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Umar Daud Khattak is a warrior and Mission Commander of Pashtunishtan Liberation Army fighting against the illegal occupation of Pakistan from past many years. He is in list of most wanted by Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI. In an interview with The Charticle’s Founding Editor Shaurya Ritwik in Kabul, Afghanistan he talked about his Free Pashtunishtan movement, Pashtun history, Pakistan army’s atrocities in Balochistan, Pashtunishtan and Sindh province, geo politics of India-Pakistan-Afghanistan and a lot more.
Mr. Umar Daud Khattak, first of all thank you very much for arranging this discussion with The Charticle. We will like to explore and understand your perspective about need for an independent Pashtunishtan. Pashtunishtan Liberation Army, what is the force of motivation behind this? What compelled you to start the struggle for an independent state? Why Pashtuns all across the globe are coming together against Pakistan?
Thank You very much Mr. Ritwik for giving me this opportunity and platform to express my views. Though Pashtuns have been struggling for their freedom since the times of the Mughal King Aurangzeb against whom my direct ancestor and grand grand father Khushal Khan Khattak rose and started fighting his Islamist regime in 16th century. He made an army of my tribe “the Khattak” which is also my last name and fought him,later on he was joined by many other Pashtun tribes living in current day Khyber Pashtunkhwa that is the Occupied Pashtunistan, the new emerging Pashtun state. The Aurangzeb cruel and draconian islamist regime declared him (The Khushal Khan Khattak) as being a Kafir and a Murtad–the one who leaves Islam and tried to instigate his own men against him but Khushal Baba or Khushal Khan Khattak stood staunchly in his stance of liberating his people from the Mughals cruel and islamist regime at all costs. Even today we hear from our elders that the agents of the Mughal Cruel and draconian Islamist regimes in our villages and towns in Pashtunkhwa or Pashtunistan used to snatch and steal new born male babies from the laps of the mothers and homes at night so that in future, Khushal Khan Khattak’s Pashtunistan Liberation Army should have less number of Pashtun and especially the Khattak youth in his Army to fight the Mughal Islamist Occupying Army.
Then came Bacha Khan and Samad Khan who resisted against the then British occupation of Pashtunistan but they used non-violence and non-military force mostly political and diplomatic to free Pashtuns from the British Occupation. One of them, the Bacha Khan, was a close companion of Ghandi who wanted to stay united with India after the British leaves while Samad Khan wanted to join back Afghanistan which has been the historical country of Pashtuns since its inception in 1747.
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There have been numerous figures against the British and Mughal occupation of Pashtunistan till the inception of Pakistan in 1947. Since the inception of Pakistan, Pashtuns were forced under yet another imperialist state–Pakistan signifying the occupation of the lands of Pashtuns and Balochs by ethnic Panjabis who have been at the helms of the affairs of the Pakistani state and imposing their fake Urdu culture and identity on native ethnic Pashtuns and Baluchs leading to cultural and ethnic genocide of Pashtuns and Balochs.
Pashtunistan Liberation Army have been going through ups and downs since the first time Khushal Khan Khattak organised his men against Aurangzeb, the Mughal Islamist dictator and then going through the British era occupation of our land where Faqir of IPI started a major rebellion from Waziristan and established the Parliament for the future emerging state of Pashtunistan. A flag was developed by certain notable Pashtun nationalists. Darya Khan, Pir Rohan and Ajab Khan Afridi are other notable names in Pashtunistan freedom struggle against the British and Mughals. The movement went into sleep till the Afghan Soviet back sour revolution in 1978 by the then President of Afghanistan Noor Mohammad Taraki and reached its peak during the Bebrak Karmal and Dr. Najib’s regimes in 80’s and 90’s till the final days of the collapse of Dr. Najib’s administration.
