.

So we had to combat al-Qaeda — the Taliban having been defeated. So we started combating al-Qaeda. For two years, three years, I think we were combating al-Qaeda. They were in all our cities — in Islamabad, in Rawalpindi, in Karachi, in Lahore, in Faisalabad, in Gujarat.

We got them. We combated them.

The phenomenon of the Taliban [resurgence] emerged maybe two or three years back. I don’t exactly remember. 2003, maybe. Now, we started combating the Taliban again.

That is when we started thinking that the military approach alone is the way of dealing with it.

But we realized “no.” We should go on a four-track strategy.

So, we adopted the military approach but then we went on to wean away — let’s wean away the population from the Taliban. So, therefore, we started holding jirgas for exactly those people who are not for fighting and reached an agreement with them, and this was the second aspect, the political aspect.

The third aspect was, let’s go for reconstruction. Not reconstruction in our case, nothing was destroyed. But there was infrastructure lacking. So developmental activity I would say. Go for development. Pump in money to develop on the socio-economic side: poverty alleviation, job creation, schools . . . schools with hostels, even for girls.

The Globe: And you’ve been doing all this?

President Musharraf: Yes, exactly. All this, and administrative. Bring the administrative machinery up. The institution of the political agent who used to be like the deputy commissioner there — bring him because he was suppressed after the military came in. 80,000 military troops came in. They took over everything. We thought, no. Military should be in the supporting role. It should be there. But the administrative machinery should be revitalized. So this is the overall strategy we had — a four-pronged strategy. We adopted this two years back. So, who is not doing anything.?And nothing of this sort is being done in Afghanistan.

The Globe: Do you feel the expectations of you and of your government by the international community are unreasonable, given the geographical and political landscape of the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan?

President Musharraf: Yes, they are most unreasonable . . . Many times, the media is doing the blaming — blaming Pakistan more than the other countries. Whichever countries are involved — if you go and talk to their government functionaries. In Britain, go and talk to the commander of the British forces who has just gone back. In fact, very recently, just a few days back — the secretary of defence. I was reading in the mail his statements, which are nailing exactly this aspect that everyone is talking about.

Pakistan is doing a lot. Pakistan is the only country, which has this strategy, which I have told you. You go and ask anyone else: What are you going to do? And other than the military option, they are not going to talk about anything else.

So, this is an impression, which is being created by the media, that we are not doing enough. And then they talk of what needs to be done here without knowing anything.

We should not be told what needs to be done. I would tell everyone: Come and learn from us. We are here sitting here knowing exactly what is happening on ground. You sitting in the West don’t know anything. So, don’t teach me. Come and learn from us. Come and understand the environment. And then decide on what has to be done and what doesn’t have to be done. We are doing more than any other country in the world.

The Globe: How do you then explain the rise of an extremist environment in Pakistan both in the Frontier region — I think Peshawar has never been as uncomfortable as it is right now — and in Islamabad even. The rise of extremist forces that was not the case before in Pakistan’s history.

President Musharraf: Well, again, we have to see — has this come again, all of a sudden, in three months or four months. No, it has not.

The undercurrents were always there, they have just become more militant. This mosque that you are talking about and this madrassa where the women are, they have been there for years, since I don’t know how many years. They’ve been there but they’ve become more militant.

The Globe: They’ve never been comfortable making themselves quite as public as they are now, though.

President Musharraf: Yes, yes, indeed. This is a fallout of what has been happening for 30 years now, since 1979 onwards. This area was a battleground, in our west, in Afghanistan, where mujahideen and even students from the Taliban were trained and armed and sent in [to fight the Soviets]. 20,000 to 30,000 mujahideen came from all over the world. Armed, trained and conducted there. Everyone — the West and Pakistan — did this for 10 years.

It had a fallout here. And then after 1989 until 2001 . . . all this continued but everyone left. Pakistan was all alone and warlords were butchering each other, ravaging the country in the west. Simultaneously, the Kashmir freedom struggle started. All this again fallout on Pakistan. Then suddenly the Taliban emerged in 1995, and taht again impacted on Pakistan’s society.

The Globe: Are you saying the Taliban just emerged and Pakistan had no role in their emergence?

President Musharraf: Absolutely not. 200 per cent sure.

If anyone thinks that Pakistan created the Taliban — although I know there was an interior minister at that time in the government who very naively said they are my children and all that — but I know for sure — 200 per cent — that they were not a creation of Pakistan.

They were a creation of the circumstances in Afghanistan. The Afghans were ravaging and killing and butchering each other. That gave rise to the Taliban.

And it was an incident. There was a boy who was sodomized and he was killed. And it was this boy’s body which was taken to Mullah Omar by the people, and that sparked the start of Taliban.

He then called on the people . . . and then people started joining. And he started moving out. There were no battles. People joined them. That is how he could take 90 per cent of Afghanistan in months, not even a year. They didn’t fight. There were no pitched battles. There were only a few pitched battles. Very few. The people joined them.

The Globe: And when there were pitched battles, it was people like Maulana Samiul Haq who closed down Akora Khattak and sent his boys over.

President Musharraf: Yes, there was support from this side. Yes, indeed, there was support from this side.

There was Sufi Mohammad of PSNM in Malakand. He went in. So there was certainly support form here. And that was because, as I said, for 12 years, while all this was happening, we were on our own. There were four million refugees in Pakistan. Pakistan was left alone to do all this.

Then 9/11 came and its impact on Pakistan. Everyone running into Pakistan. So, we are a victim of the circumstances in Afghanistan.

And this society, our entire societal fabric got torn because of all that and that is what we are facing right now.

The Globe: What is your opinion on the exchange of money and captured Taliban for kidnapped aid workers and journalists in Afghanistan?

President Musharraf: Yes, I would like to comment. I think — on one side, one a matter of principle, one should never [do anything] . . . that encourages kidnapping. But on the other side, I would like to save these innocent people who have been kidnapped. I would like to do anything to save them.

The Globe: Let me ask you this: If a Pakistani journalist was kidnapped, what would you do?

