Carnage in Dera

Carnage in Dera
By Prof. Dr. Mansoor Akbar Kundi

The suicidal bomb blast in the funeral procession in my hometown Dera Ismail Khan on 20th like before left more than thirty dead and twice of them wounded. It was a target attack on the Shia as they were carrying the funeral of a Shia activist gunned down a day before. A similar attack was carried few months ago in the emergency ward of the district civil hospital where a Shia crowd following the killing of a fellow had approached the site. No matter whatever one may call it: barbaric, heinous, horrible, atrocious, it is all beyond it. It diminishes me. My hometown, once known for its tranquility and peace with people known for docile smile and warmth hospitality, is now brutally plunged into killing fields with innocent and precious lives lost in day to day bloody sconce without any solution or remedy in sight.

D. I. Khan is a border town. It links Punjab and tribal Frontier Region. Before Tank was raised to a district, it shared direct border with South Waziristan. Being raised to a district status in 1894 with Mr. H.W.Gee as its first Deputy Commissioner it remained a part of Punjab province until the NWFP was raised to a Chief Commissioner province in 1901. It had a mixed ethnic and religious population with 20-25 percent of them belonging to Shia sect. After 1947 a considerable number of refugees from India were settled in the district. Its population rapidly increased after oil boon in 1973 where tribal from Waziristan with financial resources of labor earnings in Saudi Arabia and Gulf Sheikhdoms bought land and properties. After the construction of Chasma Right Bank Canal with agriculture boon and prosperity people from other areas shifted and bought lands.

No matter with rapid change in culture and ethnic dimensions with militancy growth over the years due to Afghan Counterrevolution/Jihad with Pakistan as the front state to facilitate proxy war against Soviet Union, it was still by any definition a peaceful city until the military action by Pakistan army in South and North Waziristan in 2003. The past five years experiences show that it was a drastic action and ultimate bad policy making of our praetorian rulers to please American bosses which has engulfed the NWFP in the flames of instability and chaos. Khalil Gibran says that Cuckoo does not build nest lest its chicks bear the wrath of slavery comes true in the case our rulers opted for military action without realizing the past and present.
They failed to realize the vision and wisdom of Quaid-e-Azam who soon after the independence moved troops from the two agencies by vacating Mir Ali, Razmak and Manzai garrisons the British raised. Where it was a shift in loyalties and priorities of nation-states’ establishments redefining the nature of their relationship, particularly between a core and periphery(ies) by taking U Turn in Afghanistan and events after, there it was a writing on the wall for future instability of the region, the D.I.Khan is part of the day to day bloody scenes. Until 2003 NWFP was out of militancy it is plunged today.

The military action in Waziristan led to huge property destruction, killing and migration to D.I. Khan and adjacent areas. It included children, women, men and militants. During the period many tribal youngsters between the age of 12 to 20 fell into Taliban lines. They were moved by the state of agony and pain of their kith and kin’s murder, losses of properties, and social condemnation; some by Jihad paradigm to bless them and their relatives in the life eternity with all blessings in paradise the Koran promises to a martyr. Out of all revenge and brain washing, their immediate target was the revenge taking from the killers of their relatives, believers and countrymen. A crop of suicidal bombers was easily raised which in attempt to target the heavily guarded security forces convoys and installations are now out of bound.

In D. I. Khan, poor public scary and threatened of the blasts, “death (bomb) squads are around, it is matter of mobilization”. Their targets are defined and undefined, becoming more indiscriminate. They include security forces, political figures, mosques, or any crowd. In D. I. Khan, Shia procession is one of them. The town where I spent my childhood and youth without any sound of gunfire for years is now a bleeding ground for innocent killings.


Source: http://www.pakspectator.com/carnage-in-dera/