EDITORIAL: The next week or so is critical for the Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) government as it faces the awkward predicament to release or not to release killers of Nanga Parbat climbers. The 10-day ultimatum was given to the government by the Mujahedeen Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan who held a G-B senior minister and dozens of tourists on the Babusar-Chilas road for several hours on Saturday, and freed them only after they were given assurance that the government would comply with its July-2021 commitment for release.
And should it fail to do so then it should “expect no mercy” from the militants. The militants also demanded placement of ban on women’s sports activities. The ball for peace, which is virtually played by the militants in the region, is now in the court of the G-B chief minister. He is expected to implement the agreement at the earliest after “successful negotiations with district officials”.
As to what led to the detention of the militants who carried out the Nanga Parbat massacre of 11 foreign climbers at a high altitude mountaineering camp on June 23, 2013 and how the G-B authorities reacted to it is pathetic, to say the least. Dressed as GB Scouts, the killers approached the climbers’ camp and killed all except two who were a little away from the scene of carnage.
The Nanga Parbat incident was followed up by the Mujahedeen militants with more violence - they also killed an SSP and two army officers and 19 bus passengers of the Shia sect. Among the killers of the mountaineers was the militants commander Habibur Rehman, who was later arrested along with two others and imprisoned. But as things sometimes happen in Pakistan, he managed to escape two years later and went into hiding for six years after the jailbreak. But he returned to public life on July 7, 2021, and held an ‘open court’ at the Babusar polo ground where he demanded the government implement the agreement made two years earlier. The Gilgit-Baltistan government hasn’t rejected Habibur Rehman’s claim, but is also indecisive about its implementation – though its spokesperson is reported to have said that with Diamer-Bhasha Dam under construction the people of the region are peaceful.
The Mujahedeen Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan is an offshoot of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is once again active in the entire mountainous region comprising Swat, Kaghan and Kohistan. By clinching “successful negotiations” with Habibur Rehman the local officials did succeed in securing the release of its senior minister Col Abaidul Baig (retd), but it seems to have undermined the national cause of fighting terrorism in that region. Does it mean the government would be releasing dozens of terrorists from various prisons as per the earlier agreement? Unfortunately, the question has no easy answer, although this had happened in Swat in the past.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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