President Musharraf: (Chuckles) I don’t know. I would like to save him. I would like to get him back by whatever means.

The Globe: Or her.

President Musharraf: (Laughs). Yes. Thank you for correcting me.

The Globe: NATO and the international forces have been criticized for the number of civilian casualties that are a result of military action. Do you feel that this is just collateral damage or a serious human rights concern?

President Musharraf: Collateral damage. I don’t think they are targeting civilians. Well, I shouldn’t say civilians. Taliban are civilians. I don’t think they are targeting those that are not fighting.

In many cases, militant Taliban take refuge in places where there is a population or there are other people, so there is collateral damage.

In many cases, it is even exaggerated. I know some targets we attacked in Pakistan and destroyed. Everyone is shouting that these were children. I know in Bajaur agency where there were 80 of them killed. People shouting around — their supporters — that these were all children. That is all nonsense. We know exactly — they were all militants, doing military training. So, exaggeration also, collateral damage also, a combination of all.

The Globe: When you were in the United States on your book tour, you gave an interview to CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which roused a bit of a controversy. You said something to the effect that Canadians were weeping over their losses when we have lost so many of our men. This roused a huge response in Canada because for Canadians every soldier who dies is a soldier lost in conflict. Do you think this is because there is more value for human life in Canada then there is in Pakistan?

President Musharraf: There is value for human life here also. But unfortunately the people in the West think that their lives are more important than our lives. That is the problem. They think the gun fodder should be from these countries like Pakistan and developing countries. If their soldiers, if even one soldier dies, there is a problem. But 500 of ours have died. And then, yet they are blaming us. Isn’t 500 important? Who blames us, and yet Pakistan is blamed for not doing enough. So, we should get 1,000 killed?

So, I am very sensitive to this. See, when you put on a uniform, what is the uniform for? For sitting at home? When I joined the army, what did I join the army for? For fighting. What else?

Either I have to fight at home to rectify some law-and-order situation or because the oath that I have taken when I graduated and when I put on my uniform that I would protect, safeguard the territorial integrity of Pakistan from external and internal threat. And I will go anywhere in the world, irrespective of the dangers to myself. This is the oath I have taken.

I don’t know what oath Canadians take when they put on their uniform. I mean, why are they putting on their uniform? They should not join the army at all. What for do they join the army? So that is what I am saying.

While I am very conscious of the fact — when we command troops and we go to war or we go into action, the first thing we must ensure is the safety and security of the people, of my under command, but not at the cost of failing in a mission. There is a mission at hand, you have to achieve that mission. If you compromise on the mission because you are going to suffer some casualties then why are you there?

The Globe: That doesn’t mean that you cannot want to limit the number of losses?

President Musharraf: Surely, you must limit them. A commander is useless if he cannot do that. But every time it cannot be ensured. And casualties will be suffered. All I said was — I didn’t mean that you should just go stupidly and suffer casualties. But casualties have to be borne.

You’re fighting here. This is a vicious enemy you are fighting and you have come here to resolve the Afghanistan conflict. So there is a military element to it. So in this fighting you may suffer casualties. So this is what I mean.

The Globe: What is your view of regional powers in the current Afghanistan conflict? There has been some talk that Iran has been supporting the Taliban.

President Musharraf: I wouldn’t like to comment on that. We don’t have concrete evidence that Iran is supporting the Taliban. May I say from a sectarian point of view that may not be the case. Taliban are Sunni, Iran is Shia. There is not much activity between the two.

The Globe: How do you feel about India’s growing popularity in Afghanistan versus Pakistan’s growing unpopularity?

President Musharraf: Well, this is a cause of concern, a cause of concern because we feel that it is being used against us. That is a problem.

The Globe: In what way, being used against you?

President Musharraf: Well, I think fanning trouble in our backyards.

The Globe: Do you think the people of Pakistan care about democracy?

President Musharraf: Yes, of course, they do.

The Globe: You don’t feel that it is a Western imposition?

President Musharraf: No, but we have to tailor it to our needs. Unfortunately the West thinks we can import whatever is there in Pakistan. Everything must suit the environment. Democracy must be there but tailored according to the Pakistani environment.

The Globe: You have repeatedly said that martial law is not an option. Yet, Karachi has not seen the kind of violence that erupted a few days ago, since the turbulent era of the late 1980s and early 1990s. If such a situation occurred again, is martial law an option?

President Musharraf: No. No, it’s not.

The Globe: Will elections happen as scheduled?

President Musharraf: Yes, absolutely.

The Globe: In October?

President Musharraf: 100 per cent.

The Globe: Will you be willing to take off your military uniform?

President Musharraf: Yes. The people of Pakistan need to decide that. And I’ll take a decision according to the constitution of Pakistan.

The Globe: Are you afraid to take off your uniform?

President Musharraf: No. Not at all. I don’t have any personal … I don’t believe in perpetuating myself. I have no greed for anything. I am not greedy for money. I am not greedy for any stature. I am a very down-to-earth man. I love being with the people. I love being down to earth. I am not a person who has been born with a silver spoon. I have no problems.

The Globe: The MMA (Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal) had partnered with you. But recently have become very vocal in their opposition to you. Do you feel that is a threat to your government?

President Musharraf: The MMA was never a partner, except they joined to allow me to be in a uniform with a two-thirds majority. They were never a partner.

The Globe: Are you concerned about the increased vocalization of their opposition to you?

President Musharraf: Yes, there is a concern today, whatever is happening in the country today.

The Globe: Altaf Hussain is seen as the architect of violence in the late 80s and early 90s and your partnering with him has been received by many Pakistanis as your jettisoning or supporting the violence. Could you explain why you would partner with Altaf Hussain when he is seen by so many as a criminal?

