I visited earthquake hit areas from November 3-8, 2005. On my return I penned down my impressions, which I circulated earlier on my email. Here they are for a wider audience. If it exists....
That whole night the tent was abuzz with activity. It belonged to the chief manager of the village. While lying in my sleeping bag and pretending to sleep I could hear them talk about the maps that they had brought with them and that they had to study them. I have no clue about whether these maps were of the Indian or the Pakistani side ofKashmir . Whether they had them to help in the relief effort is beyond my knowledge. It would only be naïve to think that these people are operating here without the knowledge of the Government (read the Pakistan Army). They seem very well organized. In fact to be honest, the religious parties are probably the most organized in their relief efforts. This is not only true for Muzzafarabad but every where that I have gone in past five days, I have observed similar things. I have also been to Balakot, Mansehra, Garhi Habibullah, Garhi Duppata and Chinari. Except for the last one, in every other location , wherever I saw army camps, I also saw camps of Jamat-e-Islami and Jamat-ut-Dawa (this I have been told is a new name of Lahskar-e-Tayyaba – a banned jihadi outfit) situated close by. In the past five days I have seen army vehicles near Garhi Habibullah and in Muzzafarabad with Lashkar-e-Tayyaba flags on them. One may like to reject it as a one off incidence but when an army vehicle with a Lashkar’s flag carrying men in uniform enters an army camp in Muzzafarabad then there is more to it then just carelessness. The army has not severed its connections with these militants. In Muzzafarabad I also found out about Lashkar being very active in Neelam Valley Neelam Valley
I know many will curse me for saying all this in these times. These are the times to leave such worries behind and work as one organized force to help out the quake victims. But my worries and questions stem precisely from that attitude; are we really one? And are we really organized? The strong presence of jihadis in these areas is worrying for me because it is not happening in isolation. It happens in the backdrop of a catastrophe that has made the government’s and the army’s inability to address such situations too obvious. The level of disorganization is plainly shocking in the relief effort. The northern areas and AJK were struck by two disasters, one is natural while the other is not. Every relief organization that I have had a chance to talk to had no clue about what is going to happen in three weeks time when it starts to snow and rain heavily. Nobody had an answer. People from Edhi, Jamat-e-Islami, LeT, Al-fajar, doctors working at Abbas Institute of Medical Science in Muzzafarabad just looked at me blankly. Furthermore, apparently there is no control over the distribution of relief goods from the main centers. Here main centers are Mansehra, Balakot, Muzzafarabad, Rawalakot, and Bagh. People talk of hundreds of trucks reaching these places. However, if you take a stroll in Muzzafarabad and ask people whether they have received any relief goods, most people will come out and say that they haven’t received anything in days. Sure, some of us are habitual liars. Some just want to hoard up and are doing so. But there are many who share genuine experiences. I visited medical camps at various centers. The patients and their guardians have horrifying stories to tell. A patient’s son at a Muzzafarabad hospital told me that he with his three other friends walked for three days carrying his injured father on their shoulders to a medical camp in Muzzafarabad. He lives in a village called Hariala. Another from the Neelam valley had a similar story to tell. They said that they did not receive anything for days after the quake. Many packets were dropped from the helicopter, but most of the packets that fell from the sky either ended in forests where accessing them became a problem or were so badly damaged when they fell down that they were rendered useless.
Furthermore, NGOs working in the area are there for as long as they have the resources/funding to run these operations. These include both local and foreign funded NGOs. Many of these organizations do not have long term plans to stay in these areas. They are there for the initial effort and as conditions and weather become harsher, they will start to leave, leaving behind a vacuum that, in the absence of a strong state will be willingly filled by these jihadi organization. Nobody is really bothered to talk about the repercussions of this in the long run. Religion comes as a handy reason to explain natural disasters of such order and magnitude. To atone for their sins, people must devote themselves to the cause of Almighty. And there is no cause worthier than to wage a holy war in His name. These jihadi organizations with their resources and strong organization will find it easier to win the hearts and minds of the people devastated by this quake. Indeed, the jihadis will find it easier to recruit future militants from these areas. The history of the past three decades is enough to tell us that militant Islam will push us towards greater trouble both at home and abroad. Whether all of this will actually happen remains to be seen. But can we really afford to wait and see which way the wind will blow?
