Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
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7<br />
the war<br />
Comes home<br />
al-Qaeda<br />
in <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong><br />
o n the edge of a busy highway, near the northern city of Kohat,<br />
hundreds of people would gather every day at a makeshift shrine<br />
to pay homage and pray for four al-Qaeda fighters killed in a gunfight<br />
with the <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>i security forces. Colourful streamers tied to a pole<br />
raised over a pile of rocks marked the spot where the ‘martyrs’ had<br />
died. ‘It is a sacred place where the blood of the soldiers of God was<br />
spilt,’ Noor Mohammed, a local trader, said as he knelt to kiss a stone,<br />
still stained with blood.<br />
<strong>The</strong> traffic slowed as a mark of respect as buses approached the<br />
memorial and the faithful alighted to pray and collect sand from the<br />
mound. ‘It is holy earth,’ said Abdul Ghani who, like many villagers,<br />
believed that it would bring God’s blessings to his home. <strong>The</strong> shooting<br />
had occurred in the first week of July 2002, when police stopped a<br />
van carrying four Chechens at a security checkpoint in the village of<br />
Jarma. 1 Fleeing from Afghanistan, they were in search of a safe haven.<br />
<strong>The</strong> al-Qaeda militants, who were armed with machine guns and<br />
rocket launchers, fought for over an hour, but were outnumbered by<br />
the security forces and killed. Villagers thronged to the spot after the<br />
fighting, many of them embracing the dead, while others even took<br />
body parts to bury them inside the compounds of their houses. <strong>The</strong>y