'Men came to our office with Kalashnikovs': Surviving as a journalist in Pakistan's northwest frontier
Journalist Hamza Khan on reporting under threats of Taliban suicide bombings and Pakistani military violence
When your pretty flesh is plucked like the petals of a flower,
I watch in silence, for I have no power,
When your precious blood is turned to drizzling rain,
I perform your funeral rites with tears, for I have no power,
O Peshawar! Our love is ancestral
Ramat Shah Sail [1]
On January 30th 2023, nearly four hundred Pakistani policemen crowded in to a mosque in a high-security police and counter-terrorism compound in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Sometime near 1:00 PM, a suspected Jamaat-ul-Ahrar or Tehreek-e-Taliban militant, disguised in a police uniform, rode into the imposing compound on motorbike. He passed multiple manned barricades, even stopping to ask a constable for directions, before parking his bike and walking to the first row of attendees. No one ever checked him. At 1:30, his 12-16 kilogram dynamite suicide vest detonated. The aging, 50-year old mosque collapsed and caved in, taking 84 officers with it. A police official reported seeing a "huge burst of flames" before becoming surrounded by a plume of black dust. [2] Since this terrorist attack, terrorism-related fatalities have increased by 56% in Pakistan to 1,524 deaths throughout 2023. Khyber Pakhtunkwa, the northwest frontier province victimized by the mosque bombing, was responsible for 41% of fatalities. [3] The victory of the Afghan Taliban has granted new life to the once-powerful Tehreek-e-Taliban (Pakistani Taliban), now backed with Afghan Taliban safehouses across the border and an inflow of American weapons from the Fall of Kabul. The security situation of Pakistan's border region is in chaos. Deafened by the sounds of suicide bombings and drone strikes, there are widespread concerns in the northwest over a repeat of the Pakistani military's disastrous counter-terrorism campaigns of the 2000s and 2010s. Over a million civilians were forced to flee over two decades and tens of thousands were killed. Monzoor Pashteen, the leader of the popular Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, has been imprisoned since December in retaliation for his criticism.
I spoke with Hamza Khan, a veteran journalist in troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about his difficulties as a journalist during the conflict-ridden 2000s and 2010s, and what the rise in violence since the Fall of Kabul indicates for Pakistan’s future. He is based in Peshawar, the provincial capital.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Some identifying information has been changed in the interest of safety.
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Q. You were born, raised, and still live in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; in addition to beginning your career as a journalist in the city in 2006. Before the military began anti-terrorist operations, how widespread was the presence of terror groups in the province?
Militancy existed even in the past, but the suicide attacks started soon after the Lal Masjid operation in Islamabad in 2007. I remember I was working for a Lahore-based newspaper when the newsroom in-charge phoned me in the days of the Lal Masjid operation and said: “Hamza Khan, now we will depend much on your Peshawar Bureau for most of the news. The militancy and attacks will now start in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province as vengeance for the people killed in the military operation on Lal Masjid. General Musharraf committed this mistake and now all will bear its consequences.”
Q. You were a journalist during some of the most intensive times of fighting and violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa between the state and terrorist groups from 2006 to the late 2010s. Were there times where you were put in danger?
I remember how I miraculously escaped a suicide attack at the Peshawar Press Club. I was going to the press club. However, as I was a few meters from it, there was a deafening blast. As I reached the gate, I found body parts of a suicide bomber lying scattered while some injured persons were also there. Similarly, I remember the suicide attack that claimed the life of Sifwat Ghayun, a Deputy Inspector General. Sifwat was known for his successful operations against the Taliban. And one day when he left office and pulled up at a traffic signal, a clean-shaved bomber detonated close to his vehicle, leaving Sigwat and a few others dead. I once published a story against the problems created for people as a result of the protocols of a senior officer, for whom roads would be blocked each day; later the officer sent his men to threaten me.
Q. Were any of your colleagues ever victims of violent retaliation for their reporting?
A journalist friend was phoned by an intelligence agency officer and threatened on why he had published a story regarding the Taliban, which otherwise was a secret story. Another journalist was also threatened by the Taliban. Once, Daily Times, where I worked previously, published an editorial, using the word “thief” for Mangal Bagh, a leader of the banned outfit Lashkar Islam. The Lashkar men came to our office with Kalashnikovs. However, they were informed that editorials are written in head offices and we had no connection with that.
Q. After 2003, and especially in 2014’s Operation Zarb-e-Azb, the military initiated anti-terror campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that displaced a million civilians from rural areas. In Peshawar, how did the arrival of the displaced affect life in the city? Did you ever have the opportunity to talk to any displaced or learn their stories?
It was a big problem. Many people left their homes, entire villages, and towns as a military operation started there and they moved to Peshawar and other areas. Facilities were overcrowded in these areas where the displaced families settled temporarily. Our home also received a displaced family hailing from Lower Dir district. Our local communities had to serve the guests in those trying times.
The displaced families were traumatized and they would often tell us how frightened they were about their homes. They told us how difficult it is to leave one’s home. In some cases, each family had left behind one member in the native village as they were afraid of robberies at their homes. Some of them even reported that their house roof got damaged by firing from helicopter gunships and how much they got frightened by such incidents.
[In rural Khyber Pakhunkhwa, especially the “Federally Administered Tribal Areas” that were independent from Khyber Pakhunkhwa before 2018, the military imposed martial law and security measures on the civilian population. Checkpoints, home raids, and land-mines were a flashpoint that kicked off the wildly popular Pashtun Tahafuz Movement in 2018]
Q. Outside of the displaced, how much did the anti-terror campaigns affect city residents? Were you also subjected to the checkpoints, home raids, and military presence that those in rural areas were?
Even in cities, particularly in Peshawar, checkpoints were established for strict checking. Even today, such military checkpoints exist in all big cities, particularly near areas where military officers reside. Many people are even perturbed by questioning at such checkpoints.
Q. Since the victory of the Afghan Taliban in 2021, the Pakistani Taliban (Tehreek-e-Taliban) have experienced a major resurgence and terrorist attacks have tripled. For an audience outside of Pakistan to understand, how dire is the situation on the ground?
Situation is serious now. With the emergence of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the Pakistani Taliban has grown stronger. After the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, tons of modern weapons have fallen into the hands of the Pakistani Taliban, who are staying in Afghanistan and stage attacks in Pakistan from time to time. They also have networks in Pakistan. Recently they killed many Pakistani personnel using night vision guns - which even most of Pakistani security personnel lack. Pakistan also faces a financial crisis, which may make the fight against militants more difficult.
Q. How has the re-emergence of the Pakistani Taliban affected your journalistic freedom? Have they sent threats or engaged in violence?
We are afraid of attacks. No one knows where the Taliban may stage an attack. They also warn media not to use word “terrorist” for them. Hence, journalists face a mental agony.
Q. Previously, you spent some time working with the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees). Since September of last year, Pakistan has begun expelling hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees displaced from the conflict in Afghanistan. What do you think about this?
I have covered this issue. It was an unfair decision to deport Afghan refugees all of a sudden, I believe. I interviewed some refugees, who told me that they were born and raised in Pakistan and that they do not even know where they will live in Afghanistan and what they will do. Several Afghans are afraid for their lives even today as they used to work for American NGOs and governments led by Karzai and others, who were opposed to the Taliban in the past. This is why they are afraid of incumbent Taliban government.
[1] Translated by Riaz A. Hakeem in the Boston Review.
[2] The first two paragraphs are described in these Dawn and CNN articles.