President Musharraf: You must understand that there is an environment in Karachi and in this Karachi environment you must know that MQM (Mohajir Quami Movement) has a following and Altaf Hussain has a following whether you like it or not. On his call, hundreds of thousands of people come out. Do you have any doubt that he has a following there? Now, having said that, what is the course of action open? I am also a Karachiite and I know Karachi very, very well and I know the environment of Karachi. In 1993, 94, 95, you couldn’t move on Drigg road at nine o’clock at night in a car. That was the extent of terrorism and gang warfare that was going on in Karachi in the 90s. Even at that time, I used to say: What is the solution? This is a following of the people. What is the solution? One is, you keep fighting. The other is, that you moderate.

The Globe: In the way, that showed itself on the streets the other day?

President Musharraf: No, not at all. Not at all. Not at all. Now, let’s come to the reality now. First of all, I know that people are linking me to them. First of all, I am an Urdu-speaking man. But that mustn’t mean that I’m going to join anybody just because, on ethnic lines. We cannot convert this into ethnic. I am from Pakistan. I am a Pakistani. I believe in Pakistan much more than my being Urdu speaking or anything. However, I see realities on ground. Now, if you see the last five years, six years of Karachi, I think the development that has taken place in Karachi is phenomenal from all points from view — infrastructure development, even things like parks, even things like NAPA, National Academy for Performing Arts. So there is a transformation of Karachi for the better. There is a Nazim of Karachi today who is MQM. He is very dynamic. Look at the park he has made. Have you visited the park in Clifton? Now the issue is they have been performing and they are no more, they are not involved in any militancy. Now, let’s come to this incident. What happened now. The issue is that the judicial crisis has been politicized. Who has politicized it? Have they politicized it? It has been publicized by the opposition. And all these people who have converted this judicial case into a political issue. Now when you politicize this. It is an election year also. All political parties want to show their turf. If you think that you can have a free run and undermine other political parties, I don’t think these political parties are going to allow that.

The Globe: This doesn’t answer my question about Altaf Hussain.

President Musharraf: Just a second. I’m going to come to that. What happened in Islamabad was a show of force by PML (Pakistan Muslim League). What happened in Karachi was a show of force by MQM. Now, why did anyone knowing that this is happening — a jalsa — which they know they will be able to get hundreds of thousands of people out, why should you go there to fan trouble. And when you have gone there, when the government is offering you a helicopter to take you to the high court, why do you not accept that helicopter? The interior home secretary is sitting with you and asking you to go by helicopter. He’s asking you, ok, tell me your route and we will guide you and take you with perfection on to the high court.

The Globe: There is archival footage of police refusing to interfere.

President Musharraf: Yeah. First of all, your question was my involvement. Now, let me say all this happened . Even their women were sitting out on the streets. I don’t know who initiated the firing. Who did the firing, is the question. We need to find out and punish the culprits and take action. That is where I am against. Now, who the hell did the firing? Who the hell did the killing? But the political response was a natural response. If they had not done it they would have these people were going to go with all their supporters all over Karachi. They were not going to the High Court. They were going to Malir and Quaid-e-Azam Mazaar, roaming around all over Karachi and showing that Karachi is supportive of the opposition, the political parties. So therefore a reaction by MQM. Therefore a reaction in Islamabad by PML to show that the people are with us, and not with you. So this is a political game going on, politicized by them.

The Globe: Why was there a breakdown in law and order?

President Musharraf: Now the police action. It’s not so easy. If you think that police can come when there is firing going on. Let me assure you that I personally told them, that if you are doing this then make sure that wherever you are, never should you come in contact with opposition groups and that is where you need to have barricades in front and back, don’t come into contact, don’t get into militancy, don’t come into contact with opposition parties.

The Globe: So MQM did not listen to your advice.

President Musharraf: Yes, indeed. How did the firing take place, I don’t know. We need to find that out. Who initiated the firing but to cast aspersions this is exactly what the opposition wants to do. Opposition knows that if they want to destabilize the government and if they want to destabilize the ruling political party, what is the centre of gravity. I am the centre of gravity, they think. If they can destabilize me they will achieve their goals. And therefore everyone is targeting me. For anything that is happening, they are targeting me. Now this has happened, so they are targeting me, that this man is Urdu-speaking, and MQM is Urdu speaking, and therefore there is a collusion and thighs man can go. I don’t believe in these killings and I think normalcy is returning to Karachi. It was most unfortunate that the killings took place and my heart bleeds for whatever happened in Karachi because for seven years there was so much peace and so much development, and so much development in the pipeline. There is an overhead extra space in Karachi at the moment and there are so many projects that I have to go and launch. This water purification project, this desalinization project, which I have to go and launch and there is the water going into the sea. We have plans to develop a sewerage treatment plant so we can clean up this water. There are so many development projects coming up there. I want Karachi to be a beautiful Karachi and this is the contribution I must say of the present Nazim: six underpasses and flyovers, which I inaugurated in eight — 10 months. This is the development of Karachi. It is unfortunate that peace has been disturbed. And I would like to blame the opposition for politicizing this whole dispute and I would like to blame these people who went in spite of the fact that Karachi is the MQM’s stronghold. You cannot politicize in the stronghold of another party. You either are expecting them to stay low and in 2007 elections they lose ground because people see, where is the strength. So, you are asking for trouble. And then throwing the whole blame on others.

The Globe: Will you partner with Benazir Bhutto?

President Musharraf: I would like to partner with all moderate forces because the future is after the elections, or during the elections also. We must defeat the extremists. We must partner with moderate forces to defeat the extremists.

The Globe: Is Benazir a potential moderate force?

President Musharraf: Yes, she is a moderate force.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — When the U.S.-led bombing of Afghanistan began in the winter of 2001, Shawzia, now 25, was in the living room with her father and sister. She remembers hearing a plane rumble overhead before the bombs began to fall.

Shawzia’s father and one sister died instantly, but she survived. Her face was completely disfigured and over the months that followed, she began to lose her sight. Today, Shawzia is almost blind. The right side of her face has ballooned and slowly begun to encroach on the left side of her face. She is in constant pain.

“I would be happy today if she had also died,” says Modira, Shawzia’s mother, as she sits beside her disabled daughter. Shawzia, too, says she often wishes herself dead. When she walks down the street, people call her names and laugh at her. Her mother, a widow in a patriarchal culture, feels like one of many Afghan women left to pick up the pieces in a place with few services for the disabled.

