By Razeshta Sethna
Dawn, 20-09-2011


THE effect of modern conflict has changed lives in ways that could not have been predicted a decade ago.

The fact that the traditional battlefield no longer exists is often ignored. But the implications therefore are wider and more long-lasting, when individuals and communities targeted are neither insurgent, nor soldier, nor terrorist, nor policeman, but passive victims of violent war.

Environmental change, displacement and urbanisation are contemporary causes of the most recent conflicts where physical destruction and psychological trauma destroys human capacity and socio-economic institutions. The long-term impact on civilian targets is ignored, especially where weak governments fail to rebuild institutions and offer financial assistance.

In the past decade, the 9/11 wars have witnessed escalating levels of violence against women, children and other vulnerable groups in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

In Pakistan there hasn`t been an outright rejection of extremism where support for militants was at a high point in 2005 (52 per cent supported Osama bin Laden reported Pew Global Attitudes) and though that dipped in 2010 (only 18 per cent believed in Bin Laden and 80 per cent were against suicide bombings), there remain substantial numbers among the lower middle classes sympathising with homegrown militant ideologies.

With Islamic radicalisation showing signs of increase and the war settling into urban battlegrounds, as exemplified by yesterday`s suicide blast targeting the CID chief, women and children in Pakistan continue to pay a high price when it comes to their basic rights and freedoms, such as pursuing an education, and joining the workforce.

Four children were killed and 17 injured earlier this month, when a private school bus travelling to Kalakhel came under attack near Peshawar, evidence of non-combatant casualties. This wasn`t the first terror attack on Kalakhel residents who have formed a peace militia against militants. In June a bus stand was targeted killing women and children.

Backtrack through this decade of war and many families who fled Taliban rule in Swat in 2009 recall how nightly radio broadcasts identified the latest victims to be punished for indulging in un-Islamic activities like dancing, singing, watching cable TV, or even sending girls to school.

Video footage taken in Swat showed how a young woman was publicly flogged by the Taliban for disobeying Islamic injunctions enforced by militants. Another horrific incident shook residents when a popular dancer, Shahbana`s bullet-ridden body was discovered in January that year in Mingora`s main square serving as a reminder of what happens to women defying Taliban rules.

Women again suffered the brunt of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan`s terror campaign when an attack in 2009 targeted a crowded market in Peshawar where families had traditionally shopped for years.

With scores dead, the Meena Bazar bombing was not only in retaliation to military operations in the tribal belt, but a reminder of the marginalisation of women, the destruction of girls` schools and women`s forced retreat from public spaces, all vital cogs in the terror trajectory. The indiscriminate killing of innocent women and children reinforced fears the Taliban continue to instil among Pakistanis even today.

Twin suicide bombings targeting the International Islamic University in Islamabad killed female students that year. Suicide attacks on Sufi shrines created havoc in urban centres. Even more disturbing this decade have been the various peace deals made by successive governments with militant leaders, despite evidence of complicity when women were flogged, girls school`s bombed and threats forbidding women to leave their homes issued through edicts and pamphlets.

These women and children are the silent victims on the battlefield whose stories disappear soon after the site of an attack is cleared, bereaved families consoled with promises of government compensation and the glare of the media blurs following the rush to catch another story.

During the fighting between security forces and Taliban militants, thousands of displaced families sought shelter in camps and with relatives. Many men stayed back to guard their properties.The UN estimates that 60 per cent of the 2.5 million internally displaced were women who left their homes unaccompanied by men: they had never travelled alone beyond their villages, so were ill-equipped to provide for their children.

Nearly 80 per cent were illiterate with the highest maternal mortality rate in South Asia. In cities and towns, hundreds of `shadow` widows resorted to beggary and prostitution sharing the same fate as Afghan women prior to 9/11. When development post-conflict is short-lived, communities are in constant flux without sustainable peace and durable solutions.

Pakistan`s tribal areas are no different in terms of understanding the effects of war. When civilians are bombed with impunity and killed indiscriminately and drone attacks flatten homes, there is rising hatred and intolerance of state policies. The state`s war with militancy is hardly popular among the tribes who simply believe the government has sold out to America in exchange for dollars and military equipment. If the latter is based on a backlog of trust deficit, it has also churned out hundreds of young men (some just children, and as young as seven years) willing to either bomb American interests but more so, attack institutions and personnel related to the armed forces.

There is need to understand the psychology of those who have lost their families, in areas where the code of revenge is a centuries-old tradition. When they see their children killed, they don`t care whether the next suicide bomber who rams his truck into the Marriott is killing Pakistani security guards, explains a terror expert, because for them this is revenge.

Young Pakistanis angered at the fallout of the war attempt to understand this long conflict but dangerously also want to play their part exacting revenge and justice. Such thinking has perpetuated xenophobic sentiments among university students, young professionals and also certain secularists, as this war continues to find more justification.

This could turn into yet another dangerous after-effect where ideologies that were once moderate and espousing equality and progress find no space amid the dead.

The writer is a senior assistant editor at the Herald .

razeshtas@gmail.com