Taliban do not represent the people of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), they represent elements who want to wield their power to control the region by causing lawlessness in tribal areas and the rest of the country. This was crux of the seminar on 'Extremism in Fata: student Perspective' organised by Fata Research Centre (FRC) on Friday.
Describing the people of Fata as humble, polite, cultured and hospitable, speakers agreed that they did not harbour terrorism and extremism, but the menace had been imposed on them because of the geo-strategic position of the areas. FRC's Executive Director Saifullah Mehsud headed the session, which was also attended by Director, FRC, Mansur Khan, students of the International Islamic University Islamabad, Quaid-i-Azam University, National Defence University and the Iqra University. Students of Iqra University also gave a presentation on the overall situation in Fata.
Supporting drone strikes in tribal areas, they said that targeted drone attacks were better as specific targets and persons were being hit, while military operation resulted in displacement of thousands of people from Waziristan, adding that it caused death and destruction in the area.
Initially, the speakers said, extremism had been fanned in Fata after the invasion of Soviet forces in Afghanistan, which was countered by the US by involving Muslim youth from the entire world in the name of a jihad. The US, they said, encouraged religious extremism in tribal areas with the sole intention to punish Soviet Union for the Afghan invasion, they said.
The Soviet invasion in Afghanistan had caused three menaces -drug production, Kalashnikov culture and prostitution not only in tribal areas, but also in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and other settled areas of Pakistan, they maintained. They said that the CIA encouraged warlords of that time to cultivate poppy for extracting heroin from it. Elaborating the causes of extremism, they said that the people, particular youth of tribal areas were forced to adopt the path of extremism as they were deprived of education, job opportunities, economic activities.
They reminded that there was not a single 'Talib' in tribal areas when a military operation was launched in 2004. According to the speakers, the operation forced the tribesmen to adopt this path as all roads leading to peace and development were blocked for them. Highlighting the problems of youth in tribal areas, they said that successive governments had failed to give a proper policy to utilise the potential of youth in tribal areas or provide them opportunities to indulge in socio-economic uplift.
Saifullah Mahsud said that nowadays everybody was talking about Fata, but they lacked knowledge about tribal areas, adding that such analysis was not grounded in reality. FRC, he said, wanted impart knowledge about tribal areas, portraying its real "soft image and traditions".
"The people of Fata are not extremists or terrorists," he said, adding: "It is not Fata that is exporting extremism and terrorism to other parts of the country and beyond its borders, unfortunately these tendencies are being exported to tribal areas." He said that Taliban operating in Pakistan were terrorists and not the real Taliban. "The real Taliban are those who are fighting against foreign forces in Afghanistan," he added. "Pakistani Taliban do not belong to Fata. Vested interests are exploiting the sentiments and traditions of this area," he said.
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