How teenagers were lured by Taliban. Security forces discover jannat and porn in South Waziristan.
MAKIN (South Waziristan): A soldier guards a damaged training centre of militants in the once stronghold of the Taliban.—AFP
How teenagers were lured by Taliban
Saturday, 12 Dec, 2009
PESHAWAR: An artificial paradise (Jannat) established by terrorists for brainwashing would-be suicide bombers has been captured by security forces in South Waziristan Agency. The ‘Jannat’ in the Nawaz Kot area was shown to a visiting team of Peshawar-based journalists by ISPR authorities.
The journalists, who were taken to the place in a helicopter on Friday morning, took a round of the so-called paradise and later were briefed about the modus operandi for churning out suicide bombers.
The make-believe heaven consisted of four rooms. Each room contained exquisite paintings of lakes overflowing with milk and honey and scenic valleys inhabited by ‘hoors’ (beautiful women).
Religious teachers in the training centre used to show would-be bombers around and dupe them into believing that after their death in suicide attacks their stature would be equal to Sahaba-i-Karaam and that they would enjoy the company of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The term ‘Sahaba-i-Karaam’ refers to close associates of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
Boys aged between 12 and 18 were trained to become suicide bombers under the supervision of Hakimullah Mehsud.
The TTP chief would keep hammering away at ‘an unending bliss awaiting you in Jannat dotted with lakes of milk and honey’, said Major Saleem in a briefing for journalists.
He told journalists the building also had a ‘slaughterhouse’ for killing kidnapped security officials. A huge cache of arms and ammunition was seized from there.
In reply to a question, Major Saleem said the security forces faced tough resistance before capturing the militant stronghold. Two bombers and their trainers were taken into custody.
The troops came upon a significant quantity of hashish and compact discs after they set about securing the building. Books and magazines in Arabic, Pushto and Uzbek languages were strewn all over the place.
Later the visiting journalists were taken to Makin and Ziarsar area of Spin Kamar.
Colonel Asif Mehmud, the operation commander, told the journalists that Makin was believed to be the hub of Taliban and the forces overcame stiff resistance before its fall.
Makin harboured a training centre that was run by Baitullah Mehsud when he used to live nearby in the house of his uncle. The forces had taken all hilltops and purged the area of militants, Colonel Mehmud said.
Anti-tank mines, rockets, missiles and other weapons of foreign make were shown to the visiting journalists.—APP
Source
Security forces discover jannat in South Waziristan
PESHAWAR: Security forces on Friday discovered jannat (heaven) in South Waziristan Agency, with which terrorists used to brainwash suicide bombers. According to the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), a team of journalists visited the jannat at Nawaz Kot area of the agency. The ‘heaven’ consisted of four rooms. Each room contains beautiful paintings of running canals of milk and honey surrounded by hoors (maidens of paradise). Conducting Officer Major Saleem said Taliban clerics showed the jannat to the would-be suicide bombers to convince them that once they blew themselves up they would enjoy a status equivalent to that of the companions of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He said they were also told that they would live forever in the company of beautiful hoors. He said security forces had also seized hate literature, CDs, hashish and other drugs from the site. The official said two would-be suicide bombers and their trainers were also arrested from the place. app
Source
Porn seized from Taliban hideouts, says Malik
ISLAMABAD: Security forces have seized porn films from the hideouts of the Taliban during various search operations, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Friday. Malik said the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Muhammad and other banned organisations were involved in acts of terrorism across the country. “They are dirty people, and according to Islamic injunctions it is unlawful to offer funeral prayers for suicide attackers,” Malik said. He said around 76 terrorists who planned to carry out attacks in Islamabad were in the custody of law enforcement agencies. tahir niaz
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Heaven and hell
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The ‘heaven’ security forces have encountered in South Waziristan has nothing to do with the physical beauty that can be found across the northern areas. Instead, it is a four-room building in a village apparently intended to, quite literally, show a glimpse of paradise to would-be suicide-bombers. Paintings of streams flowing with milk and honey with beautiful women standing nearby adorn the walls. Bombers were told this was the world they would inhabit after they had blown themselves – and others – to pieces. For these young men who, in their short lives, knew only squalor and misery, the promise might have been irresistible.
At least one would-be bomber, held in Afghanistan but trained in Waziristan, has spoken of the way they were lured into a trap that led to death and destruction. The discovery of the bizarre building in South Waziristan gives us a rare insight into the lives led by those recruited to carry out bombing missions. Fooled by the hope of a life of pleasure in the hereafter and with all the comforts denied to them now, these young boys, some aged only 14 or 15, felt they had nothing to lose while carrying out deadly deeds. It is possible that drugs helped to further cloud their vision and siphon away from their hearts the conscience that prevents most of us from harming others by intent. The discovery adds to the knowledge of how the bombers were persuaded to do what they did. The key to understanding what has been happening lies in the kind of lives countless people are condemned to live. Desperate parents hand over sons to militant groups; sometimes in exchange for money. The boys themselves are willing to give up all in the hope of entering the magical land conjured up for them by their captors. The long-term answer to this scourge lies in tackling the crippling poverty which holds people in a trap. Illiteracy and despair walk alongside poverty. Policies to alter this reality must be put in place now. But we also need short-term action, which should include creating awareness about how recruiters act and what means they use to persuade their victims to give up their lives. This could prevent others walking along the path that promises heaven but takes many straight to hell.
http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=213739
A pie in the sky when you die
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Kamila Hyat
The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor
The bizarre four-roomed ‘heaven’ discovered by security forces in the Nawaz Kot area of South Waziristan is a reminder of how young boys are lured into becoming suicide bombers.
