Rehabilitating militants: The road to redemption

[Xeric]

---

---

Rehabilitating militants: The road to redemption – The Express Tribune

Rehabilitating militants: The road to redemption
By Nadir Hassan
Published: June 6, 2011



Boys who were kidnapped by Taliban militants to be used as suicide attackers, informants and fighters, attend the rehabilitation school Sabaoon, which is run by the Pakistan Army in Malakand, Swat. PHOTO: FILE

NOWSHERA: The 16-year-old boy, too fearful to have his name printed, moved from Mingora to Nowshera this February. His father was a shopkeeper in Swat and is now working as a peon at a factory in Nowshera. They are indistinguishable from the many thousands who fled the valley, both when it was being overrun by militants and later when the army recaptured it following Operation Rah-e-Rast in 2009.

But they harbour a secret that they have shared only with a few close friends and their employer. That the teenage son was captured by militants and was being trained in suicide bombing before he was rescued by the army.

The boy narrates the story of how he was recruited by militants. His school had been closed for many months in 2008 because of the security situation and so he continued his education at a local mosque in Mingora.

He recalled, “The teacher at the mosque took us on outings to the mountains where men would give us guns to fire.” It was only on his fifth or sixth trip to the area – which his father believes to be Chuprial – that the ideological indoctrination began. “The men there would tell us that martyrdom was a reward from Allah. But we were more excited about the guns. They would also tell us not to talk to our families about this and that we should even turn against our families if they did not approve.”

After a couple of months of such training, when such visits had become routine, the boy was told that his parents had given him permission to live permanently at the camp. He says there were about two dozen boys like him there. And their numbers constantly being depleted and replenished.

The boy’s father says his son had become more subdued in the months leading up to his disappearance and that he suspected the Taliban were behind his kidnapping. “But what could I do? There was no police to go to.”

After only a few months in the training camp, the son was rescued during the army operation. But he was not immediately reunited with his family. First, he had to spend over six months with the army, to ensure that he was no longer a threat.

Lieutenant Colonel Arif Mehmood, public relations officer of the ISPR, is not sure how many children were rescued from the militants but Brigadier Tahir Hamid, the commanding officer of the Swat operation, estimated that as many as 1200 to 1500 were recruited by the Taliban.

Mehmood describes the rehabilitation programme the army has in place for children recruited to be suicide bombers, some of whom, he says, were as young as seven years old.

“We have psychologists who talked to them. We also gave them social training, computer education and religious instruction.” Some of the boys, he says, were not found in Taliban camps, rather they were turned in by parents who were worried that their boys had become radicalised.

Mehmood says that the children’s reintroduction to society is gradual. “After a while, we allow them to stay with their parents on weekends and even when they are released, we make sure that local notables keep checking on them.”

While the boy in Nowshera confirms that he was getting a good education from the army, and never felt like he was being imprisoned the way he did with the Taliban, he wasn’t allowed to see his parents for months. His father says that it took him at least six months of constantly badgering local authorities before they would even confirm that the army had this son.

When he was finally released into the custody of his parents in January, the entire family packed their bags and moved to Nowshera. Here, haunted by the past and fearful of the future, they try to erase the memory of their three-year ordeal. Even though Swat is slowly inching towards normalcy, the boy says, “I never want to go back there.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6th, 2011.

[Xeric]

Army

Army

Army’s deprogrammed student tops SSC exam

By Nazar Ul Islam
For CentralAsiaOnline.com
2011-06-22

Hameedullah (left) receives his top score certificate from board director Taj Ul Malook (right), June 11 in Chakdara. Hameedullah, once recruited by the Taliban, finished best in Malakand Division’s Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education testing. [Nazar Ul Islam]

LOWER DIR – A former Taliban recruit who underwent successful rehabilitation at the military-run Sabaoon School placed first in the secondary school certificate (SSC) examination this month.

When Hameedullah, 15, took the top spot, he said his case proved that a quest for knowledge can defeat mindless hate. He scored 959 out of 1,050 in the 10th-grade SSC exam held by the Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education, Malakand Division.

“I want to be a scientist and to make my country invincible from outside and inside enemies,” Hameedullah told Central Asia Online. “Earlier, my family wished me to become a doctor but I think my country needs me as a scientist instead of doctor.”

