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Taliban bringing back corporal punishment in Pakistan tribal districts
![[FILE] This photo taken from a Taliban video shows militants holding down and flogging a 17-year-old girl in the Swat district's Kabal tehsil last April.](/cocoon/meii/images/2010/02/11/100211-feature-3-photoAP.jpg) [FILE] This photo taken from a Taliban video shows militants holding down and flogging a 17-year-old girl in the Swat district's Kabal tehsil last April. |
A new video of Taliban members whipping men and a teenager in a tribal district has rattled Pakistan for the second time in less than a year as the military offensive against militants in South Waziristan grinds on.
A man reportedly shot the video on a mobile phone February 3rd, and it has since been aired by television stations and appeared on YouTube and other Internet sites. Tribal sources in the Orakzai tribal district told CentralAsiaOnline.com that a local commander of Hakimullah Mehsud’s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was whipping victims in the Mamozai area.
Having gun-wielding militants administer corporal punishment in public is an old Taliban tactic to keep the local population terrorised and to portray militants as "saviours".
"As you know, the Taliban do beat people in areas they control if they suspect anyone of any criminal acts, like spying or violating the militants' stricter version of Islamic law. People accused of serious crimes are often killed," a senior journalist in Hangu, bordering the Orakzai tribal district, told CentralAsiaOnline.com on condition of anonymity after watching the video.
The video makes clear the grip that the Taliban has on the area. The federal government is currently using air power to soften up militant positions before sending ground troops to take hold of the region. The Orakzai tribal district has served as a base from which militants attempt to penetrate into the Khyber tribal district, which borders Peshawar.
On April 4th, 2009, a similar video shook Pakistani TV viewers. In that video, a Taliban commander flogged a 17-year-old girl being held face down in a public space in Kabal tehsil [administrative district] of the Swat Valley. Government forces later drove the militants out of the valley.
"Leave me for a moment. You can beat me again later", the girl screamed in the video.
In the latest video, Taliban in Orakzai punished several men for "speaking out against the militants", according to local residents. The militants also flogged a teenager for not growing a beard and another man for "not praying".
Dr. Said Alam Mehsud, an active member of Amn Tehreek or "Peace Movement" mobilising public opinion against growing militancy on Pashtun lands, said the militants released the video to "terrorise" the local population. Amn Tehreek is a conglomerate of anti-Taliban liberals, civil society members, political party members, lawyers, doctors, journalists and students.
"The Taliban use different methods to keep the local population in a state of terror, and they include killings, beheadings and lashings of opponents in public," Dr. Mehsud told CentralAsiaOnline.com.
The militants, conscious of public opinion, are complaining about the broadcast of the video. Militant commander Mullah Said Khan issued a warning to a Pakistani TV channel last week for using the video as "propaganda" against the Taliban.
The news quoted him as acknowledging ownership of the video. However, he called it "an old one".
He said such a video "does change public opinion" but that "the Taliban are least concerned about this."
The audience in the video, consisting primarily of old men and young boys, watched the beatings in silence.
In the video, somebody off-screen announces before the audience leaves that the militants will detain "an old man with a white beard" for five days in order to observe his "behaviour". The announcement did not explain the old man's offence.
Local residents identified the stocky-looking bearded man whipping the men and the teenager as Mullah Toofan, a local Taliban commander in the Orakzai tribal region.
Reader Comments
The publisher has no credibility, because he should have mentioned the reason behind the whipping. Only then would the application of the Law of Allah be welcome. It is worth mentioning that the real crime is destroying people’s lives with many years of imprisonment or a life sentence. For one mistake, they sentence a person to leaving his normal life behind, with no mercy. There is no forgiveness and no going back to normal life, so they put him in prison. That is the real crime.
If we consider that the Taliban is a government that lashes people in public, then we should remember that there are people who kill innocents in secret. Then, which party would be better and more merciful? Everything that is happening to the Muslims today is a result of abandoning the religion and the Prophet's Sunnah, peace be upon him.
There is no doubt that the Taliban are criminal gangs formed after the invasion to suffocate the people and blind their minds so they would not recognize that their wealth is being looted. But the criminals fought among each other and they each started working for their own interests. The people's struggle will crush these scums and throw them in history's dump.
Why are you lying? They may be adulterers who deserve a lashing. Second, what is worse: the terrorism of the Taliban or the terrorism of the USA and the Zionists? Who is the real criminal: the Taliban or the USA? Answer me, for God's sake!!!
The news did not mention why they were lashed, and it seems that they have committed a crime that deserves more than lashing. Apparently, the journalist and the publisher suffer from Talibanophobia, as they imagine that members of the Taliban are stupid beasts, who love killing, bloodshed and lashing. The people who suffer from this disease also believe that Taliban members may come out of nowhere. I want to say that they are normal people who adopt an ideology that may not be comprehensible to many people, nor should it be. Consequently, they behave in accordance with this principle, and the basic rule is to deal with their brothers mercifully. However, they may be strict with some of them on some exceptional occasions, for the benefit of society. If you believe that the USA or other countries represent ideal examples, I suggest that you should reconsider your convictions, because the Internet is full of news, pictures and videos that feature scenes of acts of torture committed by the soldiers of the democratic and civilized people for fun. If we look carefully and objectively, many hidden facts will be uncovered. If we make a comparison, the Taliban would probably appear very different from what many people try to make us believe.
I ask Allah the Exalted for forgiveness. I do not know what an evil end you will have!
Before the people. This certainly angers Allah the Exalted, who will punish them on the Day of Judgment for their evil deeds, which look like their faces.
Why don’t you consider execution, using the electric chair and hanging, life sentences, and other physical and psychological penalties in the West as terrorism against the civilians? It seems that any act of the Taliban is considered an act of terrorism, while others’ crimes are overlooked and even considered human rights!! Some people want the Taliban movement to accept America and to become American in every faces of life!!
Indeed, they do not fear their God.
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