War-related injuries account for about 17 per cent of Afghanistan’s 747,000 to 867,000 disabled people, according to a report released by Handicapped International. In 2005, the NGO reported that at least 2.7 per cent of the population had “severe difficulties in everyday functioning,” a number that has likely risen since then.

The Ministry of Martyrs and Disabled (recently renamed the Ministry of Social Labour, Martyrs and Disabled), makes a distinction between people disabled in war — by land mines or cluster bombs or in fighting — and those with congenital disabilities. Only war victims receive a meagre pension from the ministry.

“Part of the problem is even the government’s mentality is that war victims are special because they have sacrificed their lives for a cause, and others are disabled because God does not like them,” says Afghan Disabled Union’s Omara Khan.

The stigma also means many disabled Afghans live in virtual isolation, cut off from society and unable to integrate.

“Civil society doesn’t really exist here. Most of the services provided here are pretty basic or non-existent. Everything is new or has recently been set up,” says Arnaud Quemin, field program director for Handicapped International.

A number of international aid groups provide assistance in Kabul, although in rural Afghanistan, there is nothing. The International Committee of the Red Cross has been running a rehabilitation centre for the past 15 years, providing prosthetics and other services. Handicapped International helps run a Community Centre for the Disabled in Kabul’s Karta Sei district.

Saifuddin Nezami, the director at the centre, said he sees hundreds of people who feel hopeless. “A man came to me yesterday,” he said. “He told me, his wife had kicked him out. She told him, ‘You are not able to bring me any money or any food. What is the difference between you and me? You are a nuisance. Please leave the house.’ The man was desperate. He said, ‘Please help me. Or I will take some fuel and burn myself.’ ”

The stigma in a country where one in ever five families has a disabled person is part of the problem. “If there is a disabled child in the house, the opportunities for schooling, for training and for anything else go to the non-disabled child,” says Tina Singleton, Handicapped International’s project manager at the community centre.

“In the Ministry of Works and Public Affairs there is a rule that says that anyone who is disabled more than 60 per cent does not have the right to work in government.” Mr. Nezami looks at his leg, severed above the knee. “I don’t have the right to work in government.”

More than 70 per cent of disabled children cannot go to school, Mr. Nezami says. “Disability doesn’t mean inability,” says Mr. Nezami, whose centre has trained a good number of disabled people and found jobs for them. “But, in our country, they are not allowed to take part in society. So, a kind of grudge is created in their heart.”

With so few rehabilitation services available, suicide attacks can offer easy escape
The Globe and Mail, Monday, May 7, 2007

SONYA FATAH

KABUL — The suicide bombing at a Kabul Internet café drew attention for a number of reasons: It was one of the first in the Afghan capital after the fall of the Taliban; it struck a spot popular with foreigners; and a UN worker was among those who died along with the attacker, Qari Samiullah.

But a little-known fact about that 2005 blast offers a clue into the workings of the insurgents who recruit suicide bombers, and what, apart from religious propaganda, has motivated about 200 men to blow themselves up: In addition to being a deeply religious man, Mr. Samiullah was disabled.

His disability didn’t come as a surprise. As the insurgency in Afghanistan gathers urgency, the Taliban and other forces are recruiting marginalized and vulnerable groups to carry out suicide attacks while men from their own ranks keep up the ground offensive.

The pool of the disenchanted and hopeless is large in Afghanistan — people left on the fringes by their economic, physical or mental circumstances — and there are few services to rehabilitate them after three decades of war.

“Almost 90 per cent of [suicide bombers] are people with some form of disability,” forensic expert Yusuf Yadgari said.

Every bomber’s body in Kabul-based attacks passes through Dr. Yadgari’s morgue. He has so far detected such disabilities as muscular dystrophy, amputated toes, blindness, skin diseases and signs of mental illness in the bodies of suicide bombers.

Although no statistics are available, anecdotal evidence increasingly backs up Dr. Yadgari’s observations. Security experts argue that the Taliban seek out the disaffected, the poor and the marginalized, a group that certainly would include a majority of the disabled. And non-governmental organizations say reports of disabled people being trained as suicide bombers, although unproven, are common.

“One reason why people entertain the idea is there is complete loss of hope in being able to live a normal life,” said Firoz Ali Alizada, who lost his legs to a land mine and now uses artificial legs and crutches.

“In a culture like ours, disability and the possibility of being out on the street are equated with great shame. A man who is married and has children is suddenly incapable of supporting and feeding his family. … He might find it easier to die.”

Disabled people are a significant portion of Afghanistan’s population, but they live on the margins of its society. One NGO, Handicapped International, identifies nine dimensions of disability, including the ability to care for oneself, depression, epilepsy or seizures, and restrictions on physical movement. About 2.7 per cent of the population — 747,000 to 867,000 people — have very severe disabilities, according to the group.

When a wider segment of disability is included, the percentage skyrockets to 58.9. Even that, observers say, excludes mental disability and disabilities among women.

“It is clear that the Taliban are using financial incentives in many cases to encourage suicide bombers,” said Sam Zarifi, Asia Division research director of Human Rights Watch.

“It’s not just ideological fervour. It is clear that in a place like Afghanistan where there is a very weak economy, the handicapped, whether physically disabled or mentally challenged, are going to be more vulnerable to that kind of financial incentive.”

Money for suicide bombings is offered to families of the bombers, so they can live a better life, a compensation of sorts for the loss of a male breadwinner. Because the men often have not been able to earn very much, the money, which ranges in amount, is seen as a solid incentive.

Saifuddin Nezami, director of the Community Centre for the Disabled, who is himself disabled, said he can see how recruiting disabled people would be effective:

“In Kabul we have some services for the disabled … but in the provinces there is nothing — no services, no vocational training. They are isolated from society and life. This situation causes people to be very disappointed in life, to be depressive and to bear a deep grudge in their hearts toward society and other people.”