The militants who ruled the Swat Valley from 2007 to 2009 blew up Hameedullah’s high school, in the mountainous Sangolai village in Maidan Tehsil, Lower Dir.

After the military defeated the Mullah Fazlullah-led Taliban in 2009, it took into custody some of the youngsters swayed by extremist ideologies. The army established rehabilitation centres, including Sabaoon in Malakand in December 2009, and started working with the youngsters to erase extremist views from their mind.

“During the rehabilitation process in Swat, we focused on children affected by the ideology of Fazlullah, to bring back them to normal life,” Col. Akhtar Mehmood, director of the Swat media centre, told Central Asia Online.

Hameedullah was among those youngsters. The army sent him to Sabaoon for several months of deprogramming.

Hameedullah credited his excellent score to hard work, saying he couldn’t have succeeded without the prayers of his parents and teachers.

“I always wanted my parents to feel proud of me. Today, I can see they are more delighted than I am,” Hameedullah said.

After his stint at Sabaoon, he returned to the high school in Sangolai, where students are studying in makeshift conditions.

“The administration had made special arrangements for tuition and extra classes for the students, even though the school had no building for the last three years,” Atta-Ur-Rehman, headmaster of the government high school at Sangolai, said.

“The security forces had detained some of the students allegedly having links with the militants, but it was for good cause, and one can see the result today,” Rehman said, reflecting on the adjustments after 2009.

Because of the efforts at the rehabilitation centres, one can see positive change. These children are taking a keener interest in their studies and Hameedulah is a good example, he said.

“I want to join the army and fight for the sake of the country. I want to polish the name of my country,” Nouman Rauf, who placed 10th in the board examination, said.

The militants banned the education of girls, and the fear of the ban’s long-term consequences for the nation was felt everywhere. Since the military re-took control of the Swat Valley, girls have been able to return to school.

“Educational institutions, especially girls’ schools, were targeted by militants in various parts of the province, but today these students have shown that they are not afraid of anything,” Sardar Hussain Babak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s education minister, told Central Asia Online.

Militants who consider themselves the messengers of Islam are in fact the biggest enemies of the religion, he said. “You can blow up their schools, but can’t stop their quest for knowledge,” he said of the younger generation and its eagerness to study.

[unicorn]

This is what we call exterminating the Terrorism problem.A move that have never been heard in Iraq or Afghanistan.The Americans are only good at bombing bombing and bombing and dictating Pakistan to do the same.No way!

[Leader]

excellent move !! couldnt think of any other better way to kill terrorism and extremism !!

[Xeric]

Pakistani Corps Commander, 11-Corps, Lt. Gen Asif Yasin Malik (L) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Information Minister Mian Iftikhar (R) attend the inauguration of the three-day 'Genesis and Causes of Radicalisation in Pakistan' seminar in Saidu Sharif town in Swat valley.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14080208
Is Pakistan's army going soft?


Students at Saboon de-radicalising centre The army runs de-radicalisation programmes for under-18s in the former militant stronghold of the Swat valley

Former militants in their old stronghold Swat in north-west Pakistan are being taught computers and "de-radicalised". The BBC's M Ilyas Khan attends an unusual seminar hosted by Pakistan's army amid speculation that it is engaged in a project to improve its own image after months of setbacks.

In 2007 Anwar Shah became a low-level facilitator for the Taliban when militants swept into his village in the Gulibagh area of Swat and occupied it.

Today the 35-year-old has completed 11 weeks of psycho-social, religious and vocational training at Mashal, an army-run centre for the "de-radicalisation" of Taliban prisoners.

Military officials there say that he will be "re-integrated with the society" this week, along with 89 others.

Mr Shah says he surrendered to the army in early 2010 to clear his name. For a year he was held at a detention centre but for the past three months he has been studying computers at Mashal.

"The army has treated us well, and trained us in vocations that will help us earn a living after we are released. The army will even help us find jobs here or abroad," he says.

Others at Mashal have similar words of praise for the army. The average age of Mashal inmates is 30 and they are visibly cautious about what they say to the media.

The programme was the show-piece of a major public relations exercise by the army this week when it flew in or drove overland hundreds of domestic and international journalists to Mingora, the administrative centre of Swat, to attend a three-day seminar on de-radicalisation.

