The Kandahar Massacre: Afghanistan's 3/11 & The Pakistani Young Man Who Coined It

Imagine this: a group of women and children are sound asleep in the dead of night in a village. Suddenly, a group of deranged men barge in, carrying machine guns. They spray bullets, pick surviving children and then shoot them on their foreheads. Then they burn the bodies. Then they walk out of the house and walk several kilometers for several minutes. They reach another house where they carry out a similar carnage.

A total of 16 Afghans, mostly women and children, are executed and burned.

Would this shake your conscience?

It did shake Tabish.

Tabish Qayyum is a young Pakistani from Karachi. He is one of the founders of a monthly magazine called The Fortress.

The tragedy in Kandahar moved him deeply. So he coined the term, 'Afghanistan's 3/11.'

He also wrote a great piece: Afghanistan's 3/11: We Will Never Forget.

One reason Qayyum's article is important is the eyewitness account. He wrote the following description of what happened from information given by multiple credible Afghan witnesses. Take this chilling sample:

"The houses attacked are at least two miles apart. It is not possible for a single gunman to kill and burn people in one house and then run several kilometers to do the same thing again without being resisted and overpowered. Eleven of the dead Afghans belonged to the same family and nine of the victims were children, including infants found soaked in blood close to the bodies of their mothers. Afghan sources in Pajwayi claim to have photographs of half-burned bodies of women and children. The media has already shown blood-spattered walls and floors of the two houses where American soldiers committed the massacre. Some local villagers have reported seeing two groups of soldiers. The Afghan defense ministry also believes in its initial assessment that there is a possibility of more than one soldier being involved. Afghan President Hamid Karzai believes in the possibility that more than one US soldier was involved. In his statement after the massacre, Karzai quotes a 15-year old survivor Rafiullah as telling him in a phone call that American ‘soldiers’ raided the house and woke up his family members before shooting them."

Qayyum is being farsighted when he tries to make this incident a watershed in America's occupation of Afghanistan, a 3/11 for the Afghans, equivalent to what 9/11 was to the Americans.

Why is this incident a watershed?

To get a brief and a stunning answer, read what the Afghanistan Analysis Team at PakNationalists PAC has written in a report titled, Are US Soldiers Turning Against Their Commanders In Afghanistan?

Here's a quote from this stunning report:

"The fact that US soldiers chose to kill Pashtun women and children in Kandahar is not accidental. This is happening because of irresponsible official American statements that blamed Pashtun Taliban ‘infiltrators’ for killing American military trainers. The truth is that Afghans from all backgrounds have participated in riots against occupying US army. The Afghan intelligence officer who killed a US Army colonel and major inside the secured interior ministry building in Kabul on Jan. 25 was not a Pashtun but a Tajik.  Despite this, US officials blamed the Pashtuns to hide the fact that the US-trained Afghan army, which is largely non-Pashtun, is now turning its weapons on American trainers."

While at it, you might want to see the video by AP at the top [or click here to see it]. It focuses on one of the largest US army bases inside the United States and why soldiers trained their often end up committing atrocities like the one in Kandahar on 3/11.

Our region has seen a lot of bloodshed. The American occupation of Afghanistan continues only because the CIA and US military's special-ops teams don't want to let go of this playground. Bad allies, like India, are advising the Americans not to leave so that India could continue using Afghan soil to foment terrorism inside Pakistan in the guise of religious terrorists. India is also linked to two fictional terrorist groups that it uses to carry out terrorism inside Pakistan. One is Balochistan Liberation Army and the other one is Sindh Liberation Army. The CIA is known to be helping the Indians with the first one, but the second one appears to be an exclusively Indian venture.

We, Pakistanis and Afghans, count on the good American people to counter the disinformation by Pentagon, CIA and their allies in mainstream media who are advising 'perseverance and patience' to camouflage their intention of never leaving Afghanistan.

An Afghanistan free of American, NATO and Indian occupation is good for the region and good for America and the world. 

Lenin In Pakistan

Lenin in Pakistan? And Castro too. And Che Guevara.

