Taliban Militants Destorying More Shrines In Swat, Nwfp Pakistan

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PESHAWAR: Militants’ attack on sufi poet Rehman Baba’s mausoleum on March 05 was though shocking but not a new phenomenon as militants have been attacking shrines, faith healers and other associated businesses since the beginning of militancy across the NWFP and FATA.

A day after the attack on the sufi poet’s shrine, militants struck the shrine of Bahadur Baba in Nowshera district on March 6. Bahadur Baba was the father of another famous saint of NWFP Hazrat Sheikh Rehmkaar Kaka whose real name was Syed Kasteer Gul.

Now Nowshera residents fear that the militants may target the shrine of Hazrat Kaka Sahib following the bomb blast that damaged the shrine of Bahadur Baba in the area.

The attacks, which analysts believe are aimed at parting ways with established norms and values and construction of new identity, have been going on unabated in the province and nothing has been done about them. The first such incident in the provincial metropolis occurred on December 18, 2007 when militants exploded bombs in the shrine of Abdul Shakoor Malang Baba located at the GT Road and badly damaged the shrine. There were no causalities.

The second and most serious attack was made on March 3, 2008 at a 400 years old shrine of Abu Saeed Baba located in Shaikhan Village of Sarband which is close to Bara Tehsil of Khyber Agency. At least 10 people were killed and several others were injured when armed to the teeth militants attacked the shrine and set the shrine on fire after firing rockets on it.

Militants had also tried to destroy the shrine of Ashaab Baba on the outskirts of Peshawar back in 2008 by detonating explosives in it.

Police in the northern district of Buner had foiled a bid to destroy the shrine of Hazrat Pir Baba, arrested a man and recovered explosives from his possession in December last.

Besides targeting shrines, militants had also launched drives to rid the society of “moral ills”, killing “prostitutes”, faith healers and other people after dealing a deadly blow to CDs business. Several leading actors left their profession due to the moral policing by the militants while a whole population of dancing girls was forced to flee the Bunrh locality in Mingora area of Swat district after the militants executed a dancer for refusing to their edicts.

Similarly, the first beheading case occurred in Peshawar was that of a faith healer Pir Rafiullah whose beheaded body was dumped near a road in the Mattani area after his idnapping from Taru Jabba area in Nowshera district on Jan 17. The sorry part of the whole episode is that the government has so far failed to devise a strategy to protect the lives and property of the people.