Saturday, February 12, 2011

The future of the Kurram Accord

The Express Tribune

The future of the Kurram Accord

 

Why has the Fata jirga concluded an accord between the Sunnis and Shias under the authority of the taliban and not under the authority of the governmant of Pakistan. PHOTO: EPA

On Friday 3 February, 2011, a jirga composed of the elders of Fata announced a peace accord between Shias and Sunnis at Parachinar, the headquarters of the Kurram Agency. What has happened immediately to disarm suspicion is the opening of the Parachinar-Tal Road that has isolated the Shia community of Kurram since 2007 and exposed them to harm, as they tried to go to their homes through Afghanistan. The jirga has appealed to the government of Pakistan to ensure the execution of the accord, meaning clearly that it should re-establish its writ in the agency and ensure that the roads opened through a cross-sectarian agreement are safe from the Taliban adventurers known to be under no single command. One guarantor of the accord is a Taliban commander in Kurram, Fazal Saeed, declaring that "anyone violating the new accord would be punished according to shariah."

Does this mean that both the Shias and Sunnis will observe the accord under the authority of the Taliban? Why has the Fata jirga concluded this accord between the two warring sects under the authority of the Taliban and not under the authority of the government of Pakistan? And if the Taliban are going to implement the accord how will the Shias — whom they consider apostate from Islam — submit themselves to their authority except as second-class citizens?

The government moved first in the direction of alleviating the suffering of Kurram in 2008. It got the two sects together in Murree and signed its own accord. This accord pledged the warring parties to vacate their forward positions, disarm their warriors and allow the Shia IDPs to return home in peace. The government was the guarantor of the accord but it decided not to act after the Taliban attacked the Shias again. After that, as Baitullah was succeeded by Hakimullah as head of the Taliban, the killings actually doubled. Interior Minister Rehman Malik gave the Taliban a 72-hour 'ultimatum' to cease offences and get out; when they did not, he simply forgot Kurram.

For all his talent at sorting out issues, Rehman Malik was overreaching himself. He was not aware that the peace at Kurram would come only after the army reclaimed the agency from the Taliban. The Kurram Shia community dropped out of the radar of Pakistan's strategy when they refused to take part in General Zia's covert war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The general allowed the Sunni mujahideen to sort out the Kurram Shias before he died. The Shia leader Ariful Hussaini, who General Zia was accused of killing in Peshawar, was a Turi from Kurram. Zia allowed a similar massacre of the Shias in Gilgit the same year.

To some, the army has its reasons for not caring for the sufferings of the Kurram Shias, who form 40 per cent of Kurram's population of one million. Since their 'strategic abandonment', they have fled in trickles to cities like Tal, Hangu and Kohat in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where there are now significant pockets of Shia population. This area is now the target of the Taliban. An informally named ghetto, Shiagarh, has been an obvious target, located just 10 miles from Kohat going to the city of Hangu.

The Shias of Kurram Agency or Hangu travelling to Peshawar through Darra Adam Khel have been intercepted by the Taliban and beheaded, while Shias have, at times, blocked the Kohat-Hangu road and kidnapped Sunnis to exchange for the kidnapped Shias in Darra Adam Khel. The Taliban have come as far as Peshawar to put down a Shia leader, knowing that the Shias fleeing from Kurram have also landed with their friends in Peshawar. In Kohat, such notorious persons — including one particular ex-MNA known for his alleged links to al Qaeda and for his nexus with Lal Masjid in Islamabad — are known to be behind attacks on Shias. Pakistan's paramilitary forces fight the Taliban, but every time the latter catch hold of our paramilitaries, they release the Sunnis on the basis of some swap deal but behead the Shias. The Kurram accord has little chance of holding unless the Shias swear allegiance to the Taliban against Pakistan. For the time being, however, they must wait, like the people of North Waziristan, for the writ of the state to return to their region.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13th, 2011.

 

SOURCE:  http://tribune.com.pk/story/117943/the-future-of-the-kurram-accord/


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Peace in Kurram Agency

The Express Tribune 

Peace in Kurram Agency

Published: February 12, 2011

The writer is a retired brigadier who has served in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata asad.munir@tribune.com.pk

Sectarian hostility in Kurram Agency dates back to the British era. Muharram in Parachinar has not been a peaceful event for many years now. Before the advent of sectarian organisations, like the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Muhammad, sectarian conflict was common in Kurram Agency. Intertribal issues such as distribution of water, cutting of wood and denial of road access, ultimately morphed into sectarian conflict. Minor conflicts were witnessed almost every year, while major sectarian clashes erupted in 1982, 1996 and 2007. The Iranian revolution, the entry of Sunni Afghan refugees and the influx of lethal weapons during the Afghan jihad are some of the factors contributing to the intensity and frequency of sectarian violence.

In the 1982 sectarian clashes more than 60 Shia families were displaced from Sadda, a Sunni dominated area and they were forced to migrate to Parachinar, a Shia dominated area. In 1990, a jirga gave a verdict for the resettlement of displaced Shias and the return of their property. However, this decision was never implemented. By 2006, the Taliban had penetrated the Sunni areas of central and lower Kurram. Local Taliban, controlled by the Taliban of South Waziristan, emerged in these areas. In April 2007, participants of a Sunni procession in upper Kurram, raised objectionable slogans against Shias. The Shias reacted and took out a protest procession in Parachinar. Some people fired on this procession and this led to sectarian clashes, which spread to other parts of the Agency. In November 2007, violence erupted again after unidentified people attacked the central mosque in Parachinar, where Sunnis were offering Friday prayers. Hundreds of people from both sects were killed during these clashes and 40 villages were destroyed. More than 3,000 families were displaced. The Thall-Parachinar Road remained closed for almost four years.

A grand Jirga comprising of representatives from all tribal agencies as well as the parliamentarian from Kurram, was constituted in 2008. With the efforts of the Jirga, the Murree Peace Accord was signed by the warring factions in October of the same year.

There were elements within and outside the agency, including the Taliban, who never wanted this accord to be implemented. As a result of hectic efforts, the opponents of the accord were brought on board and the main issue of opening the Thall-Parachinar Road has been resolved, raising the hopes of locals about having a lasting peace in the area.

Both sects have signed a number of peace accords in the past, but these were violated. Only time will tell whether this accord, will bring lasting peace to the Agency. The extent of suffering the people have endured, the huge losses incurred and the duration of this conflict, are some of the reasons which may force the people from both sects to honour this accord. Sectarian conflict may not disappear all together, but the accord may help in preventing violence on a large scale.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12th, 2011.

 

SOURCE:  http://tribune.com.pk/story/117541/peace-in-kurram-agency/


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Kurram peace deal


Friday, February 11, 2011

The fact that the peace deal between the elders of the Sunni and Shia sects in Kurram Agency was welcomed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan ought to act as a warning bell for the government. This declaration of support for peace in the area redefines the role of the militants. Those who were once considered the most dangerous villains are now becoming heroes involved in maintaining peace. That the local populace is fed up with the unrest is understandable, but the need for the Taliban to endorse such a deal is not a good sign. Their terror network has become shaky, no doubt about it, but from this arises a simultaneous need to control the area through whatever means possible. And now the peace deal has provided them a perfect opportunity to enter the power structure.

It has to be seen whether this accord will bring the harmony it promises. Will an accord buttressed by terrorists themselves actually reduce sectarian friction to unite the populace under one umbrella?

Kabil Khan

Peshawar

SOURCE: http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=30476&Cat=11


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