Where have all the flowers gone?

By Afzal Hussain Bokhari

Singer Bob Dylan sang the famous song, “Where have all the flowers gone?” when the Vietnam War was at its peak and every reasonable man and woman in the world including the prominent British scholar Bertrand Russell were opposing the war tooth and nail. Dead bodies of US soldiers had started arriving into Washington from the Vietnamese capital Hanoi (now called the Ho Chi Minh City) and the American mothers had begun to parade the streets flashing ‘Stop the stupid war’ placards into the face of Pentagon officials. Mothers and fathers of American marines had become sick of the war.

People of Pakistan, especially those living in the Frontier province, have been the victim of another kind of war right from December 1979. The Communist Party of Afghanistan including its Khalq and Parcham factions had brought about a half-baked, pre-mature Saur Revolution in an otherwise tribal and religious polity.

However, the then government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), on the request of the Kabul rulers like Noor Mohammad Tarakai, Hafizullah Amin, Babrak Karmal and Dr Najibullah, vowed to defend and safeguard the Afghan revolution. As a result the Russian tanks rolled into Afghanistan through the Salang Pass with trained Soviet gunners sitting on top of the gigantic Russian machines. With tanks there also came Kalashnikov rifles, gunship helicopters, war planes and last but not least the bottles of vodka.

However, the Afghan revolution was fiercely opposed by the mujahideen leaders like Abdur Rab Rasool Sayyaf, Maulvi Yunus Khalis, Jalaluddin Rabbani and Gulbaddin Hekmatyar. The war started by these resistance leaders with the overt or covert support of US, Saudi and Pak agencies has taken several shapes between 1979 and 2009.

The bomb explosion outside the Muslim Meena Bazaar on Wednesday afternoon seemed in many ways the extension of that prolonged war. The elderly owner of the raw cotton shop in the bomb-devastated Charway Kooban Bazaar still feels disoriented even after five days of City’s worst explosion that killed 118 persons and injured another 225, some of them critically.

The affected shopkeepers were not quite sure whether it was a car bomb blast or an improvised explosive device that had already been implanted there and the Suzuki (Alto) car accidentally got parked there on the device. However, the devastation caused by the deafening explosion was unprecedented in the history of Peshawar. The saboteurs virtually let loose the heaven on the innocent civilians.

The intervening 70 days between Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha are collectively known as the ‘wedding season’ in our part of the world. Since the weather these days is neither too hot nor too cold, the interested families want their marriageable sons and daughters to tie the nuptial knot during these traditionally revered days.

Responsible section of the media reported that 70 per cent of the people who died comprised women who had arrived into the area along with their children to buy low-priced, colourfully embroidered bridal clothes and other items of cosmetics. With clothes having been burnt in the blaze, some of the dead bodies dug out of the debris lay naked and the humane excavators had to take off their own shirts to cover the dead bodies and save them from being desecrated.

The associations of City traders and members of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) felt furious over the indifference of the administration and slow pace of rescue and relief work. Speaking in the Mashriq Forum, the SCCI chief Riaz Arshad went to the extent of saying that if the government did not beef up the security of busy markets, the traders would refuse to pay the income and property taxes as well as the utility bills.

He said that action against the militants was being taken by jawans of the army, rangers and the khasadar force. The government should, therefore, recall 10,000 to 15,000 of police personnel from the other parts of the province and deploy them in Peshawar to protect the citizens. One can differ with his suggestion but the SCCI chief was of the opinion that 80 per cent of the 1.5 billion dollars of American financial assistance coming annually under the Kerry-Lugar law should be spent in NWFP which has borne the brunt of the war on terror.

The common people gave vent to their grievances when the journalist-turned-anchor of a privately-run television channel recorded his special show at the site of the blast. The elders of the locality and representatives of the shopkeepers alleged that the government had shown no concern about the death of 118 persons. There had been three explosions at crowded places in Peshawar in the span of a month killing collectively about 250 persons.

The people of the locality complained that the commissioner and the District Coordination Officer (DCO) paid a brief visit to the place and having a quick look at the debris rushed back to their cozy offices never to return again. The residents wanted that the strong iron bars used in the affected or demolished buildings should be cut down by qualified engineers so that the adjacent houses are not damaged.

An officer assured that such engineers would show up in two to three hours from Islamabad but nobody actually arrived even after the elapse of several hours. So harsh and critical were the remarks of the residents that the otherwise bold and outspoken television host had to heavily censor his programme. The censored parts related to the public criticism of the ministers who had humble origins but now rolled in riches. Surprisingly enough, the repeat telecast of the show had to be reduced from 60 to 30 minutes.

Like other civilised citizens, the City writers also feel emotional about the alarming proportions that internal subversion has lately assumed. One feels like winding up this piece with lines from Aziz Ejaz’s poetry: “Ab tu rozana ka ye mamool huwa, chalta phirta adami pal main dhool huwa!”