Believe it or not, right in the heart of Pakistan. These pictures were taken last week at the 8th congress of the Communist Party of Pakistan [yes, we have one, too], headquartered in Hyderabad, Sindh.

The CCP's heydays were the 1970s, when communists and the Soviets were firmly lodged in next-door Afghanistan. The leaders of the CCP at the time entertained thoughts of a communist takeover in Pakistan. But the party never commanded large following in the country, though its rank and file boasted members from across the nation. These days, the CCP conducts peaceful politics and it's base is limited. But its presence is a sign of the colorful and lively political culture in Pakistan where different shades of opinion peacefully coexist, despite the bad repuation Pakistan has cultivated as a hub of religious violence after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

A Salute To Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi

Mr. Jatoi, right, in this undated file photo.

As our convoy approached the border between Iraq and Jordan, we were shocked to see the refugee camps. Egyptians, Indians, Philippinos, Sri Lankans and others were waiting for their governments in tents in the middle of a harsh and hot desert because the Jordanian government was not letting them in.

This was early September 1990.  Iraq had just invaded Kuwait.  The region was in a mess.

Imagine this: When these thousands were running after donations of food and water, Pakistanis by the thousands were the only nationality that was given immediate entry into Jordan and an impeccable treatment and arrangements after that.

Pakistani leaders rarely work like this. But it was Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi who came to the rescue of thousands of Pakistanis stranded in Kuwait and Iraq nineteen years ago.  He was just an interim Prime Minister, but he outperformed the governments of India, the Philippines, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Lebanon and literally gave them a lesson in looking after their citizens abroad.

And Mr. Jatoi did it in an impressive way.

Thanks to his personal interest, thousands of Pakistanis received the kind of treatment that left the citizens of other countries in envy.

I was just 18 then.  And what I saw on that day on the Jordanian border and in the following three days made me immensely proud to be a Pakistani.

Thousands of Pakistanis were given priority treatment by border officers of the Jordanian army.  While others waited for days on the border, Pakistanis were allowed entry without hassle.

Once in Jordan, they were escorted all the way to the Jordanian capital, where a five-star accommodation awaited them in a sprawling, centrally air-conditioned complex. Families stayed for a maximum of three days before being flown on chartered Iberian Airlines flights to different cities of Pakistan. Once landed, every breadwinner in those families received a token financial gift from the Government of Pakistan as initial help.

This excellent and flawless arrangement was the work of Mr. Jatoi, a great Pakistani patriot who came from the a culturally rich part of Pakistan: Sindh.

I was one of the few or maybe the only Pakistani there who fluently spoke, read and wrote Arabic.  The Foreign Office Liaison Team picked me up to help them communicate with the Jordanians on small, day-to-day logistical issues.  I can't forget how, when a BBC crew visited the complex to meet the refugees, it refused to film because, as one of their team members said, what they saw did not look like a refugee camp. "This is a five-star hotel," he said. And it really was.

Having been born and educated in Arabic schools in the Middle East, this was the first time I heard the name Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi.

And I heard his name from the Pakistan Foreign Office Team stationed at the complex.  I was impressed at the arrangements so I asked them if this is how things were run in Pakistan.

"Not at all," laughed one of the diplomats. "This arrangement is thanks to Mr. Jatoi.  He was concerned at reports on the situation of Pakistanis stranded in the area."

A minority of pseudo 'liberals' and 'democrats' in Pakistan had the audacity to criticize Mr. Jatoi in their obituaries. This veiled criticism was focused on the fact that Mr. Jatoi accepted national duties, as in overseeing an interim government and national elections, when elected governments were removed by the Pakistani military.

I say what a lousy excuse this is to criticize a patriot like Mr. Jatoi.  As a Pakistani, I am proud of Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, who served his nation with honor. We want hundreds more like Mr. Jatoi to replace these fake democrats and corrupt politicians.

Mr. Jatori died in London this week at age 78.  He was buried in his hometown near Nawabshah.

I salute the Honorable Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, former Prime Minister of Pakistan.

May his soul rest in peace.