The Pashtun Question The Unresolved Key to the Future of Pakistan and Afghanistan

217 Pages·2016·3.54 MB·English

by  Abubakar Siddique

THE PASHTUN QUESTION
ABUBAKAR SIDDIQUE
The Pashtun Question
The Unresolved Key to the Future
of Pakistan and Afghanistan
First published in the United Kingdom in 2014 by
C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.,
41 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3PL
© Abubakar Siddique, 2014
All rights reserved.
Printed in India
Distributed in the United States, Canada and Latin America by
Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016,
United States of America
The right of Abubakar Siddique to be identified as the author of this publication is asserted by him in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
A Cataloguing-in-Publication data record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1849042925
www.hurstpublishers.com
This book is printed using paper from registered sustainable and managed sources.
This book is dedicated to my parents, a source of wisdom
and righteousness in my life.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Glossary
Acknowledgements
Maps
Introduction
PART ONE
THEATRE OF CONQUEST
1. Twenty-first Century Pashtuns: Continuity Amid Catastrophe
Who are the Pashtuns?
The Great Tribal Maze
An Evolving Social Tapestry
A Shattered Homeland
From Kandahar to Swat
2. From Peaceful Borderlands to Incubators of Extremism
The Enlightened Teacher
The Rigid Mullah
The Warrior Poet
Afghan Empire
Frontier Jihads
The Great Game
The Cold War and Pashtunistan
The Globalisation of Jihad
Arab Revolutionaries
3. The Taliban in Power
Student Militias Ascendant
Ruling by Decree
Pashtun Nationalists?
Pakistani Proxies?
Bridge to Extremism
PART TWO
PAKISTAN
4. War in Waziristan
Rise of the Pakistani Taliban
Ideology and Paths of Action
The Haqqanis
A New Abode for Al-Qaeda
Islamabad’s Stepchildren
5. Vanishing Tribes
Every Valley Burns
Hatred Under White Mountain
Collective Punishment
Too Little, Too Late
6. Terror in Pakhtunkhwa
Revolutionary Politics
From Paradise to Hell
The Military’s Pashtun Wars
7. Simmering Balochistan: a Taliban Haven
Taliban Redux
Divided Deobandis
Balochistan: Crossroads of Conflict
PART THREE
AFGHANISTAN
8. Old and New Islamists in Loy Nangarhar
Archetype Mullah
Salafism in Kunar
9. Tribes, Communists and Generational Jihadists in Loya Paktia
Marx Among the Tribes
Jihad in Blood
Changing Tribal Landscape
10. The New Taliban in Loy Kandahar
A Dying Nation
The Book of Rules
A Shadowy Organisation
Taliban Utopia
Making Peace with the Taliban
The Nationalist Card
PART FOUR
CONCLUSION
11. Crafting a Peaceful Pashtun Future
Uncle Sam in Pashtunistan
A Democratic Pakistan
The Future of Afghanistan
A Permanent Peace
Notes
Index
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
(Between pages 110 and 111)
1. A village in Lower Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, © Majeed Babar
2. Some Loya Paktia delegates in the Loya Jirga, Kabul, January 2004, © Author
3. Noor Habibullah, a former detainee of the Guantanamo Bay prison in Jalalabad, summer 2004, ©
Author
4. Former Taliban diplomat Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, Kabul 2010, © Author
5. Afrasiab Khattak, October 2010, © Author
6. Folk musicians in Swat, © Shaheen Buneri
7. Maulana Noor Muhammad, a pro-Taliban JUI leader in Balochistan, © Abdul Hai Kakar
8. A distraught Pashtun mother showing the picture of her disappeared son, Jalalabad, 2004, © Author
9. A British-era security hilltop security post on a hilltop in Landikotal, Khyber Pass, © Majeed Babar
10. Malam Jabba in Swat, © Majeed Babar
11. The ruined Darul Aman Palace in Kabul, 2003, © Author
12. Afghan National Army recruits being trained, Kabul, 2004, © Author
13. Rusting tanks leftover from the Soviet Occupation in 1980s, Kabul, 2004, © Author
14. The road to Gardez, capital of Paktia Province, © Author
15. Remains of the ancient Bala Hissar fort in Kabul, © Author
16. The mausoleum of Afghan Emperor Ahmad Shah Durrani in Kandahar, © Author
17. The Shaheedano Chowk (Martyrs Square) in Kandahar, © Author
18. A paramilitary check post in Swat. © Shaheen Buneri
19. A Pashtun nomad women near Kandahar, February 2002, © Author