Suicide attacks in Afghanistan have risen dramatically in recent years, according to Human Rights Watch, which released a report on the subject last month. The tactic is a relatively new in the country, which saw only two suicide bombings in 2003. But the numbers grew from six such attacks in 2004, to 21 in 2005, to 136 in 2006. In the first 10 weeks of this year, there were 28.

In March, a suicide bomber attacked the car of a high-ranking Afghan intelligence official, killing four men and injuring six. When the bomber’s body was taken to the morgue at Kabul Medical Centre, its middle was missing, but half his legs, his arms and his head were more or less intact.

The bomber’s identity may still be unknown but his condition tell his story. The man was blind in one eye, his clothes torn and shabby, and weeks of grime were etched onto his skin.

Many cases of mental illness, mainly depression, can be judged from the condition of the bomber at the time of the attack, Dr. Yagadari said. “Their clothes and face are dirty. You can see that they are not interested in life. This is one of the first signs of depression, something that is rampant and unaddressed in Afghanistan.”

It is difficult to track people with mental disabilities because the stigma of those illnesses is worse, if possible, than that attached to physical ailments.

“If you walk down the street … you will notice that one of every three or four people is talking to himself,” Mr. Nezami said.

Sayed Azimi of the World Health Organization in Afghanistan, estimates that 50 per cent of the Afghan population suffers from some form of mental disability. The Afghan Health Ministry puts this number much higher, at 85 per cent.

Security analysts say the Taliban and other groups do not recruit suicide bombers from among their elite. “It’s true that the Taliban don’t use their best and brightest as suicide bombers,” said Philip Halton, managing director of Safer Access, which provides expertise for humanitarian aid groups.

“They do look for disaffected members of society, not only those who are disabled but those who are exceedingly poor, and they target those people.”

In early April, a program broadcast on al-Jazeera and Tolo television (Afghanistan’s private Dari-language channel) documented the stories of three young men from Waziristan in Pakistan’s tribal belt, all of whom showed clear signs of physical or emotional incapacity, who had been recruited as suicide bombers. All were apprehended by the Afghanistan intelligence service.

Ayatollah, 16, who had a long scar dug deep just above forehead, often sounded nonsensical. He said the Taliban told him there was a financial reward: ” ‘First you have to go to Kabul,’ they told me. ‘After you commit suicide, come back and we will give you the money.’ ”

A second man, Amanullah, who constantly contradicted himself, said he hoped for paradise but also expected to walk away alive after setting off the bomb. Ultimately, he was afraid to risk death, so he ripped apart the wires in his bomb pack and pulled out the battery. Now he sits behind bars under the supervision of Kabul’s intelligence services.

The case of Mr. Samiullah, the Internet café bomber, is slightly unusual in that he was middle-class.

Hamid Barakzai, a former high-school classmate, recalls bumping into his old friend several years after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Mr. Samiullah was still sporting the long beard advocated by the fundamentalist group.

“I asked him, ‘Why haven’t you cut off your beard? The Taliban are gone,’ ” Mr. Barakzai recalled. “He told me, ‘I am al-Qaeda. I will die al-Qaeda. Next time, I might take some infidel with me to the other world.’ I thought he was joking.”

Shortly after that conversation, in May of 2005, Mr. Samiullah blew himself up.

“A lot of suicide bombers have disabilities that prevent them from living a normal life,” Mr. Barakzai said. “When the Taliban see people like this they … tell them, ‘You cannot do anything with your life. You are useless. You cannot provide for your family. Why don’t you go to heaven and we will look after your family?’ ”

Recruitment

How new recruits find themselves among the insurgency’s suicide-bomber ranks.

Propaganda: Mobile phones are used to pass along videos of martyred young men. A young Afghan who lives in Pakistan received a video on his mobile phone that documented a suicide bombing near the Pakistani border, in Afghanistan. A man who had lost an arm and a leg is shown exercising and then driving an automatic car laden with explosives in Paktia province. Coalition forces can be seen in the distance as the bomber approaches them and detonates the bomb.

Compensation: In the early days of Afghan suicide attacks, the Taliban offered $250 (U.S.), sources say.

But that number has risen to as high as $10,000. A young man from Kandahar whose attack was foiled by police said he was offered $15,000.

Desperation: It’s not clear how many of the suicide bombers are Afghan but security analysts say that foreign fighters were among the bombers of 2003 and 2004. The trend is to use people who are not fit to fight.

“Most of the recruits are not Taliban,” said Haroun Mir, a former aide to the late, fabled Tajik warrior Ahmad Shah Massoud. “As long as you can fight, why blow yourself up?”

SONYA FATAH

DARRA ADAM KHEIL, PAKISTAN — Mohammed Tariq sits cross-legged on the raised wooden platform inside his arms store, cradling a gleaming new Kalashnikov. Rows of glistening semi-automatic firearms stand against the wall behind him.

He flips open the 2005 edition of Handguns. “See this?” he says, opening the book to a random page and pointing to an image of a handgun. “We’ve copied this perfectly. Have lunch with a retired brigadier or a retired colonel. You’ll find out everything.”

Tariq is no ordinary shopkeeper and Darra Adam Kheil, a one-strip town framed by the craggy, barren facade of the Kohat range in the lawless tribal belt of eastern Pakistan, is no ordinary place.

Studded with hashish bars, the town of 15,000 is the headquarters of the region’s illegal firearms market.

Here, small, storefront operations churn out knockoff versions of weapons at cut-rate prices, providing a key source of hardware for the Taliban, who are locked in an increasingly deadly battle with North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces across the border in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, most of whom are Pashtun and native to the region, were once completely dependent on Darra for their weaponry.

And while the militant Islamist group has developed other sources of supply, the town remains the cheapest, easiest place for foot soldiers to equip themselves before joining the insurgency.

While gun running has a long tradition in the region, the arms bazaar is a legacy of the proxy Cold War showdown between the mujahedeen and the Soviet Union.

