The Story of Abir Mohammed, from Counterpunch

A compelling look into the war in Pakistan, Kathy Kelly and Joshua Brollier's The Story of Abir Mohammed is a great read. Here's an excerpt.

For Abir Mohammed and his family, there’s only a slim chance of moving back into their home. When fighting first began, in 2008, some of Abir Mohammed’s tribal members had been murdered by the Taliban. For this reason, although the Taliban warned them not to do so, members of Abir Mohammed’s family supported the Pakistani army. Anticipating a military offensive, the political agent of Bajour encouraged all of the people in Abir Mohammed’s area to leave their houses. Collecting as much of their valuables as they could carry, Abir Mohammed’s family fled across the border to Afghanistan. Two months later, while warfare continued, they crossed back into Pakistan and headed to a camp for displaced people. Abir Mohammed said that during the military offensive, Pakistani troops indiscriminately hit civilians and the Taliban. The military drove the Taliban out of his home, but then the Pakistani army moved in, and they are still occupying his home.

Thinking he may have to give up on regaining his fields and orchards, Abir Mohammed is trying to begin a new line of work. In Islamabad, he hopes to become a cobbler. But, the women in his family are begging him to join them in the refugee camp, where they are afraid to leave their tents lest they violate the traditional purdah customs. They long for their homes in Bajaur, but Abir Mohammed believes it is still unsafe to return. Taliban fighters, reputed to have escaped to Kunar, could still return and, as far as he knows, the military is still occupying his house. As far as Abir Mohammed is concerned, the Pakistani military could quite appropriately "do less."

Others ask: is there a non-military solution to the problems afflicting people like Abir Mohammed and his extended family?

Students from North and South Waziristan studying at a university in Islamabad emphasized that doing more to meet human needs for food, housing, roads and, most importantly, education, would quickly diminish the Taliban strength. “Look at me,” said one student. “I am not part of the Taliban. I am educated. Why would I join the Taliban?” The U.S. counter-terrorism strategy in North and South Waziristan has relied almost solely on force through U.S. drone strikes and Pakistani military offensives.

Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed of the Pakistan Muslim League says that Pakistan has had enough military aid and that non-military solutions are needed. He also advises that if the U.S. wants to help, it should focus on concrete financial aid for education and health, distributed through reliable Pakistani civil society groups.

If the U.S. wanted to declare war on fundamentalism, rather than the desperate poor of the Middle East and South Asia that are so vulnerable to recruitment by fundamentalists, it would decide to genuinely help the Pakistani government “do more” to meet its population’s human needs, and a good first step would be to ensure that desperately needed resources are not railroaded into maintaining military strength, a lingering legacy in U.S. and Pakistani relations that traces back to the Bush - Musharraf era. During the “Bush-Mush” years, the U.S. gave Pakistan 11.9 billion dollars in assistance, 8 billion of which went directly to the dictatorial military regime. Not a single public works project was initiated by the U.S. throughout that period.

By: Brant