One of the largest tent villages in Muzzafarabad is run by Jamat-e-Islami’s Alkhidmat Foundation. The camp management is run by militants from across the border belonging to Hizbul-Mujahideen. They seem to be well equipped, with weapons that mostly include Kalashnikovs and automatic pistols. They also have maps that they study diligently at night. All this is no joke in bad taste. I know all this because my friend Majid and I had a chance to spend a night with these people in Muzaffarabad in their tent village. We had gone there to volunteer in the relief effort. How did we end up there?
My friend and I went to Abbotabad on 3rd November. We reached there at around 8 in the morning and went straight to SUNGI to volunteer for their relief operations. Soon after our arrival we were told that the organization did not need volunteers as it had decided to wrap up its operations for the next four days due to Eid. “Our people are tired, and have burnt out as they have been working round the clock since 8th October. They need some rest.” My first reaction was to ask why a rotational system had not been put in place. How can you just wrap everything up on the pretext of Eid? Surely, those affected by the quake were not taking any break from their sufferings. There were four other volunteers as well, equally bewildered to hear this. Two of them had just come down the previous night from the surrounding areas and knew of a village where till that day victims were waiting for shelter. We decided to take a couple of camps and some ration there ourselves. However, soon we learnt that SUNGI will release nothing for us. Reason: we will resume our operation once our staff returns from the eid break. The next four hours were spent contacting the Sungi management and trying to persuade them to give us camps and rations so that the village people could be provided shelter. However, nothing of the sorts happened. Shocked and angry my friend and I decided that since we had come this far, we might as well go to Muzzafarabad for voluntary work. Surely, many would need us over there. By that time one of the other volunteers had given us the contact number of an UN official working in Muzzaffarabad. According to her, the UN badly needed volunteers. We arrived in Muzzafarabad four hours later. When we called the UN contact person, we had to hear a similar story. The UN was closing down its operation for two days because of Eid. They, too, did not need volunteers. The Sungi office in Muzzafarabad had also closed down their operations for similar reasons. We went to the Turkish Red Crescent’s Medical camp housed at the AJK Supreme Court. They surely required translators but for a longer period of time. Since, we were only off from university for five days, they refused us as well. Fair enough I guess. Incidentally, as I was talking to one of the camp managers, I was approached by a young Pakistani who later introduced himself as an army doctor working with the Turks. After I told him that my friend and I were here to volunteer for the relief effort, he suggested to go to a tent village where they required people for various tasks. He in fact offered to take us to one he knew of. It so happened that he took us to one being run by Jamat-e-Islami’s Alkhidmat Foundation. We were introduced to the camp in-charge who took us to his camp and went back to do whatever he was doing earlier. In the meanwhile the dinner was served and he returned and started talking to us.
The camp management (which included some five to six men) openly and proudly admitted it to me that they were all jihadis from Maqbooza Kashmir. It started when I told them my name. “Oh.. there are very found memories attached with this name. One of our bravest companions was called Fahd, he was martyred two months back.” Both my friend and I looked at each other; confused as to who this man was. Interestingly, he recounted a similar story when my friend told him his name. I was puzzled. So, I asked who he was. “Oh, I am a mujahid from Maqbooza Kashmir, we are members of Hizbul-Mujahideen. We came here a day after the quake.” To be honest, I got even more confused. How on earth these people managed to cross the LOC? I asked him and he looked at me and smiled as if I had asked a dumb question. I asked him again that how did he manage to get in touch with people here to do all the relief effort. How did he know that he must contact Jamat-e-Islami. He smiled again and looked the other way. He walked out of the camp soon after to do his work. I also learnt that he wasn’t the only one from Indian Kashmir there. There were other people as well, five or six of them I cannot recall the exact number now. I asked them the same questions, and none of them gave me any answers – just smiled and looked at each other. One of them came to the camp and started to move things around. He was searching for something. He picks up a quilt and takes out an AK-47 and an automatic pistol. He loads both of them and says “the camp security is Mujahideens’ responsibility”. “Ahhhh.. What do you have to secure over here” I asked. No answer, and no smiles this time around. My friend asked him whether he was also from the other side of the LOC. “Oh yes..” came the prompt reply. He asked him if he had any difficulty coming here. “Oh, we come here quite frequently”, he replied and walked out of the camp with his pistol. Quite surprising for someone like me. Haven’t we abandoned jihadis? Hasn’t General Musharraf gone blue in his face trying to convince us (and the rest of the world) that the army’s connection with the militants is a thing of the past. All that I had just seen told me a completely different story. The camp is situated right in front of an army building that is still guarded by the army jawans. The police near the camp had no clue of who these men were and why they were openly carrying weapons in the camp. I saw two policemen inquiring a jihadi about the AK-47 he was carrying. They appeared quite bewildered themselves. The jihadi simply told them to mind their own business.
