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South Waziristan tense after cleric’s killing
* Ahmedzai Wazirs to consider future course of action after three days of mourning
* Jirga likely to take action against Mehsuds
By Iqbal Khattak
PESHAWAR: The Ahmedzai Wazirs are in mourning. The loss of influential cleric Maulana Noor Muhammad is seen as a “collective loss” by the Wazirs of South Waziristan, who believe the time has now come to cleanse their territory of “troublemakers”.
“The Ahmedzai Wazirs are mourning the loss of Noor Muhammad maulvi sahib,” tribal elder Behram Khan said. “It is a huge loss,” he said. Maulana Noor Muhammad was among the 26 people who were killed in a suicide attack in a mosque in Wana bazaar on Monday.
A three-day mourning period is being observed across the Ahmedzai Wazir areas and afterwards tribal elders will gather at a traditional jirga to devise the future course of action.
“Let’s mourn his death, then we will sit and talk about what the Ahmedzai Wazir tribes should do,” elder Behram Khan said, as angry Wazirs put the head of the suicide bomber on display in the main Wana bazaar on Tuesday.
Though the tribes are yet to take a final decision, they are likely to agree to get “all Mehsuds out” of Wazir areas in Wana and other towns.
“Ahmedzai Wazirs will never forgive the tribe which accepts responsibility for the suicide attack in which Noor Muhammad was killed,” said Wana resident Zafar Wazir.
The Ahmedzai Wazir areas are relatively peaceful as Wazir Taliban commander Mullah Nazir led a successful campaign against the foreign militants, especially the Uzbeks, in spring 2007.
Eyewitnesses of Monday’s attack said that the bomber looked like an Uzbek. “The bomber’s face is undamaged in the attack and he clearly looks like an Uzbek,” Rasool Wazir, a shopkeeper in Wana, said by phone.
Noor’s elder son Maulvi Taj Muhammad was declared his successor moments after the cleric was laid to rest on Monday evening.
Noor’s rise to the position of the foremost religious and political personality of the area is nothing less than dramatic.
Until 1967, he did not even have his own home. It was his inimitable talent that made him a noted person in Ahmedzai Wazir areas. He was the student of late Mufti Mehmood, father of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Before he turned a “good guy” he was a “bad Taliban”. He ran a parallel administration in Wana in 1976 and once threatened the government with a “befitting reply” if any action was taken against him.
Abdullah Abdullah, the political agent at that time, used force to “dismantle his state” in Wana, destroying some 1,500 shops in Wana bazaar. The cleric fled to Angoor Adda near the Afghan border. However, he was arrested and had to spend some four years in prison.
Former South Waziristan political agent Rustam Shah Mohmand said late Noor Muhammad was “not a bad man”. “He was not only a cleric, but also a tribal elder and Wazirs held him in high esteem,” Rustam Shah told Daily Times.
A number of Taliban commanders were his students at the madrassa. Nek Muhammad, who took up arms against the government in late 2003, was also one of his students.
He was supportive of all forms of jihad and himself a jihadist, having crossed the border into Afghanistan to fight against the Soviet Union. However, he stood up against elements trying to wage jihad against the government forces in Pakistan.
It was his strong character that made it possible for him to open a madrassa for female students in the area, which also imparts contemporary education.
Late Noor Muhammad had a multitalented character. He won the National Assembly elections from the area in 1997. He was a politician, orator, educationist, historian and writer. His book ‘Jihadi Afghanistan’ about the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan made him famous among jihadists, while ‘Wazir and Waziristan’ is about the history of Waziristan and its different tribes.
However, he opposed Western democracy and in his book ‘Jamhoriat Aqal-wa-Naqal ka Ayenay may’, the late cleric wrote, “As democracy allows a person full freedom of expression and freedom of movement, so we are against it”.