After the fall of Dr. Najib in 1992, the movement again went into sleep for along time. In 2007, when the Pakistan Army and the USA started bombarding our villages and towns with drones and Pakistani jet planes and when our cities were blown up with suicide bombers being cherished in Pakistani state-controlled Islamic Madrassas–the terrorists’ breeding factories and when our people saw the ruins of their homes by heavy artillery firings and tanks and other heavy military and construction machinery bulldozing our infrastructure–shops, markets, houses and other instalments–community centres, schools and mosques expelling a large number of people now estimated to be 1.4 million and killing about 200,000 Pashtuns, then I was studying in Islamabad, I had hardly done my 12th class and had newly joined an Institute of Business and Finance for a CA qualification. During my second and third module, I had already started by activities against the Pakistani state in the wake of the woes and miseries of my people in Waziristan who were ruthlessly killed and bombarded by Pakistan and USA under a fake war against terrorism which have been actually a war for terrorism–killing and expelling Pashtuns from their homes and villages and then bringing the international terrorists and grooming them in Waziristan–our land have been turned into safe haven for international terrorists under the patronage of Pakistani state, her gulf Arab and Western allies or Masters. I have been closely observing the situation, it got worser day by day–everyday, I used to hear about a new incident–droning a Pashtun village, killing the younger, elders, males and females, animals and humans indiscriminately. In 2008, I started addressing the gatherings in football and cricket grounds on the cruelties of the Pakistani state on Pashtuns and the concept of an independent state for Pashtuns that is to reinvent and re-enliven the dormant struggle for the independence of Pashtunistan. I started writing on internet and addressing the youth gatherings at marriage parties, playgrounds, mosques, Friday and Eid prayers simultaneously that resulted in my exile into Afghanistan and initiating the struggle for an Independent state for Pashtuns once again in 2008.
Pashtun people have been engaged in war since centuries, peace seems to be a distant dream. A modern, united, rich and prosperous pashtun state; is it just a dream or will it exist despite of odds?
I am currently in process of writing a book “Pashtunistan–A Dream or Reality” where several of my comrades are working with me to compile and publish it and I think that can answer your question the best. But in short, It is a reality, it has been a dream quite for a long time and finally it has to become a reality–that is because of our firm resolution, determination, dedication and devotion for the cause of Pashtuns as this time, we have been going through the worst, even worser than Aurangzeb regime back in 16th century as evident from the history. The Panjabi Fascist draconian and Islamist regime and state–Pakistan is more cruel than the then Mughal Aurangzeb regime.
I would like to add that if it did not happen and remained a dream, then the world will have to pay for it because after all, any terrorist attack in the whole world can be traced backed to the Pakistani state controlled terror industry in Waziristan which needs to be finished–and with the establishment of the Pashtun Independent state, it will get finished. I often say that in my statements, writing and articles that “Independence of Pashtunistan is as much necessary as peace to the world” because all the international terrorists have been brought to my land–my people have been forcefully expelled and killed to vacate my land as a breeding ground for terrorists under the patronage of the Pakistani state and then naming my land as lawless, no man’s land etc.
Do you think Pakistan is the epicentre of all problems and conflicts in South Asia? On what fronts you feel Pakistan failed as a nation? Having lived there for decades you can share with us better insights regarding the making of Pakistan as an international hub for terror activities.
