Pakistan at War. Bajaur (2008-2014) by Alixandra Fazzina | NOOR
To the east of Afghanistan's volatile Kunar Valley, Bajaur was the setting for Pakistan's first all-out war against the Taliban. - The most northerly of the country's lawless tribal agencies, during the 1980s Bajaur became a staging ground for the Mujahadeen in their battle against the Soviet army in Afghanistan. More recently a back base for the insurgent factions linked to Al-Qaeda, Bajaur's mountains once again became a strategic launch pad, this time for strikes against American forces. - In 2008, the Pakistan Taliban took de facto control of Bajaur. Under a climate of fear, government institutions were shut down, schools were closed, women forced to stay indoors and the men ordered to cultivate poppy. - Considered the most important militant stronghold outside Waziristan, the Pakistan army responded with an operation that would be a showdown in the country's new war against terror. The ensuing conflict was long lasting and brutal. Towns, villages, fields and forests along the frontier were flattened by aerial bombing and artillery in a bid to root out a resilient insurgency. Bajaur became depopulated. Almost half a million civilians who had braved the Taliban takeover ran for their lives. - Helping hands that first welcomed the wave of Bajauris into the disused schools and official camps around Peshawar soon vanished as Pakistan was engulfed by a further 3 million IDPs escaping conflict in the Swat Valley the following year. Families who had nothing received no more aid and their places of refuge were closed down. - Finally de-notified as a conflict zone by the military in 2012, and uneasy peace has since been restored to Bajaur. Facing widespread destruction to their homes and livelihoods, only around half of the families who fled have ever returned to rebuild their lives in the devastated province. - Five years after the Taliban took power, thousands of homeless Bajauri families remain on the margins of society in Pakistan. Facing acute unemployment and poverty, many have been forced to sell their lands in order to survive. With no place go, they are the forgotten victims of an unseen war. (noor)
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(RM) 227754701
PAKISTAN AT WAR: BAJAUR (2008- 2014)
JALOZAI, PAKISTAN- MARCH 2011 .Sitting in the shade of a mud built shelter, forty-five year old Sabira holds back tears as she gently handles the headscarf that her eldest daughter Shughla was wearing when she was killed during heavy fighting between the Pakistan Army and Taliban insurgents in Bajaur. Displaced by the war to bleak plains of Jalozai along with her elderly husband and seven surviving children, Sabira keeps the shredded green shawl and Shughla's shrapnel covered dress in a drawstring bag hidden away in one of thousands of weather beaten tents in one of the world's largest IDP camps.“When the Taliban came at the beginning of 2008 they were all foreigners. The came to the villages of Bajaur and told the people we are you guests now and you must be humble with us. In our society, we have traditions such as Pakhtunwali and Melmastia so we had to accept them. At first they began living in the schools, mosques and hujras but we never met with them personally- we are a poor and vulnerable family and have never had relations with the authorities or any Talibs. Over the passage of time the Taliban grew in numbers and gained strength. They controlled the communities and then began to make decisions in place of the government. We used to hear whispers that somebody had been killed in this place and that; we were very afraid of them. Then the conflict began. Jets and artillery were firing and shelling without discrimination. We never expected such a big war”. Despite her neighbours urging Sabira and her family to leave, they stayed put, not wanting to leave their house and their possessions behind to go on the run.Two months earlier, her sixteen year old daughter Shughla had been married to a man in Peshawar and owing to a relative's funeral, Sabira was excited to have her back home again for Ramadan. “Her parents-in-law lived in Chinar which is a hot bed for the Taliban. She was reluctant to leave us but I urged her to visit there for a few days since (KEYSTONE/NOOR/Alixandra Fazzina)
(RM) 227754354
PAKISTAN AT WAR: BAJAUR (2008- 2014)
JALOZAI, PAKISTAN- JUNE 2011 .Sitting weeping in her tiny mud hut at Pakistan's sprawling Jalozai Camp, mother of seven Islam Bibi feels helpless as she grieves for her dead daughter Usma. Killed during the conflict in Bajaur by indiscriminate gunfire when she was just seven years old, Islam Bibi and her family have since been displaced by the continued fighting in the tribal areas for nearly three years.“When the Taliban first came to Loi Sum they were low in number but they were joined by locals who took up arms and we were left helpless against their insurgency. Then Pakistan Army came to Loi Sum and the Taliban began to attack. It was in that very first fight that my daughter was killed.I was visiting a neighbour's house and the fighting started very suddenly; bullets, bombs, gunfire and everything like it was raining fire. My seven children were all at home but at that time we all just ran in different directions trying to save our lives. When I looked behind me, Usma had been hit in the head. There was a furious wind and it was as if the wind had carried her dead body to me. Her clothes were blowing all around her and her tongue was completely out of her body. I asked three men to help me- they dug a small grave and put the body of my child in there without even a bath.During all this fighting, my husband Mahmood had been hit in the shoulder by shrapnel and suffered a stroke from the shock of Usma's death. Now her can longer feel his arm and he will never work again. I spend my days helping to wash and to eat- he can no longer do anything by himself.Since the day Usma died we have never been back. We ran with only the clothes we were wearing; our house, our cows and all our possessions we left behind. We trekked for sixty miles on foot to Ambar. I had to carry my one year old daughter in my arms. Hundreds were leaving, running from the bullets on either side of us like a procession of sheep. At times on the way, we had to take cover behind rocks just t (KEYSTONE/NOOR/Alixandra Fazzina)
(RM) 227754656
PAKISTAN AT WAR: BAJAUR (2008- 2014)
