The Pakistani Spectator

24 year old Ali, a young school teacher was fast asleep, when suddenly he heard an explosion which rattled the windows of his room and then he heard shouting outside his home.  His neighbor Shaukat was screaming, “The Taliban has arrived.”  Everyone was running helter, skelter.  No one knew what was going to happen next. Ali saw few men wearing masks firing in air shouting slogans, “Taliban Zindabad” (Long-Live the Taliban). It was completely chaotic. He heard his sister in law Salma crying as she couldn’t find her two children who were playing in the park outside their house. Soon afterwards, there was another explosion; Ali knew there would be more deaths, more injuries and more shooting. There was nothing unusual about this.  Even children in Pakistan knew Taliban was synonymous with nightmare of death, destruction and cruelty.

Following two weeks of turmoil and bloodshed due to constant shelling, Buner region has become a disaster zone. People of Buner are caught in the confrontation between the Pakistani army and the Taliban. They are struggling to survive. Thousands have been displaced and those that have sought refuge in emergency shelters still lack the basic amenities. The health situation is dismal as shortage of lifesaving medicines continues to plague the region. It has led to an acute hardship for them resulting into a growing humanitarian crisis.

Ahmed, a middle aged small trader said: “I simply can’t explain the enormity of what I am witnessing here. Words fail me. I have lost my sleep .I live in constant fear and danger. We are trapped inside our homes, while there is constant shelling. There is no water, no food, no power, everything is destroyed.”

A fighter jet had thrown a bomb on Ahmed’s neighbor Muhammad’s home. His wife, four children, and his father were killed. “Eleven people in total,” Ahmed said, in a faltering voice. He had run over to Muhammad’s house as soon as the bombing stopped. All he saw was a baby lying on the ground, struggling to breathe. The bodies of other people were in pieces and spread around.

Ahmed’s home had also turned into a pile of rubble. Looking at that debris, Ahmed said weeping as a neighbor put a consoling arm around his shoulders, “It was my house once. What a sad day, they have destroyed everything.” Just a few miles from the shattered home of Ahmed, lay the vast remains of a school and children’s park destroyed by the Taliban. The debris was a symbolic reminder of how far away the hope of peace was.

As Ahmed scrabbled through the rubble, his friend Younus dragged him away. “He said ‘They are still bombing. Let’s run away.’ They slipped away under cover of darkness, dodging the curfew areas and the roads, climbing across the mountains on a dark path. They ran for cover under trees, shielding their heads with copies of the Quran. Along the way they slept in an abandoned house; the men taking turns guarding their womenfolk.

Shabnam, a 42 year old housewife is glad to be safe but her mind would not rest. “The whole scene keeps playing and replaying before my eyes,” she said. Khalid, her husband had no doubts where the blame lay. “Who is keeping food and fuel from us? It is Taliban. Who has forced us to flee our homes? It is Taliban. We all want peace. We cannot continue to live in this misery.

Thousands of people were forced to flee the strife torn area of Buner. There was no time for them to pack their belongings or food. They just locked their houses and left. There was no transportation. So, they walked on foot. They are now living in squalid refugee camps, leading a life full of hardships and uncertainties with little prospect of returning home any time soon. These people are beyond despair. They are worried about their future and desperately want to get out of this mess.

Jawed, a shopkeeper from Buner, had to wait with 10 relatives to be allocated one of the tents scattered across an open field. “My mother is ill, she has a heart problem,” he says. “Who will help me?” He considers Taliban as brutal people. He says, “You cannot imagine what they were doing. They would drag people out of their houses; behead them publicly as a warning.” He is also fiercely critical of the army and the government, saying that, “innocent people are dying from mortar shelling.”

Razzak, a cart-puller had been forced to leave his children behind. “When the shelling started, my wife and I ran out to gather the children. It was like hell outside, and we just started running. I realized that my son and my smallest daughter were missing. She is only three but my wife cried and said the rest of us would be killed if we stayed, so we kept going. I have no idea what happened to them.”

Listening to these “heart wrenching” stories, makes us wonder that how will Pakistan be able to convince these people of Buner that they have a future of hope and peace? This is one of the biggest challenges in Pakistan- convincing people who are surrounded by death, devastation and destruction that Pakistan will once again become a land of hope and happiness.