'Isolation'

Younger students at a nearby centre for juveniles, also part of the de-radicalisation programme on show, however, were not so guarded about the reality of the programme.
Pakistan"s army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani (L) and Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousuf Raza Gilani (R) attend the national seminar on de-radicalisation in Mingora on July 6, 2011. Pakistan's army chief and prime minister attended the seminar


Pakistan's army chief and prime minister attended the seminar

Two students, aged 14 and 15, to whom I spoke in confidence and in their native Pashto language, expressed their sense of isolation, saying they would rather live with their families.

Swat, and its adjoining districts were overrun by the Taliban in 2007-08: the militants destroyed schools, banned female education and dispensed their brand of street justice.

In April 2009, nearly two million people fled the area ahead of a military operation that ultimately succeeded in evicting the Taliban from the region.

Thousands of hardcore fighters and their local enablers were either arrested, surrendered voluntarily or were turned in by their families.

They are still being held by the army while parliament contemplates special laws to ensure they do not escape justice.

"An underlying message may well be to tell the West that we are serious in our fight against extremism”-Hasan Askari Rizvi. Analyst

In 2010 the army decided to screen prisoners in order to separate out hardcore militants. They put the rest through this de-radicalisation programme.

Thousands of soldiers were deployed along hundreds of kilometres of roads leading up to Mingora for the seminar. More than half a dozen major hotels in town were booked by the army to house the participants.

For three days, life remained paralysed around the venue of the seminar as most roads were repeatedly blocked for traffic, including the approaches to two hospitals in the area.

Inside the venue, the army broke fresh ground by projecting a softer image of itself.

Army image

Most speakers invited to offer their analysis of the origin and causes of radicalisation were well-known critics of the military's role in politics.
map

The army's decades-old policy of controlling domestic politics and creating proxies to fight its wars in the region was singled out as one of the major factors that radicalised Pakistani society and led to regional instability.

Scholar and analyst, Rasool Bukhsh Raees, who chaired the first session of the seminar, told me there could be several reasons why the army decided to hold this seminar.

"They have invited scholars from abroad, who will go back and talk about their de-radicalisation programme. This may help raise donor funds to extend this model to other trouble spots in Pakistan."

The military's decision to expose itself to criticism also indicated the willingness of the army to "create an alternative narrative" to counter, or at least to soften, the "dominant narrative which is Islamist, pro-Taliban and anti-West", says another scholar and analyst, Hasan Askari Rizvi.

"An underlying message may well be to tell the West that we are serious in our fight against extremism," he said.

Anwar Shah (right) has undergone a de-radicalisation programme


Mistrust

Anwar Shah (right) Anwar Shah (right) has undergone a de-radicalisation programme

Many were of the opinion that it was also an effort by the army to rehabilitate its own image after it was badly tarnished when a team of US commandos penetrated Pakistani defences to kill Osama Bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town in May.

But there was also a message that Pakistan did not agree with everything the West wanted to achieve in the region.

Talk of "mutual respect" in ties with the Western powers and opposition to drone strikes in Pakistan punctuated the proceedings of the seminar, and were echoed in the concluding remarks delivered by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani.

If the army is finally stepping back from political decision-making and is willing to cede space to the civilian administration, many in Pakistan will see this as a positive development.

But the effects of this thinking will become visible only in the long run. In the short run, few people in Swat are convinced about the army's intentions.

"The army is clearing up the debris of a mindset which it had itself created and allowed to grow," says Fazle Maula, a senior member of Swat's Council of Elders.

"It will take years for them to convince the people of Swat that they are not doing it any more."

[Xeric]

Not words..but actions...

Bacha Wali (L), a Pakistani youth who worked under Taliban is attended by a psychiatrist at the army-run de-radicalisation center of Mishal School.


Pakistani men who worked under Taliban attend a class at the army-run de-radicalisation centre of Mishal School in Barikot tehsil of Swat valley:

[Xeric]

[fatman17]

great thread xeric!
many thanks!

[iPhone]

That's very good. Great effort by the army and the govt.

[RaptorRX707]

---

---

Good progress.....


Question is should we trust them, they might ran away again to the camps ?