Daily Times

It was an unforgettable journey. On January 15, we started off from Ittehad Town, Karachi. We were four friends and the purpose of our visit was to meet the Taliban commander of the Mehsud tribe, Mr Khan Said, alias Sajna, to resolve a land plot dispute in Ittehad Town. After 16 long hours we reached Bannu, a southern town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, by bus. We stayed there for the night at a hotel to take rest.

The next morning we got onto a passenger van to reach Miranshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan. We crossed three military check points; the first checkpoint was at Bakakhel where we were asked to get off the van for a body search and had to walk a circular cut for one kilometre. Only ladies and some elderly men were allowed to stay in the van as it crossed the check point. The second check post was in Khajuri; the same ritual took place, holding identity cards in hand and checked by military men manning the check posts. Those who do not belong to North or South Waziristan are rigorously interrogated. When we reached Mir Ali, we saw a hotel. The residents said that 40 men had been taken out from that hotel and killed at point blank range. We saw a mosque, which bore marks of cannon shells.

When we reached Miranshah, it seemed to be a different land. Everybody seemed to be from Taliban groups. We saw Uzbeks, Chechens, Turkmen, Tajiks, Uighurs and Punjabis. For some reason I could not spot any Arabs in Miranshah. I was curious about where the Arab fighters belonging to al Qaeda stayed. I found out later that they lived in the suburban villages and hardly came to the market. They had hired locals to do their groceries and for shopping they sent them to Peshawar and other cities across Pakistan. Every second person had a walkie-talkie with long antennas. They were like wireless sets. Different groups had different code names just like the forces and would use those names when speaking on the wireless set. The most frequently heard code name was ‘Ababeel’. I saw vehicles that belonged to the Afghan army, Afghan police and NATO forces but such vehicles would pass by the Pakistani military checkpoints without being checked or stopped. Common people were thoroughly searched but some vehicles with even tinted glasses were not checked. I am not sure to whom those vehicles belonged. Some vehicles were playing naat sharifs (hymns) loudly but were not stopped at the check posts.

Our business was related to the Sajna group of the Mehsud Taliban but there was another group too, the Hakimullah Mehsud group. I was focused on the Sajna group to get to know how it operates. For Mehsud tribesmen, there were separate offices in Miranshah, which would deal with their matters like land disputes, business disputes and family issues. Areas like Saanp, Makeen, Ladha, Speenkai Raghzai, Baarwan, etc, had their separate offices (markiz) with landline telephone numbers, which the Taliban would openly use to dial numbers across Pakistan. There were around 17 offices for different areas in the main Miranshah bazaar. The offices were quite large and, at one time, around 40 people can sit in one office. If you are a Mehsud tribesman and you are living in Karachi, South Waziristan or any other part of Pakistan, your case will be dealt with by the area office where your family originally came from. The Hakimullah Mehsud group had its own offices but since our dispute needed to be resolved by the Sajna group, we were more concerned about its operations. One could see clear tension between the two groups. We were going to meet Mufti Noor Wali from the Sajna group who controls Mehsud tribesmen in Karachi from his headquarter in Miranshah. Karachi has the largest Mehsud population in Pakistan and all their disputes are put before Mufti Noor Wali for resolution. For the readers’ information, the Sajna group has banned jirgas (village courts) for Mehsud tribesmen in Karachi so whatever the dispute, small or big, the parties have to go to Miranshah and present their case in the court of Mufti Noor Wali. He had his office in the main Miranshah bazaar on the second floor of a building in the market. Mufti Noor Wali is the chief justice of the Taliban Sharia Court. He is around 35-years-old, tall and cross-eyed.

On a lighter note, my friend wanted to tell Sajna that his chief justice was like our former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry but I stopped him as I was afraid he might feel offended. I was the only non-Mehsud in the group. I saw hundreds of Mehsud tribesmen in Miranshah who had come from Karachi as the Taliban had issued orders that they should present themselves in the court of Mufti Noor Wali. I met several people who told me that they had been there for several nights staying in a sarai (hotel) in Mir Ali and Miranshah waiting for their turn with the Taliban shura chief justice. There was a danger to their lives but if they had not come, they would be targeted in Karachi so, for fear of their own lives, they were in North Waziristan. They were clearly between a rock and a hard place. I saw those who owned a transport business of dumpers, those who had disputes of land plots in Kanwari Colony, Suhrab Goth, Ittehad Town and those who had disputes involving their Chang Chi rickshaws, even they were there to seek the services of Mufti Noor Wali. Most of them were poor people who had spent lots of money to reach North Waziristan and were now waiting in line for days for their turn to see the cross-eyed chief justice. Some were told to go back and come next month again as the big man was too busy and could not spare time for them. If one had a strong reference, one had better chances of getting an appointment with the chief justice sooner. In some cases people would not get the appointment at all.

(To be continued)

The writer is a freelance journalist and can be reached at kaharzalmay@yahoo.com