Surrounded by Terror

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I still remember that when I was 6 years old, I woke up one night in the Pakistan Air Force’s Mess at Chaklala Airbase due to a tremor. My father had just been posted there and we were living in a small temporary residence for the first few months. He himself was awake and told me to go back to sleep as it was no earthquake, but in fact, an American C-5 Galaxy Aircraft had landed. It was one plane out of many that came to Pakistan, bringing aid for the Afghan refugees and of course, arms for the Mujahideen. The year was 1985 and Russia was fighting a bloody war in Afghanistan. Since there had been a long standing cold war between the then two superpowers, America was making sure that communism does not spread to the state of Afghanistan. The Mujahideens of that time were regarded as heroes, who were fighting against the evil reds and such depictions are apparent in movies like Rambo III and Charlie Wilson’s War.

When the Soviet Union lost the Afghan war, and in doing so, collapsed economically, America left us Pakistanis in the middle of a huge refugee crisis and thousands of trained mercenaries, who did not know what to do, now that the enemy has been defeated.

Pakistan is a third world country, and in a situation like this, where it needed support to help create peace on its Western border, all help was taken away. Afghanistan fell into civil war and nobody bothered to care about the countless that died in the daily conflicts. With millions of refugees stranded in Pakistan and with no hope of them returning, they became a constant burden on Pakistan’s limited resources.

In these long decades of conflicts, those that came as babies grew into young men, and they got all their education from the same madrassas(religious schools) that America helped Pakistan create. This new generation called themselves Taliban, which is a Persian word and means Students. We must keep in mind that these people were brought up at a time when doing Jihad (holy war) was the slogan to fight the Russians. These people were brainwashed into thinking that the greatest honor that they can get is to lay down their lives in the path of God. With the emergence of Taliban, one province of Afghanistan fell after another… so much so that even Kabul, the Afghan capital came under their control. After a long time there seemed a hope for peace in Afghanistan and looking at this hope, Pakistan recognized the Taliban rule on Afghanistan. This ensured that western border will be secure, no drug trafficking will be allowed and people will finally start returning to their homes. All was finally coming to peace and then the unthinkable happened … the twin towers on 9/11 fell.