The United States poured weapons into Pakistan during the Afghan war to arm the mujahedeen and stave off the Russians. Arms dealers, buyers and sellers cropped up overnight, stockpiling weapons in large arms reservoirs across Peshawar, the nearby provincial capital.

After the Russians retreated, no effort was made to reclaim the weapons, and arms manufacturing multiplied. In 2001, thanks to the proliferation of this homegrown arms market, it was estimated that there were 1.9 million licensed weapons in the North-West Frontier Province and a much larger number of unlicensed ones.

After the Russians retreated, no effort was made to reclaim the weapons, and arms manufacturing multiplied. In 2001, thanks to the proliferation of this homegrown arms market, it was estimated that there were 1.9 million licensed weapons in the North-West Frontier Province and a much larger number of unlicensed ones.

Darra has evolved into a firearms market, supplying arms to retired military officials, major security companies and the Taliban. The town’s gunsmiths have followed their grandfathers and fathers into the profession and despite several attempts to draw the most skilled into legitimate weaponry outfits elsewhere, the town continues to be a major production centre for illegal weapons.

The town is littered with small stores with names like Asia Arms Store and Haji Abdullah Jan & Sons Arms Store. In the alleyways that lead off the main street, hundreds of young gunsmiths bend over machines in an assortment of mini-factories that cater to the arms sellers.

It’s from Darra that the avid local hunter gets his rifle and where local tribesmen outfit themselves with the latest in semi-automatics. All varieties of firearms are available. Since the Afghan war, the weapon of choice has been the AK-47 assault rifle, the infamous Kalashnikov.

Raees Khan’s store inventory ranges from revolvers and pistols to semi-automatics. “Guns are an integral part of our culture. We don’t care if there is food to eat, but every man must have his weapon,” he says.

That’s a sentiment that reflects the gun-friendly culture of the region, where weapons are part and parcel of everyday life. They are particularly visible in the tribal areas, where man and gun are rarely separated.

Drugs and firearms flow freely in Darra, giving the place a lawless feel. Hash bars are interspersed among the firearms stores; various grades of hash, and sometimes opium, are openly advertised and consumed.

In one bar on the town’s edge, scales are used to weigh the hashish. Inside, a young seller uncorks a bottle filled with the rich, pungent drug that is rolled into a ball.

Higher quality hashish sells for the equivalent of about $1.50 a ball, while an inferior quality sold in long licorice-style sticks is about 40 cents.

An imitation repeater costs about $46, a G-3 semi-automatic runs $93, and a USP Tactical costs $75. If the licence plates on the cars parked along the street are any indication, Darra’s customers journey here on gun-buying binges from across Pakistan’s four provinces.

The Lion King was an Afghan, and he relied on the Grand Trunk to give his fighters the mobility they needed to keep his domain intact. More than 450 years later, those in charge of a sprawling complex of domes and spires that sit beside the road just east of its starting point, the Pakistani border city of Peshawar, are hoping their followers can do something even more dramatic — bring about an Islamist revolution. And many people around the world now wonder just how far they are willing to go to achieve it.

As investigators try to uncover who was behind last week’s apparent attempt to blow up as many as 12 U.S.-bound passenger planes over the Atlantic, they say they keep uncovering evidence that points toward Pakistan, especially its remote and often lawless provinces bordering on Afghanistan.

Peshawar is the capital of the North Western Frontier Province which, along with the neighbouring province of Baluchistan, is where so many of the “homegrown terrorists” being found in Muslim communities around the world have their family roots. This region is where they are believed to come to learn the art of war, and where Islamic militants are believed to be slipping back and forth across the border to attack the Canadian, American and British troops fighting to avert a Taliban comeback.

For here is where the more radical of Pakistan’s many madrassas, or religious schools, continue to transform the sons of poverty into dedicated warriors for their extreme brand of Islam.

Foremost among them is that collection of domes and spires beside the Grand Trunk: Darul Uloom Haqqania or, as it is known in some quarters, the “jihad factory.”

With more than 3,000 students on a campus that occupies eight acres in Akora Khattak about 50 kilometres from Peshawar, Haqqania is very impressive — as is its high-profile leader, Sami ul-Haq. For a man over 70, he cuts a striking figure, with his long, hennaed beard in stark contrast with the muted tones of his turban and robe.

Sami ul-Haq has run the school since 1988 when his father passed away. Abdul Haq was a maulana, or religious leader, who graduated from India’s leading Muslim academy, Darul Uloom Deoband, and returned to Akora Khattak, where he’d been born, to start Haqqania in 1947. Over time, however, the reform agenda of the Deobandi school changed under the influence of Pashtunwali, the conservative Pashtun tribal code.

His son, as well as being a maulana, is a politician — a member of Pakistan’s senate and the leader of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (S) or JUI-S, an Islamist party that places great emphasis on the Sunnah, the tradition of Prophet Mohammed, and adherence to sharia law.

He is also a good friend of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the one-eyed former Afghan president who gave shelter to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. Mullah Omar is the recipient of the only honorary degree Haqqania has ever granted, so it’s perhaps not surprising that the school sports a rich tradition of alumni engagement with the Taliban, both as leaders and foot soldiers.

For years, it has publicly declared its admiration for the fundamentalist cause. “The whole world is against Islam,” the openly anti-Western Mr. ul-Haq says in an interview. “Everyone is afraid of Islam. America, Europe, even the Far East is against us. They’ve perpetuated a myth against Islam, which is, ‘If you don’t support us against Islam, it will swallow you whole.’ ”

But is the “myth” really that far-fetched a notion? In neighbouring Afghanistan, “infidels” and invaders from the Russians in the 1980s to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops today have discovered just how tough it can be to wage war against radical Islam.

Haqqania became known as the jihad factory in 1997 when Mr. ul-Haq received a phone call from Mullah Omar. The Taliban had been badly defeated in an attempt to capture the northern city of Mazar-i Sharif, and the mullah was looking for reinforcements. So great was Mr. ul-Haq’s faith in the Taliban cause that he closed the school and shepherded his students across the border to join the fight. Then, when the city fell a year later, he reportedly organized a meeting with the leaders of 12 other madrassas to arrange for a further 8,000 recruits.

