Diplomacy As An Art of Negotiations Case study of swat under TT

The tragic incident of 9/11 brought a huge change in world politics and many states were affected after the incidence. The main reason was the initiation of war on terror. This tragic incidence shaped the security concerns for Pakistan as well.

This incidence changes the whole diplomatic situation in the world. Diplomacy is mainly referred to the negotiation between sovereign states but can also but considered in the concept of state within a state diplomacy

Conflict negotiations is the process of resolving dispute or conflict permanently by providing for each side’s needs and adequately addressing their interests so that they are satisfied with the interests.

Swat is a very beautiful valley of Pakistan and was named by visitors as Switzerland of Asia. Due to a brief era of militant’s power over the place snatched the peace of the valley and it took a sight of the global media at that time. Importance of Swat can be seen due to many factors among which one of the main is its geographical juncture. It acts as a bridge to many major regions like South Asia, Central Asia, and China. Also, two important mountain regions of Karakoram and Hindu Kush passes through the Swat valley. One of the most leading actor of current day politics comes in the neighborhood of Swat. The US and NATO forces controlled the area across Hindu Kush region and china just lies behind Karakoram.

 

In negotiations both parties are aware of their benefits and their interests. In case of swat, the two parties can be seen as the Government of Pakistan and Tahreek e Taliban Pakistan and its sub branch Tahreek e Taliban Swat. The conflict of Swat is linked with the Afghanistan war and it was the time when Tahreek e Nifaz e sharia e Muhammad was established in 1989 under the leadership of Sufi Muhammad.

First we will discuss swat under Taliban in details and the leadership of Mullah Fazlullah which became an obstacle in the way of peace building process in Swat.

This was the factor which didn’t allow the government to negotiate with Taliban

Swat was run by prince of Swat and came into being in 1915 but later became a part of Pakistan in 1969. A valley once known and prominent in the world due to its beauty but after 9/11 incidence, it was highlighted in international media as a conflictual area. When Afghanistan was attacked by US from 2004-2009, the Swat valley became conflicted and was controlled by Taliban.

Terrorist activities in Swat and other regions of the western border can be relate to the time when Pakistan became ally of US in the war on terror and the terrorist activities started to expend across the western border to other parts of the country as well. This include bomb blast and assassination of few government personals, attack on religious sites, and hitting civilian population not only in one part of the country but in major cities of Pakistan like Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi, and few in The capital Islamabad as well.

FATA, PATA and few regions of KP are historically neglected areas and was affected by the war the most. The negligence causes these areas to be site of terrorist attack and conflicts. The flow of talibanization emerged in these areas with gaining momentum as the time pass. Government tried to respond in certain ways by conducting few military operations to clear the area by hunting the terrorists.

In 2007 in the western side of FATA there were various terrorist groups who regrouped themselves under the banner of Tahreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP). This give them strength and they were able to conduct terrorist activities at a massive scale. TTP was having an image of better regimented and organized. These activities were challenging the government since the Suicide attack at public places were getting high. One hand military operations started but on the other hand TTP was gaining strength in PATA and FATA. These areas were now becoming hub for terrorism and a haven for Taliban.

Wave of terrorism started to expand from tribal areas to settled areas like Malakand Division, which was having seven major district of Swat, Buner, Shangla, upper dir, lower dir, district malakand and chitral. Tahreek-I-Nifaz-I-shariat-I-Muhammadi (TNSM) was leading in the region which itself was let by Mullah Fazlullah in 2004. TNSM was formulated by Sufi Muhammad in 1989. TNSM was Mainly promoting the demand of implementing Shariah law in Malakand division, but their agenda was to provide justice and guarantee a strong judicial system. TNSM was aware of the fact that people of Swat area was fed up with the government implementing on of law in PATA under 1973 constitution act and Sufi Muhammad hence uses their weak point against their people and conducted an armed protest in 1994 and 1999. Which resulted them in success and government accepted their demands. With the struggle of TNSM the incidence of 9/11 was conducted by Al-Qaida.

