The Shuras
The shura principle is rooted in the Koran, as noted in chapter one. It is a council that deliberates and passes judgment on social and political issues affecting the Islamic community, or ummah. Mullah Omar is, by far, the most important decision-maker, but he does not rule like a dictator. The Taliban Supreme Shura, heavily guided by Omar, conducts strategic planning, issues directives to regional commanders, and disseminates them to village cells as fatwas, or diktats. The village cell operates semi-independently, with minimal oversight from higher echelons. Sometimes the orders from the Supreme Shura are precise; often they take the form of broad guidance.
Quetta Regional Military Shura – Life in the Pakistani Badlands
The term ‘Quetta Shura’ originated with Mullah Omar’s relocation of the Taliban organization to Quetta, Baluchistan, after spending time in Waziristan. In Quetta, Mullah Omar’s Taliban refer to themselves as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Quetta Regional Military Shura directs activities in southern and western Afghanistan.
Balochistan is impoverished, even by the standards of Pakistan, and seethes with resentment of federal governance. Some of the ethnic prejudices of Afghanistan pour into Baloch territory. As in Afghanistan, the Hazaras, who are set apart from many other South Asians by their distinct East Asian appearance, are relegated to menial work as a lower caste. In June 2012, a university bus filled with Hazaras was blown up, killing four. According to the Hazara Democratic Party, over 700 Hazaras have been murdered since 2002 in sectarian violence. The Baloch also feel exploited by the Punjabis, the dominant ethnicity of Pakistan’s 180 million. The police patrol just 5% of Balochistan. The rest is manned by tribal bands and 50,000 Pakistani troops.
Today, Quetta, like the fabled outlaw territory of the American Old West, is a vast danger zone, and its inhabitants are often inclined to sling weapons. Many individuals, groups, and political cohorts live outside the law. In the 1980s, the city served as a sanctuary for anti-Soviet fighters and as a transit route, or “jihad trail,” for their supplies. By the 1990s, there were criminal enterprises, weapons smugglers, camps of Islamist and separatist fighters, adventurers, and desperados. Bin Laden was popular in Baluchistan, and by the late 1990s his smiling image was ubiquitous in shops and coffeehouses.
For over 30 years, Afghans and Arabs have intermarried with local women, and many have obtained Pakistani identification documents. Today, the blend of cultural and national backgrounds makes it difficult to distinguish between some indigenous and Afghan residents. Reliable information about Quetta is scarce because so many journalists are killed, particularly those critical of powerful men.
Death is common in Quetta. A woman professor of communications was shot dead in a rickshaw while traveling to a radio station. It was probably related to her politics. A former Olympian boxer was shot by unknown assailants for reasons unknown. The body of a boy, approximately 10 years old, was found in Quetta. He had been strangled and his body dumped by the road. In a tribal clash, three people were shot to death, including a woman. The assailants escaped. A much-respected Baloch scholar, writer, and poet, Professor Saba Dahtyari, authored 24 books on Balochi literature. He loved his Baluchistan, and many of his country’s intellectuals loved him. But in June 2011 he was shot and killed. Sometimes the sick and dying cannot be treated in Quetta. There are periodic strikes when doctors protest issues such as hospital privatization and low wages. These homicidal anecdotes represent the constant death that is daily life in Baluchistan today.
Life has become progressively worse for women. By 2009, most restaurants had stopped serving women. At the behest of the Taliban and their ideological cohorts, owners posted signs stating, “For gentlemen only. Women not allowed.” Of Pakistan’s four provinces, Balochistan has the fewest per capita female health care workers. The Taliban are largely responsible for that.
From early in the insurgency, some U.S. military and political leaders fulminated that Pakistan had turned a blind eye to the presence of the Taliban. Some drew analogies to Vietnam and the sanctuary in Cambodia that communists enjoyed. In 2006, British Colonel Chris Vernon, Chief of Staff for southern Afghanistan, identified Quetta as the key center of operations. He also accused the Pakistani military of training and arming the Taliban in Quetta.
For years, Coalition generals and diplomats have advocated a hard-hitting response. Lieutenant General David Barno, former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said, “The Quetta Shura is extremely important. They are the intellectual and ideological underpinning of the Taliban insurgency.” General Stanley McChrystal, former U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said the Taliban leadership was there. In 2009, General David Petraeus and Lieutenant General Douglas E. Lute, a White House official on Afghanistan, recommended extending drone operations to Quetta.
The Taliban’s Leadership in Quetta
Much as the political landscape of Baluchistan is, the inner workings of Quetta are shrouded in secrets. The Taliban’s leadership provides tactical direction and guidance to its fighters and commanders in the field. Senior commanders resident in Afghanistan travel to Quetta to confer on strategy, obtain supplies, provide intelligence, and receive instruction from the Shura.
The Quetta leadership typically sets goals at the beginning of the spring fighting season. The operational orders usually take the form of a planned offensive, subject to revision and adaptation. The Quetta Shura also provides tactical direction and guidance to its fighters and commanders in the field. The shura is composed of indigenous and foreign fighters. It serves as the nerve center for all of the Taliban's operations. Its leaders direct military strategy, craft policy and political and military strategy, appoint field commanders, and manage a shadow government. Fearing U.S. drone attacks, a large number of Taliban leaders have shifted from Quetta to Karachi, Peshawar, and other cities.
Profile 13 -Saad Haroon- Pakistani Funnyman and His Burka Woman
“Burka woman I love you still; come on and give me a thrill.” From Saad Haroon’s “Burka Woman” to the tune of Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman,” on Youtube.
If anyone can find humor in the Taliban’s mounting menace in Pakistan and the generalized misery there, it is the U.S.-educated Saad Haroon. With his friend, the young humorist, he hosts a unique website from their Karachi-based home. He mocks the Taliban and the dreary life they seek to impose on his country. Armed with an indestructible sense of humor, Haroon is determined to fight the Taliban with jokes after witnessing a terrorist attack in Karachi that killed 140 people.
Some topics are off-limits for comedic barbs. Jokes about the Pakistani Army or major political parties would not be a laughing matter to Pakistani authorities. Clowning about Islam could become gallows humor. But Haroon rips into burkas with a satirical song. A popular parody of Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” is “Burka Woman.” In this routine, posted on YouTube, a young Pakistani man fantasizes about the female flesh hidden behind the burka. “My love for you grows every time I see your toes. Nail polish, Rrrrrrr," goes one line. "With your eyes, my mystery prize." One of his most popular jokes is, literally, toilet humor. He snickers that Pakistani public toilets are the dream of terrorists; they are biological warfare themselves.
His routine brings chuckles to the South Asian diaspora. He has performed in New York, London, and other communities with large Pakistani populations. Not everyone thinks he is funny, and some Pakistani elders are concerned that he is part of an Indian conspiracy to corrupt the morals of Pakistan’s youth. Others simply find his comedy stale. Still others salute his efforts to find anything funny about Pakistan or the Taliban. As a blogger wrote, “In general, Pakistan is just not funny these days. Bless this comic nevertheless; he has his work cut out for him.”
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