Pakistan has been since its inception, a very failed state in its very ideology because it was established for muslims and then Muhammad Ali Jinnah said in his first lecture that its the homeland of all people belonging to all religions, though it never happened and systematic killings and prosecutions of the religious and ethnic minorities started soon after it came into being. It started to use Islamism and Islamic Ideology or border muslim or islamic brother as a state instrument to sustain its fake nature as nation or a country. It started to groom and cherish islamists, islamic fanatics and its army and intelligence started nurture terrorists in Islamic Madrassas that I usually call the Pakistani state terrorists’ factories. It developed an industry of Islamic terror funding the Islamic political parties and seeking the financial support for its 70,000 Islamic Madrassas or in other words terrorists’ breeding firms from the Gulf Arab Countries and the Western World to counter the growing and expanding USSR. Their Military Dictator Zia Ul Haq have been at the very front of all this which has now resulted in a rotten state controlled by powerful military and intelligence backed terrorists and islamists forcing their will on the larger public through their influence via military and intelligence of Pakistan. The Pakistani state have been funding, training, grooming and nurturing terrorists for its neighbours and even selling it to Gulf Oil rich Arab countries and the western world for fighting against any pro-Russian regime that you can see today in Middle East but finally got into trouble by the same terrorists that it nurtured and grown in its backyard–Waziristan and that’s why it says “When you rear snakes in your backyard, it will bite you too one day”. You cannot always use them to bite your neighbours–Afghanistan and India nor you can sell them always to Arabs and the Westerners for using them against their enemies.
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Pakistan has been a fake country and a fake nation as it does not have any civilisational history signifying a culture and language and Urdu which has been the adulterated form of Hindi with Persian and Arabic words mixed into it and written in Arabic script does not make it a different and so-called the first language of Muslims even more sacred than Arabic in Islamic terms because arabic used to be the language of non-believers before islam. The fabricated and cooked Urdu culture and language which form the basis for Pakistan cannot in essence sustain the fake Pakistani nation as a country or state and finally it has to dissolve because Urdu is the language of none in Pakistan but only few political and gubernatorial elites who are actually Mughal and Arab Syed families–not even pure panjabis. Pakistan has been an integral part of India and it is doomed to merge back into its ancestral country that is Bharat and the forcefully imposed Urdu and Islamic identity can never hold it for more time and its in the final stage of its ideological and fake Urdu or Islamic cultural collapse. Furthermore, its economy and government institutions have been badly affected by its own created islamic terrorism that it cannot breathe more as a nation–its sustaining its existence by pouring more money and funding into the terrorists’ breeding factories, islamic fanatics, islamist political parties and its military and intelligence to crush any nationalist separatist movement– Pashtunistan, Baluchistan, Sindhudesh and Boloristan (Gilgit-Baltistan). It could not give security, eduction, basic life necessities, infrastructure and job/business opportunities to its citizens rather than continuously inflicting violence on religious and ethnic minorities and exploiting their resources by the specific Urdu cult who are at the high gubernatorial positions controlling the state.
To conclude it in one sentence, the creation of Pakistan has been the biggest human tragedy in the world and the biggest blunder of the history and its naturally doomed to merge back into its real ancestral country that is Bharat.
How difficult is daily life for civilians in conflict zones such as Balochistan, Pashtunistan, Waziristan etc under tyranny of Pakistan army? We are often updated by Baloch and Pashtun activists regarding abduction and killing of their children by Pakistan army.
Life is too difficult in the areas you mentioned–continuous bombardment of the Pakistan jet planes, artillery firings, tanks and the US Drones that compel people to leave their homes and villages to live in roadside tents where no basic life facilities are available. The most miserable conditions the people of Pashtunistan living in, one cannot imagine, the Pakistani barbarous state banned their entry into any other province and especially Panjab and the relatives of the IDPs in the cities are under surveillance and they are not allowed to give stay to the IDPs from Waziristan, even in villages, the Pakistani Army and Intelligence create trouble for those families who give stay to the IDPs from Waziristan. The Pakistan Apartheid state has banned all the humanitarian organisations in Pashtunistan which used to provide tents, food, water and other basic life necessities to the IDPs from Waziristan under the false pretext of foreign agents–RAW and MOSSAD while the same humanitarian organisations are allowed to operate in Panjab province where there is no such causality and human tragedy.
Schools, Clinics, Hospitals, Community centres and other places are the targets of the constant Pakistani Army heavy military weapons, villagers are jailed and killed, women are abducted and raped and their dead bodies are thrown at roadsides. Every person has already chosen a place for himself under a rock and when the Pakistani jet planes come to bombard the villages, everyone runs to his rock and hide under it–that’s the situation one cannot imagine.
