Swat Operation and Christian IDPs
By Asif Aqeel
Executive Director
Community Development Initiative, Pakistan
Hundreds of Christians fled from the troubled Swat Valley when the Pakistani military launched an offensive to flush out the Taliban from the valley. Most of the Christians among the internally displaced persons (IDPs) are in camps set up in Mardan and Peshawar. Many of these Christian IDPs also ended up in the Punjab because most of the Christians living in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) are of Punjabi origin.
After the peace deal between the government of Pakistan and the Taliban collapsed, a military operation was launched. At one point, the government agreed to implement Shariah (Islamic law) in the Malakand Division; but when the Taliban showed no interest in containing themselves in this area and declared the Pakistani Constitution, the Parliament and the Supreme Court un-Islamic, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani ordered the launch of a military offensive on May 7. Commenting on the operation, the federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Qamar Zaman Kaira, stated that the military operation was launched as a last resort to maintain law and order and to ensure the writ of the government.
Although most Pakistanis back the military operation and their abhorrence for the Taliban has grown, a few right-wing Islamist organizations still oppose it and want the government to initiate negotiations with the Taliban. An Islamic religious organization, Jamaat-e-Islami, spearheads this opposition, claiming that the operation is being conducted to please the United States. On the other hand, the Christian political and religious leadership has expressed full support for the military operation.
This military operation left more than 2 million people homeless as refugees in their own country. This migration is the largest since the creation of the country in 1947. Among these homeless migrators, are several hundred Christians, Hindus and Sikhs who face additional problems due to their religious beliefs.
Opinions differ regarding the treatment of Christians by the Taliban in the area. According to one source, Christians are stranded in some areas and the Taliban demands that they fight with them. However, other sources do not confirm such information of the stranded and mistreated Christians.
Regarding the Christian IDPs, Chistiar Khan, the president of Kilash Health and Education Welfare, stated that two Christian IDP centers were set up in Mardan. Khan, who is also running a church in the Kilash Valley, said that about 40 families migrated to Peshawar to live with their host families. He also noted that he was not aware of the Taliban mistreating stranded Christians inside the military operation areas. Khan stated that Christians, Hindus and Sikhs do not live in the camps set up by the government due to the hostile atmosphere there, and one could expect anything from the illiterate IDPs living in these camps. He said that when the government launched the military operation, several Christians from the affected areas walked dozens of miles to reach the camps set up for them. He added that several Christian organizations were helping them but there was still a need for more help. He said that fighting the heat was one of the main problems in the camps because these people came from a cold climate, and the IDPs need desert coolers.
Bright Future Society South Asias president, Samuel Piara, said that Christian IDPs were better off than the Muslims in the government camps. His organization is providing medicine to the Christian IDPs, and some of the Christian IDPs who traveled to Islamabad are now living with host families.
In Mardan, two camps for the Christian IDPs were set up one in Christian Vocational Training Centre and the other in the Sarhadi Church. This information was provided by Yousuf Patras, a pastor serving at the Christian Vocational Training Centre of the Church of Pakistan. The pastor said that about 50 families lived in the Christian Vocational Training Centre and about 20 lived in the Sarhadi Church. He also received word of the arrival of about 25 more families from the areas where curfew had been relaxed.
Pastor Patras commented that he himself lived for several years in the Swat Valley but never heard that the Taliban required Christians to pay jizya (life tax). He said that the Taliban had asked the Sikh community for jizya because those within the community have businesses. Patras explained that the Taliban did not ask Christians for jizya because the Christians in these areas were very poor and performed only menial jobs. He said that the only thing the Taliban required Christian women to do was to cover themselves when they go out. He noted that he believed the accusations of mistreated Christians in government camps were false. Nevertheless, Patras brought several Christians from the government camps to the camps set up by the church. Additionally, he brought Ulfat, a Christian woman who was pregnant, to his home. He reports that she gave birth to a baby girl and named her Aman, which means peace. Regarding needs for the IDPs, he said that food supplies were sufficient but they needed clothes for men and women.
In talking to the Community Development Initiative (CDI), the Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, said that apart from providing residence, food, education for children and medicine to the IDPs, his ministry had given Rs. 10,000 ($124) each to 500 minority families. He noted that this amount was separate from the Rs. 25,000 ($308) given per family as announced by the government. He said that he would also help minorities when the reconstruction phase begins. Regarding the Christian IDPs, Patras noted that when people migrated from the Malakand Division, he started to visit their camp that was set up by the Church of Pakistan in Mardan. He said that his ministry, along with other organizations, was to provide for these Christian IDPs. When he visited Mardan, he saw about 100 Christian families and said that the number would have increased by now.
Regarding the Swat operation, Bhatti said that the Taliban challenged the writ of the government by committing barbaric acts such as blowing up girls schools. He noted that they were a problem for both minorities and the majority. He added that most minorities fully back the operation because it ensures religious freedom for them.
The media reported that the Taliban recruit teenage suicide bombers for revenge attacks. One source said that after the launch of the operation, the Taliban went house to house demanding a boy or a young man from each family. These reports may be true since suicide bombings in cities such as Lahore and Peshawar commenced when the Taliban began losing their control.
Today, Pakistan is fighting a war of survival. This is the deciding moment whether Pakistan wants to live as a nation state or yield to the Taliban whose agenda is to launch a caliphate by establishing a government-controlling Pakistan, Afghanistan and other central Muslim states. In this war, as the Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs has stated, Pakistani Christians stand with both the army and the government of Pakistan.