The garish paintings hung in the rooms were intended to persuade recruits aged between 12 and 18 years that they could expect to live a life of extraordinary luxury amid streams of milk and honey where beautiful women roamed after they became ‘martyrs’. They were also told they would enjoy the same rank as the companions of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). For those who have known only the perpetual misery of poverty and deprivation in this life, and who have suffered the consequences of occupying a place on the bottom tier of society, the promise of a different kind of existence in the hereafter obviously offers plenty of temptation. A teenage would-be suicide bomber from Waziristan, held some months ago in Afghanistan, had also spoken of similar means used by sweet-talking ‘teachers’ to convince their victims of how they could benefit by blowing themselves – and others — into smithereens. Drugs and the haze of addiction make it easier for them to act irrationally and cloud conscience. According to security experts, huge quantities of drugs run through the veins of most of those sent out on suicide missions.
Similar tactics have been used for centuries. In the American south, preachers promised slaves they would be rewarded in heaven for the hardships they withstood at the present time. The glib message was parodied in a popular song written in 1911 by the labour-rights activist, Joe Hill, who urged workers to seek rights in this world rather than wait for a ‘pie in the sky’ after they died. This is as relevant today as it was nearly 100 years ago. Religion has become in our country a means to exploit people and persuade them not to agitate for rights or to expect any change in their fortunes. To escape squalor, hunger and deprivation they must wait for death. In other places, at other times, religious belief has of course been used to create momentum for change and for a more just world.
This message needs to be countered. In its most extreme form it has become one that has been used to persuade parents to hand over sons to militant outfits. The promise of a place in heaven for the whole family and the money handed over to ‘buy’ the boys both play a role in providing the human flesh militants use to carry out the most horrendous acts of violence. The fact that people now sip their tea as they watch images such as those from Moon Market in Lahore a short while ago reflects just how accustomed we have become to the sight of bodies scattered on streets or ambulances racing in to yet another scene of disaster.
In what we are told is an attempt to tackle extremism, the government seems to have launched some kind of initiative. Several prominent members of the clergy have come forward to condemn suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism. The interior minister has presided over one such seminar and lavishly praised the ‘ulema’ for their message. Other key religious leaders, including the head of the JUI-F, are meanwhile conspicuous by their silence. Astonishingly there are still some, even after the carnage we have seen, who speak of negotiations with the Taliban.
The question is where these tactics are leading us. The words of eminent scholars may have some small influence as far as shaping public opinion is concerned but they are unlikely to have any impact at all on the militants. The philosophy they espouse has been developed over many years and tried out in nations such as Afghanistan. In the world of hatred they have moulded, moderation has no place.
The only way to challenge the militants is to make it possible for people to believe in something available to them now, in this life rather than the next. Some sense of hope has to be injected back into a society from which it has been gradually drained away. If not a pie, people need to be offered at least the means to obtain ‘roti’ and ‘daal’. The question is whether our government has the vision and the capacity to set about this. If it does, it has certainly done nothing so far to demonstrate this ability. Even now, there seems to be some difficulty in grasping the enormity of the task before us and accepting that military action alone cannot defeat militancy. Much, much more needs to be done.
Change cannot come instantly, but the structures on which it is to be based need to be set in place now. The fact that today Brazil is a country where the gap between the rich and the poor is closing more rapidly than anywhere else is rooted in policies that in the 1990s focused on removing children from the labour force and putting them in schools. The pay-off has come in the access of more people to better-paid jobs – as electricians or mechanics or clerks – and the creation of mobility in a previously moribund society. Better health care has helped dispel despondency and give people some belief in the possibility of living a meaningful life now or of their children living one that is more fruitful than their own. Income support in various forms has helped too.
There are many examples around the world that we can learn from. The question is whether we will do so before it is too late. Terrorism threatens to devour our country. We already live in a place that has, for many, become a kind of hell. Poverty condemns people to unimaginable hardship. Escape lies for them only in the hope of reaching heaven once they cross that divide between life and death. This is the promise used by the ruthless to trap those who live without any optimism or any confidence of an improvement in the quality of their lives.
The government needs to challenge them not by propping up religious scholars who condemn terrorism. Most ordinary people are already rational enough to know it is inherently wrong to kill the innocent. Instead change must be created by offering them something that makes life worthwhile and persuades teenage boys that it should be lived, rather than hankering after the houris that they are told will surround them after death.
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