Do you think there exist an evil nexus between ISI and Taliban? Are they two sides of a same coin?
Its crystal clear fact that Talibans and Islamic State in Afghanistan are the un-uniformed Pakistani Army men disguised as militants and islamic fighters or rebels. It is a broad day light fact and the whole world is aware of this that Pakistani State, Army and Intelligence have employed Talibans and other Islamic extremists under its strategic depth policy for their expansionist dreams into Afghanistan and India.
Do you think that world media is blind towards ethnic genocide of Pashtuns and Baloch people by Pakistan army?
The world media is totally blind to cover the extreme inhumanity inflicted upon Pashtuns and Baloch by the Pakistani Apartheid state hell bent on the genocide of the two. The world media is only concerned about Palestine and Burma where muslims are allegedly oppressed and brutalised but the whole world including the muslim brotherhood have been blind to the Pakistani state atrocities on Balochs and Pashtuns. Pakistan has been a satellite state of the then British and now the US for its interests in South Asia to contain the rising regional Asian powers and hence the world media which signified the western english media will never cover the atrocities of Pakistan on the innocent Pashtuns and Balochs and will rather strengthen Pakistan to inflict more atrocities on the two like they tried to do the same in 1971 when Bangladesh was fighting its freedom war against Pakistan.
New Delhi being the strongest stake holder in South Asia, what role do you think India as a nation can play in freedom of Balochistan and Pashtunistan from tyrant Pakistan govt?
India can play the same role in the freedom and independence of Pashtunistan and Baluchistan as it played in the freedom of Bangladesh in 1971. India is in fact a responsible and fair country in this region with necessary power–diplomatic, political and military might to middle in the political affairs of South Asia and act as a force of virtue and saviour when an evil force like Pakistan is inflicting violence and cruelties on the religious and ethnic minorities of this region which finds its cultural origins in the historical Sanskrit or Vedic state of Bharat. Pakistan has been an illegitimate state and an illegal political entity in this region carved out of Bharat under the imperial patronages of the western powers and India should and must finish this foreign patron in the form of an Islamic Ideological state playing havoc with people’s lives and serving as the fountainhead of global jihad and islamic terrorism.
Several liberation armies and mutinies have been existing fighting the state of Pakistan and India should arm, train and equip those armies to be capable of fighting effectively and even interfere on ground with its troops on the soil of Pashtunistan and Baluchistan as a saviour Army or a force of virtue to liberate Pashtuns and Balochs from the evil Pakistani state and merge it back into itself.
You are fighting for a cause, you are fighting for your people, you are a role model for many young Pashtuns but in real life who is your role model, whom do you idealise?
My role model is the current Indian Prime Minister, his Excellency, Shri Narendra Modi.
You have been coming India for lobbying support since past few years. What are your views on India as a nation?
India has been the South Asian economic, political, social and military giant power which has everlasting influence on the other South Asian countries. The current rising Nationalism in India is a signal towards salvation of not only the current day India but the larger South Asia from the immensely growing Islamic extremism and terrorism. India serves as the saviour nation of all the South Asian countries from the Islamic Hooligans backed by Pakistan today and this has been because of the Bharatiya nationalist government in the centre. Secularism in India is not suitable and India cannot experience real secularism given the immensely different socio-political order it has and hence only Nationalism can work towards building a strong Bharat in terms of economy, national security, society, politics and diplomacy, and military. The shift from secular India towards Nationalist India is a great change in indian politics which has threatened the islamists and terrorists’ infiltration and freehand in India under different political patronages of the other rivalling and opposing parties. We as Pashtuns, Balochs, Sindhis and Gilgit Baltistanis feel that its only nationalist India which can give us salvation from the epicentre of Islamic Jihad–Pakistan.