dispatch: my job is fighter!

This dispatch was written in 2009 during one of my early visits to Pakistan.

Karachi: From the shadowed, canopied entrance of a textile factory, a sinewy figure with sullen eyes extends a shaking, dirty hand in nervous greeting.

En route to a suburb notorious for its reputation in sheltering militants, my fixer tells me Bahadur is a thoughtful Taliban. “Thinking always of jihad”, he says.

Except for a soiled mattress, fan, and food plates with decaying rice and chicken bones, Bahadur’s world is a featureless, concrete room. Surrounded by an estimated 2 million Pashtuns in neighbouring Karachi slums, he feels secure guarding the factory that’s both home, and pay check away from fighting and family life.

If propaganda’s to be believed, fighters recruited by the Taliban are lured at least partly, with promises of money. Bahadur, he is adamant he receives no money for fighting in Afghanistan; time in Karachi is about relaxing, thinking and earning money to pass on to family.

“My motivation is not money… it’s fighting the injustice of fellow Muslims in occupied Afghanistan… Fighting is my job” he say

From the age of 7-11, Bahadur attended regular government boys school. A dismissive wave of the hand derides the perception that all fighters are products of religious madrassas in the tribal belt.  At 28 years, and Taliban fighter since 2002, Bahadur now commands a team of up to eight fighting men for weeks, sometimes months at a time in Afghanistan.

Like many others, Bahadur wasn’t recruited but volunteered for jihad. “Everyone knows who to contact and where to go to volunteer…” he says. He proudly proclaims some of his family are also fighters.

With misplaced belief, he explains they are fighting in Afghanistan to protect their homes in Pakistan. He and his family are convinced, it’s only a matter of time before US forces invade their village in Khyber province, and they too, lose their homes.

Perched on bundles of raw linen awaiting tailoring on the factory floor, he is clearly troubled by my presence. Avoiding eye contact, he constantly switches attention to the cacophony of sounds, and voices passing the locked, steel delivery door in the near distance.

“Bahadur has much to lose if fellow fighters in the city stumbled upon our liaison!” my interpreter explains; I reply that I worry I may have more to lose!

Curious about the fate of family, I ask of the 1-year-old daughter and wife he has barely seen. He respectfully requests I write nothing derogatory of his family, or his religion.  With hands placed together, almost symbolic in Christian prayer he says ”the person who gives birth, is reverent to God, thus, in the event of my death they will be taken care of”

Mindful of the reported illiteracy of Taliban fighters, I had – up to this point, kept my questions simple.

His wife has given permission for him to fight; he almost breaks a smile when he says “if she were a man then she too would fight.” To the likes Bahadur, Jihad is more important than family.

I wonder how much more thoughtful he would be if he spent every month in Karachi instead of returning to probable death in Afghanistan.

Travelling light with few possessions, he will soon depart Karachi. A brief stop with family in Khyber, before collecting his weapon, a small day sack and onwards through the FATA back to Afghanistan.

‘Working’ predominantly out of Nangarhar Province, he says attacks are conducted mostly at night.  He scorns the fighting ability of coalition forces. They may have air superiority but are no match when fighting soldier-to-soldier he says.

He has no intention of fighting in Pakistan for the Pakistan Taliban (TTP), right on message “it is not right to kill fellow Muslims… I am fighting against the foreign occupation and their presence in a Muslim country,” he says.

So why is the killing of civilians and ANA soldiers  (also Muslims) in Afghanistan any different? As if insulted, bringing himself to attention he replies in a truculent tone “when Muslims stand by side by side with coalition forces, it’s the Muslim who must be killed first, …for being a traitor to Islam!”

Unsure how many people he has killed, or even seen die in the past 6 years, he says; “my good friend, I don’t know… but their blood will not be wasted, until we are all sacrificed for this cause”

Typically, he does not believe the US will succeed in Afghanistan. “Afghanistan, he says, will be won by the people who live in Afghanistan. If coalition forces leave Afghanistan, the fighting would stop.”

Through my interpreter he requests permission to ask me a question. “Why the US attacks defenceless Afghanistan when it has nothing to gain? No oil or minerals to exploit, after all, the Taliban do not attack foreign countries they only defend Muslim lands. Right?” he asks.

Surprisingly, he doesn’t gloat about the events of 9/11. Shaking his head, looking floor-wards he mumbles quietly, “tragically, many civilians died that day”.

Pausing, engaging eye contact, he asks in Pashto “when will the US recoup the losses of 9/11?”