Since he fall of the Taliban, pressure from the government of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has forced him to maintain a lower profile. Gone is much of the incendiary jihadist bravado, and the school is no longer allowed to enroll students from abroad.

But as NATO troops fight for their lives in Afghanistan and authorities strive to keep terrorists off intercontinental airplanes, many observers suspect that Haqqania isn’t as divorced from the action as it may appear. “I think the links with the Taliban are very, very close,” Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid says. “I think they’re probably still consulting.”

In fact, they may be doing a lot more.

Newsline, Pakistan’s major investigative monthly, recently carried a cover story entitled, “The Taliban Strike Back” reporting that thousands of madrassa students, out of school for the summer, had crossed the rugged border between Baluchistan and Afghanistan to take part in the anti-NATO insurgency that has cost more than two dozen Canadian lives.

This week, Pakistani authorities announced that they had arrested 29 fighters at a hospital in Quetta, the provincial capital, adding to the 200 they apprehended in Baluchistan last month and lending further credence to the sense that the Taliban and al-Qaeda move back and forth between the two countries with ease, entering Pakistan for rest and medical treatment before heading back to the fray.

Mr. Musharraf has repeatedly said he is doing all he can to reduce the influx, which may be one reason Canadian and other NATO forces recently took control of security for southern Afghanistan. The move allows the United States to shift more of its 22,000 troops in the country toward the porous border and disrupt the flow of traffic across the Durand Line, which separates Pashtun Pakistan from Pashtun Afghanistan.

If this suggests a lack of U.S. confidence in the Pakistani military, it’s not without reason. When madrassa students first began to cross the border and fight, they were helping the Afghan mujahedeen drive out the Soviet forces that occupied Afghanistan until 1992. At that time, they were financed and armed, like Osama bin Laden, by the United States. And they enjoyed the support of many sympathizers within Pakistan’s government and intelligence services — a deep, complicated relationship that solidified when the Taliban came to power in 1996 and is believed to continue to this day.

Having destroyed communism, many militants came to believe they could destroy capitalism as well, especially as many felt they had been betrayed by the United States after its own interests had been achieved in the region. As many of its students were Afghans born and raised in nearby refugee camps, many of the Taliban’s key leaders emerged from Haqqania.

In fact, Sami ul-Haq has complained that Pakistani intelligence agencies didn’t give him enough credit for his services. In an interview with Ahmed Rashid in 1999, he seemed bitter that “we were ignored, even though 80 per cent of the commanders fighting the Russians in the Pashtun areas had studied at Haqqania.”

Today, support for the Taliban is expressed less openly, but in the May issue of Al-Haq, the institute’s monthly Urdu-language publication, editor Rashid ul-Haq (Sami ul-Haq’s younger son) wrote a stinging critique of “puppet” Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

“In comparison to his rule, the Taliban’s governance was a thousand times better, organized and more peaceful,” he insisted. “Despite the financial support from the United States, NATO and the entire world, Afghanistan is miles away from rebuilding and development, and poor Karzai is himself physically restricted to the city of Kabul . . .

“In these circumstances, if freedom fighters are attacking, why is there such a noise being made about this situation? When stones are thrown into people’s homes, those people will not send back flowers and petals and an assortment of gifts.”

In the air-conditioned library at Haqqania, Rashid ul-Haq confirms his feelings over a cup of sweet tea and biscuits fresh from the bakertd biscuits.

“The Taliban,” he says, “brought peace for five to six years. They made it pure. Now, the struggle is ongoing. You’ve heard the news — the Taliban have recaptured some places.”

In its heyday, not so long ago, Haqqania had a strong program for foreign students on a quest for Islamic knowledge — one of its nine hostels, the Ihata Mawara Annaher, was specifically for those from Central Asia. But since “the United States put pressure on our government,” the younger Mr. ul-Haq says, “we no longer have foreign students.”

In 2003, Mr. Musharraf passed a law that requires all madrassas to end their foreign programs, and Haqqania officials say they have complied with the ban.

But analysts call measures like this superficial, saying that activities once conducted in the open, and thus traceable, are now well concealed. And despite official Pakistani denials, many closet Taliban sympathizers remain within the administration and intelligence agencies.

“The [federal] government has not abandoned the Taliban, and there is definite support from provincial governments,” says Mr. Rashid, the journalist.

Both NWFP and Baluchistan are governed by Islamist parties that are sympathetic to the Taliban cause and have made efforts to Islamize the region. In Peshawar, the faces of women in billboard advertising have been blanked out.

However, the Taliban and Islamist parties have many critics in the political opposition, such as Bashir Bilour, provincial president of the secular Awami National Party. “After 9/11, America came to Afghanistan. Our party was the only one to support them because we knew that we, alone, did not have the resources to fight them,” he says in an interview at his home in Peshawar. “We lost the elections because of that.”

Mr. Bilour believes Mr. Musharraf is not doing his best to curb extremism in the country. “We have 80,000 forces in the region. There are 600 Taliban. Why can’t they control it?” In fact, “if President Musharraf is sincere, he can easily do it.”

But he feels the President suspects he is important to the United States only as an ally in the war on terror. “If they finish the Taliban, he will be finished” as well, he says.

On the other hand, Mr. Musharraf claims to be a secular leader, yet he has alliances with Islamist parties, some of whom are deeply opposed to the very principle of secular rule. For example, a brochure for Darul Aloom Haqqania heralds Sami ul-Haq’s fight: “He has constantly struggled against irreligious elements, socialist and communist parties.” And the school’s eight objectives include pledges to “edify Islamic values and safeguard Muslim culture and civilization from corrupting influences.”

The godfather of the Taliban clearly advocates a strict interpretation of Islam. It was he who, 20 years ago, brought the bill before the senate that made sharia the law of the land, something most Pakistanis have resisted.