RISALPUR PAKISTAN- MARCH 2011 .Helped by her little sister Hamna, twelve year old Khalida uses a bottle of water to wet the ground of her family's tent after sweeping to keep out the dust and flies. Displaced from their home in Bajaur almost three years ago due to fighting between Taliban insurgents and the military, the family of nine have been squatting in the grounds of a half built hospital known as Benazir Complex near Nowshera.In a bridal tent decorated with tinsel, four year old Sawaira and members of Momin Khan's new extended family celebrate the second day of his son Saddam's wedding in the grounds of Benazir Complex IDP camp near Nowshera. Escaping from the war with his life, Momin had no idea that he would still be living in a tent some three years after the conflict began, “We were trapped in the middle between the army and the Taliban. By day we used to hide from the army jets and by night be were scared of the Taliban. There was a constant rain of bullets and shelling. To leave Charmang we had to cross a big mountain and at that time it was so tough. The pregnant women were giving birth but there was no choice but to run. It was like the day of judgement- we just had to save our lives- we weren't even aware of our brothers and sisters.In the past we had hoped we would be back home early but now it's been too long. I had a big shop in Bajaur- we have lost our business, our house is damaged and our possessions looted. If there is anything remaining of our lives then it's under a big layer of dust. We always hear gossip about the restoration of peace but what can we say?” (KEYSTONE/NOOR/Alixandra Fazzina)
(RM) 227754831
PAKISTAN AT WAR: BAJAUR (2008- 2014)
RISALPUR PAKISTAN- MARCH 2011 .Squatting down in the corner of his tiny mud built hut at the Benazir Complex IDP camp, father of seven Ismail shares a cup of tea with his thirteen month old daughter Safia. From the tribal agency of Bajaur, Ismail and his family have spent almost three years displaced in the grounds of a half-built medical complex near Nowshera.“The Taliban used to come across the border from Afghanistan. After the military operation started things got even worse. We managed to stay for the first month of the war but we only survived by building trenches in the earth where we would hide when the shelling started. In the evenings you couldn't make a cooking fire and it was even too dangerous to get up and use the toilet in the night. An aunt and one of my cousins were killed by the shelling from the jets, my mother-in-law suffered a heart attack during one of the bombardments and my fifteen year old daughter died during childbirth. The fighting was so furious and the situation so terrible we couldn't take it anymore.We left Charmang during Ramadan in 2008. It was dawn and there was a lot of firing all around us. Our Sahari meal was ready but we just ran and left the plates on the table and the tea in the pot. We left our grain, our wheat and our animals; we couldn't even grab a spare suit.When we first arrived at the camp at Sheikh Yassin there was no space for us. Everyone around us was getting so sick but at least back then all the people used to come and help us; now they have stopped coming. The government are asking the people of Bajaur to sell their land to them so that they can rebuild our houses but nobody agrees. The armies and the terrorists are still in Bajaur and the whole place is damaged by bullets, shelling and rain. Peace is not even there now. We have no idea what the future will hold”. (KEYSTONE/NOOR/Alixandra Fazzina)
(RM) 227754686
PAKISTAN AT WAR: BAJAUR (2008- 2014)
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN; FEBRUARY 2104 .Holding her twenty-five day old grandson Ziaullah, elderly Bacha Hilal squats down in the mud hut that has become home since escaping conflict in Bajaur. “The first time the Taliban came our life became limited only to our house. They didn't let us go to our fields or collect wood from the mountains and we weren't even allowed to go to the river for water. They demanded that no child should go to school and anyone working for the government should abandon their jobs. They even banned dogs, cockerels and donkeys and instructed the men to start cultivating poppy. After Eid in 2008 the army came. They started shelling and their tanks began to flatten the housesÖ There was a big ditch in the land by our home and there were times we would spend two or three nights there taking shelter with the children. A lot of people were killed; the Taliban were slaughtering on the ground and the army was bombing from above. One day a mortar landed very close to us; the shrapnel hit my husband in the eye. At 4am the next morning we left. We were all so scared as there were landmines all around. Nobody stayed behind; our whole village fled”. Surrounded by a population from Pakistan's tribal areas at a sprawling, illegal settlement near Islamabad, the sanctuary that Bacha Hilal found is one she fears will become her grave. “In Islamabad we live in poverty. We can't even afford the smallest of things and don't know if we will eat one day or the next. We've borrowed all we can against our lands but no longer have any money. We are still IDPs. Because of the fighting, we are in this condition”. (KEYSTONE/NOOR/Alixandra Fazzina)
(RM) 227760638
PAKISTAN AT WAR: BAJAUR (2008- 2014)
RISALPUR PAKISTAN- MARCH 2011 .Helped by her little sister Hamna, twelve year old Khalida uses a bottle of water to wet the ground of her family's tent after sweeping to keep out the dust and flies. Displaced from their home in Bajaur almost three years ago due to fighting between Taliban insurgents and the military, the family of nine have been squatting in the grounds of a half built hospital known as Benazir Complex near Nowshera.In a bridal tent decorated with tinsel, members of Momin Khan's new extended family celebrate the second day of his son Saddam's wedding in the grounds of Benazir Complex IDP camp near Nowshera. Escaping from the war with his life, Momin had no idea that he would still be living in a tent some three years after the conflict began, “We were trapped in the middle between the army and the Taliban. By day we used to hide from the army jets and by night be were scared of the Taliban. There was a constant rain of bullets and shelling. To leave Charmang we had to cross a big mountain and at that time it was so tough. The pregnant women were giving birth but there was no choice but to run. It was like the day of judgement- we just had to save our lives- we weren't even aware of our brothers and sisters.In the past we had hoped we would be back home early but now it's been too long. I had a big shop in Bajaur- we have lost our business, our house is damaged and our possessions looted. If there is anything remaining of our lives then it's under a big layer of dust. We always hear gossip about the restoration of peace but what can we say?” (KEYSTONE/NOOR/Alixandra Fazzina)
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