Sufi Muhammad prepared a private army of around 10000 men which headed toward Afghanistan for jihad. This was the time were situation started getting worse for Pakistan and especially the people of Swat. Many of the jihadis were killed and Sufi Muhammad was imprisoned but mullah fazlullah managed to get back. Government launched a military operation at the end of 2007, but the wave of terrorism was soo strong that it could not let the operation to be successful. Soon after that the government tried another military operation, but it was also not a full success. The situation was getting worse, so the government released Sufi Muhammad and tried to make a bilateral agreement with Taliban to solve the dispute through a peace agreement in the beginning of 2009. Fazlullah was getting high concerns regarding the implementation of Islamic law with that agreement. Hence the government started a grand military operation in mid-2009 to clean swat from terrorism and they were successful. The government claimed that swat is now free form Taliban.

 

With the arrest of Sufi Muhammad in swat, there was space created for a new leader to emerge and lead militant group and conduct various terrorist activities in swat and this space was taken by Fazlullah. He was born in swat in 1975. He was a party of group of people who fought against NATO forces in Afghanistan. After his release from jail, he started working as a tutor in local madrasah in swat. He gained the support of local people of that area and started running a local FM radio in 2004.

Fazlullah was named as “Radio Mullah” and his moment was recognized as a terrorist movement. Fazlullah was following the salafi jihadist ideology which aimed to change the socio-political power structure and socio-cultural structure in swat valley. The strategies that formed Fazlullah’s discourse included: ideological influence, social contagion, social control and extension of that social control.

His discourses generated revolved around the concept of jihad, anti-modernism, extremism, Wahhabism, anti-state and anti-women.  Radio was one of the easiest mode of communication and to spread a massage among a large group of people, so he uses this form to speed his ideas all over swat. He was now ruling the mind of people over there through helping them by solving their daily problems. Once he ruled the mind of the people, it was now becoming easy to prepare them for jihad. He was now gaining popularity among conservatives pukhtoons and also supporters of TNSM joined them. Women was the rat’s victim for his ideology. He started talking about women rights which was restricted because of the ‘riwaj’.  Women even donated their jewelry for the cause.

 

Social contagion was the next step for the acceptance of his jihad-based ideology. He took this step to make a bad image of US and Pakistan relations and to identify US as an enemy state to Pakistan. He started creating seminary and markaz at his village and was funded by his native in western countries and Middle East. He started telling people that sending daughters to school and listening to music and watching movies is wrong and are bad deeds.

Imtiaz Ali is a famous Pakistani analyst concluded that  

” A generation has grown up under the shadow of TNSM and its strict version of Islam, providing Fazlullah with a ready pool of fighters.”

Many people started following him by 2007.  At one stage he was delivering a lot of speeches against TV so people started setting fire to their television on roads. From women of lower class to that of working class, all the people started donating their goods and wheat, flour and money and even cement and bricks to build a large center for Taliban (Imam dherai markaz) in return Fazlullah promised them with a strong judicial system and paradise (Jannah) as well. He was aware by the mentality of Swati people and he used it for his benefit. He received a total amount of almost 35 million rupees for the construction of the markaz which was later destroyed by Pakistan Army in 2009.

Another campaign that he carried was to stop polio vaccination because he believes that it was conspiracy of Jews to stop Muslim population growth. His supporters were trusting him blindly and they even tried to destroy the centuries old pre-historic rock and old status of Buddha. They believed that it was un-Islamic and need to be dawn and dusted. Equipment related to IT sector was destroyed worth millions of Pakistani rupees. It was because they believed that it was the major source of sin. People were only following him with the hope of implementing sharia law and getting rid of the Pakistani judicial system.

 

At this point Fazlullah had gained popularity and his ideology was accepted in swat. Taliban activities were getting Brutal day by day. There were a lot of criminal gangs which were becoming part of TTP and terror were spreading among people. Another factor was that people joining TT swat were easily able to conduct activities under the umbrella of TTP. The organizational structure of Fazlullah movement become vigorous and hierarchical after joining TTP.

The main actors and parties in swat conflict were Taliban and the state. It was because of the fact that both their parties were in intense hostility with each other and it emerged after the emergence of TNSM in Malakand Division. It was creating more problems when the government passed the regulation of 1994 than in 1999 and finally in 2009. Taliban were able to conduct their activities freely due to the weak judicial system. This was the reason that TNSM uses the emotions of the people to establish extremism and and talibanization in a diplomatic way and in late 1980s and early 1990s. Soon after that the tragedy of 9/11 added fuel to the fire which headed Sufi Muhammad to formalize an army of 10000 people for jihad in Afghanistan.