But despite this drive to protect Muslims from corrupting influences, Mr. ul-Haq is jokingly known as “Sammy Sandwich,” a reference to an exposé several years ago in which he was caught on film sandwiched between two women. The maulana was described as a friend of and frequent visitor to Madam Tahira, an Islamabad brothel owner, news that was quickly hushed up, although the memory lingers.

At Haqqania, however, his reputation remains unsullied. Here, he is revered.

Most of the 3,000 students come from poor families and a good percentage of them are still Afghan youngsters, and Mr. ul-Haq says he is infuriated by claims that, because of their heritage, they are bound to become terrorists. “There are many children in the refugee camps around here,” he says. “Some of them study in universities and government schools. Some study here.

“If a child wants to study something about Islam and he enters the madrassa, he is automatically labelled a terrorist. The actual reason, the truth is, that they are trying to kill the spread of Islam. They want Muslims to remain wild animals.”

To keep that from happening, Haqqania offers students a 5,000-seat auditorium, a large mosque, a brand new cafeteria, dormitories, a library, computer facilities, a dispensary and programs that include an eight-year master’s degree in Islamic studies. (A doctorate takes two more years.) As well, there is a special department responsible for issuing fatwas, or religious directives — 50,000 since it began six decades ago.

All this is free to students, paid for by public donations. In fact, the ul-Haqs point to what they say is an increasing level of emotional and financial support as evidence that they are closer to bringing about an Islamic revolution in Pakistan.

Where is all the new money coming from? “We take nothing from anyone — not from Saudi Arabia, not from the government,” says Rashid ul-Haq, even though plaques in many of the new classrooms say the funding came from Saudi Arabia.

“The media has really propagated negatively against us. But, look, there is a positive impact of all this. Now, big businessmen are turning toward religion.”

He and his father say they would not import a Taliban-style regime but how their vision differs is difficult to make out. On one hand, Rashid ul-Haq says that “both men and women should be educated. Woman should especially be educated because she provides the first steps of learning for her child.”

Yet, in the next breath, he says that “whatever the Taliban did in Afghanistan was great.” Because Pashtun girls were walking around in mini-skirts, “the character of women was terrible, so the burka was a reaction to what was happening.”

And what of all the international death and destruction?

Sami ul-Haq, whose graduates have travelled far beyond Pakistan and Afghanistan to the United States, Canada and Britain, says he feels Western nations control their own fate. “If the West changes its politics toward the Muslim world, all of this will change.”

And if it doesn’t, the jihad will rage on. As long as Muslims are ostracized and foreign troops remain in Afghanistan, there will be no end in sight — and there will be connections to Pakistan when terror rears its head around the world. The government here has already arrested several Pakistani nationals on charges they conspired in the London bomb plot.

Meanwhile, the madrassas of Pakistan will continue to enroll the poor in the name of Islam, and the competition to get into Haqqania is especially intense. There is a long list of candidates seeking entrance to the jihad factory on the Grand Trunk Road.

By SONYA FATAH

with a report from Canadian Press

CFB TRENTON, ONT. — Asombre mood hung in the air at the Canadian Forces Base in Trenton, Ont., as family and military personnel gathered to pay their last respects to Master Corporal Raymond Arndt, 32, who died in a traffic accident in Afghanistan on Aug. 5.

In a scene that’s becoming all too familiar at the eastern Ontario air force base, the casket, wrapped in the Canadian flag, was lowered from the grey Airbus and brought to a waiting hearse while the family stood by in a long, straight line.

Supported on either side by military personnel, MCpl. Arndt’s wife of nine months, Darcia, wept openly when the coffin first appeared.

Once the pallbearers had placed the coffin into the hearse, Ms. Arndt kissed a single long-stemmed red rose and placed it onto her husband’s coffin before almost collapsing. She was escorted by wheelchair to a waiting limousine.

MCpl. Arndt’s father, three sisters, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and two brothers-in-law each paused for several moments, weeping as they stood by the coffin.

Several military officers also followed the family in leaving flowers and tears behind.

CFB Trenton, also known as 8 Wing Trenton, is home to AIRCOM’s transport and search-and-rescue aircraft. It has hosted a number of repatriation ceremonies for fallen Canadian soldiers in recent weeks.

More than 60 people were in attendance yesterday at the ceremony for MCpl. Arndt, including Minister of National Defence Gordon O’Connor and Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier.

MCpl. Arndt died after a large truck collided head-on with a Canadian G-Wagon that was part of a resupply convoy, about 35 kilometres southeast of Kandahar. Canadian troops engaged in their increasingly dangerous mission were still grieving four fallen comrades who died last Thursday when they received news of MCpl. Arndt’s death.

Private Kevin Dallaire, Sergeant Vaughn Ingram, Cpl. Bryce James Keller and Cpl. Christopher Reid were killed during fighting with Taliban forces west of Kandahar.

Their bodies were returned to CFB Trenton on Sunday evening.

MCpl. Arndt was a member of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, which had until Saturday escaped unscathed from a mission that has seen five Canadians killed in action in just the past week. Since first deploying to Afghanistan in 2002, 25 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed.

Friends of the fallen soldier gathered in Edmonton on Sunday to remember MCpl. Arndt’s life and discuss the impact of his death.

Cpl. Greg Trudel, a close friend, said Sunday that MCpl. Arndt loved the military.

“For Ray, he’d always wanted a brother. He’d always bugged his parents over the fact he didn’t have a brother,” he said. “And when he decided to join the army, he found the brothers he was looking for.”

MCpl. Arndt was due to return home in less than two weeks. He grew up in the region of Edson, Alta.

Three other soldiers in MCpl. Arndt’s vehicle — all from the same regiment — were injured in the accident. One has returned to duty, but two suffered serious injuries.

Cpl. Jared Gagnon and Cpl. Ashley VanLeuween arrived at a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, on Sunday afternoon.

Cpl. Gagnon was listed in very serious condition, while Cpl. VanLeuween, who suffered a broken leg, ankle and ribs, was in stable condition.

Canada has about 2,200 soldiers in and around Kandahar, where Taliban resistance is strong.