That whole night the tent was abuzz with activity. It belonged to the chief manager of the village. While lying in my sleeping bag and pretending to sleep I could hear them talk about the maps that they had brought with them and that they had to study them. I have no clue about whether these maps were of the Indian or the Pakistani side of
I know many will curse me for saying all this in these times. These are the times to leave such worries behind and work as one organized force to help out the quake victims. But my worries and questions stem precisely from that attitude; are we really one? And are we really organized? The strong presence of jihadis in these areas is worrying for me because it is not happening in isolation. It happens in the backdrop of a catastrophe that has made the government’s and the army’s inability to address such situations too obvious. The level of disorganization is plainly shocking in the relief effort. The northern areas and AJK were struck by two disasters, one is natural while the other is not. Every relief organization that I have had a chance to talk to had no clue about what is going to happen in three weeks time when it starts to snow and rain heavily. Nobody had an answer. People from Edhi, Jamat-e-Islami, LeT, Al-fajar, doctors working at Abbas Institute of Medical Science in Muzzafarabad just looked at me blankly. Furthermore, apparently there is no control over the distribution of relief goods from the main centers. Here main centers are Mansehra, Balakot, Muzzafarabad, Rawalakot, and Bagh. People talk of hundreds of trucks reaching these places. However, if you take a stroll in Muzzafarabad and ask people whether they have received any relief goods, most people will come out and say that they haven’t received anything in days. Sure, some of us are habitual liars. Some just want to hoard up and are doing so. But there are many who share genuine experiences. I visited medical camps at various centers. The patients and their guardians have horrifying stories to tell. A patient’s son at a Muzzafarabad hospital told me that he with his three other friends walked for three days carrying his injured father on their shoulders to a medical camp in Muzzafarabad. He lives in a village called Hariala. Another from the Neelam valley had a similar story to tell. They said that they did not receive anything for days after the quake. Many packets were dropped from the helicopter, but most of the packets that fell from the sky either ended in forests where accessing them became a problem or were so badly damaged when they fell down that they were rendered useless.
Furthermore, NGOs working in the area are there for as long as they have the resources/funding to run these operations. These include both local and foreign funded NGOs. Many of these organizations do not have long term plans to stay in these areas. They are there for the initial effort and as conditions and weather become harsher, they will start to leave, leaving behind a vacuum that, in the absence of a strong state will be willingly filled by these jihadi organization. Nobody is really bothered to talk about the repercussions of this in the long run. Religion comes as a handy reason to explain natural disasters of such order and magnitude. To atone for their sins, people must devote themselves to the cause of Almighty. And there is no cause worthier than to wage a holy war in His name. These jihadi organizations with their resources and strong organization will find it easier to win the hearts and minds of the people devastated by this quake. Indeed, the jihadis will find it easier to recruit future militants from these areas. The history of the past three decades is enough to tell us that militant Islam will push us towards greater trouble both at home and abroad. Whether all of this will actually happen remains to be seen. But can we really afford to wait and see which way the wind will blow?
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