Military operation in Swat destroyed the economic, social and physical infrastructure of the militant group but also of the people of that area. Most people were displaced from their homes and many have to leave their property, wealth and their dear ones. A research conducted in swat by Aryana institute for regional research and advocacy (AIRRA) allegedly reported that there was a loss of almost four billion rupees to the agricultural output of swat only during 2008-9. The process of peace building was started soon after the return of IDPs in the late August 2009. The total loss to the Malakand division was estimated to be 227.5 Million US dollars.

Government of Pakistan was taking considerable steps against the insurgency created by TTP and TTS is the valley of Swat and deployed a large military to clean the valley from terrorist groups. Military operations like Raah e Nijaat and Raah e Rast were conducted which became a victory for Pakistan army. The point to discuss here is the negotiations which should be highlighted.

The first step taken by government toward negotiations was taken in 1994.

Sufi Muhammad at that time was the leader of TNSM who arranged an armed protest in 1994 against the regulation that were implemented by government under the constitution of 1973. This was a major success for TNSM and the government accepted their demands and promulgated the given regulations in 1994 and later in 1999

* Nifaz-I-Nizam-e-Sharia (provincially Administrated Tribal Areas) regulations 1994 after the protest in 1994, and

* Shari-I-Nizam-e-Adal Regulations, 1999 after the protest in 1999.

ANP won the general Elections of 2008 at KP province. This was again a platform of negotiation for the government with Taliban. ANP was working under the slogan of peace in the province. Negotiations was done between the new leader of ANP and Tahreek e Taliban of Swat. The provincial government to settle down things, released Sufi Muhammad as a gesture of goodwill. It was all done in 2008.

On May 21-2008, a 16 points agreement was signed under which Islamic law will be implemented in swat and in return the killing of people and the destruction of private and public property and the killing of Pakistani security personal will be stopped by Taliban. Even some of the militants(Taliban) were also released and were given to TTS as an honor to the pact.

Ali khan, Mahmood khan and Ali bakht were representing Mullah Fazlullah.

he winking point for TTS was the approval of government for implementation of sharia and the government was happy that it was able to secure peace in The province as a result of the negotiations. But it was only turn out to be a dream because neither Islamic law nor peace came to the valley of swat.

In 2009, Third phase of military operation Raah e haq was conducted, but it was not a success. Now criminal activities at Swat was at its peak. Provincial government was at a new agreement with TNSM leader Sufi Muhammad on February 15, 2009. ANP government bended on their knees and agreed to implement Islamic law in the whole region of Malakand Division.

 

President Asif ail zardari signed this regulation in April 2009. Approval of government was mandatory for this and was approved. The sim of this regulation was the imposition of Islamic law.

Peace Accord was reacted very negatively by Afghanistan, France, USA, and India.

 France reacted in a way

“The swat agreement has a worldwide resonance”.

White House official also expressed their regards and said “Violence extremists need to be confronted “

Pakistani government took a good step ahead to make negotiations better by saying that it is an internal problem if Pakistan and no other state involvement is acceptable.

As a result of this Sufi Muhammad arranged peace rallies in swat.  Apparently, the situation seemed getting to normalize. A peace march was arranged in saidu Sharif where Mullah Fazlullah stop his men from attacking any security forces.

The arrest of Sufi Muhammad provided Fazlullah to emerge as a new leader. All these Tensions was due to the fact that the killing of his brother in an air strike by Pakistani military on a seminary in bajaur agency on October 30, 2006. The situation further worsened with the military operations on Lal masjid and Jamia hafsa in Islamabad.

Mullah Fazlullah in response to these actions started jihad against government. He joined TTP after his emergence in Waziristan. This resulted the hatred in people against government, destruction and entire conflict situation in the valley. The famous green chowk in Mingora was changed to KHONI CHOWK since it was the place where Taliban use to slaughter people and became a slaughtering square. A violent structure of the valley was resulted due to the cause.

 The only way to end this violent structure was the killing of the strong opponent in the form of Taliban by Pakistan military institutes. From this we come to know that negotiation always doesn’t go in a good manner but it can help a state to somehow avoid conflict for the time being. If the government didn’t respond well at that time the situation might get worse and Taliban who reached almost 60 miles away from the capital could result in a more deadliest situation in the country that can affect almost all part of Pakistan. There was no other way so the government launched military operations, but the grievance of the people is still not addressed in a proper manner due to the root cause, i.e. the improper judicial system is still the same.