It remains to be seen what implications the death of Noor Muhammad will have for South Waziristan as a whole and the Mehsud tribes in particular. “His death will have wide implications for (South) Waziristan. He was the pride of the Ahmedzai Wazirs,” said Zafar Wazir.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...-8-2010_pg7_40
* Ahmedzai Wazirs to consider future course of action after three days of mourning
* Jirga likely to take action against Mehsuds
By Iqbal Khattak
PESHAWAR: The Ahmedzai Wazirs are in mourning. The loss of influential cleric Maulana Noor Muhammad is seen as a “collective loss” by the Wazirs of South Waziristan, who believe the time has now come to cleanse their territory of “troublemakers”.
“The Ahmedzai Wazirs are mourning the loss of Noor Muhammad maulvi sahib,” tribal elder Behram Khan said. “It is a huge loss,” he said. Maulana Noor Muhammad was among the 26 people who were killed in a suicide attack in a mosque in Wana bazaar on Monday.
A three-day mourning period is being observed across the Ahmedzai Wazir areas and afterwards tribal elders will gather at a traditional jirga to devise the future course of action.
“Let’s mourn his death, then we will sit and talk about what the Ahmedzai Wazir tribes should do,” elder Behram Khan said, as angry Wazirs put the head of the suicide bomber on display in the main Wana bazaar on Tuesday.
Though the tribes are yet to take a final decision, they are likely to agree to get “all Mehsuds out” of Wazir areas in Wana and other towns.
“Ahmedzai Wazirs will never forgive the tribe which accepts responsibility for the suicide attack in which Noor Muhammad was killed,” said Wana resident Zafar Wazir.
The Ahmedzai Wazir areas are relatively peaceful as Wazir Taliban commander Mullah Nazir led a successful campaign against the foreign militants, especially the Uzbeks, in spring 2007.
Eyewitnesses of Monday’s attack said that the bomber looked like an Uzbek. “The bomber’s face is undamaged in the attack and he clearly looks like an Uzbek,” Rasool Wazir, a shopkeeper in Wana, said by phone.
Noor’s elder son Maulvi Taj Muhammad was declared his successor moments after the cleric was laid to rest on Monday evening.
Noor’s rise to the position of the foremost religious and political personality of the area is nothing less than dramatic.
Until 1967, he did not even have his own home. It was his inimitable talent that made him a noted person in Ahmedzai Wazir areas. He was the student of late Mufti Mehmood, father of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Before he turned a “good guy” he was a “bad Taliban”. He ran a parallel administration in Wana in 1976 and once threatened the government with a “befitting reply” if any action was taken against him.
Abdullah Abdullah, the political agent at that time, used force to “dismantle his state” in Wana, destroying some 1,500 shops in Wana bazaar. The cleric fled to Angoor Adda near the Afghan border. However, he was arrested and had to spend some four years in prison.
Former South Waziristan political agent Rustam Shah Mohmand said late Noor Muhammad was “not a bad man”. “He was not only a cleric, but also a tribal elder and Wazirs held him in high esteem,” Rustam Shah told Daily Times.
A number of Taliban commanders were his students at the madrassa. Nek Muhammad, who took up arms against the government in late 2003, was also one of his students.
He was supportive of all forms of jihad and himself a jihadist, having crossed the border into Afghanistan to fight against the Soviet Union. However, he stood up against elements trying to wage jihad against the government forces in Pakistan.
It was his strong character that made it possible for him to open a madrassa for female students in the area, which also imparts contemporary education.
Late Noor Muhammad had a multitalented character. He won the National Assembly elections from the area in 1997. He was a politician, orator, educationist, historian and writer. His book ‘Jihadi Afghanistan’ about the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan made him famous among jihadists, while ‘Wazir and Waziristan’ is about the history of Waziristan and its different tribes.
However, he opposed Western democracy and in his book ‘Jamhoriat Aqal-wa-Naqal ka Ayenay may’, the late cleric wrote, “As democracy allows a person full freedom of expression and freedom of movement, so we are against it”.
It remains to be seen what implications the death of Noor Muhammad will have for South Waziristan as a whole and the Mehsud tribes in particular. “His death will have wide implications for (South) Waziristan. He was the pride of the Ahmedzai Wazirs,” said Zafar Wazir.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...-8-2010_pg7_40
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