Paradise Regained

By: Iqra Maqsood

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fter 300 years of Alexander, Kanishka came from Peshawar to Swat. He made Swat the capital of his Gandhara kingdom and lived here. This made Swat a place for Buddhism where Buddhism flourished and reached at its height. In the 6th century AD white Huns came and destroyed every site of the Buddhism. They wounded and killed the loving people of the valley. After the attack of White Huns; Hyun Sang came for pilgrimage of this valley and sadly wrote that most of 1400 monasteries of Swat are either burned or abandoned and have been ruined. Even After the brutal invasion of Whiten Huns; Swat still remained a pilgrimage place for Buddhists, a place which was ruled and inhabited by Buddhists was invaded by Sultan Mehmood of Ghani; overthrowing the empire of the last Buddhist Raja Geera. In the end of 15th century this valley was invaded by the Afghan Yousufzais, who named it Hazara. Their King Sardar Sheikh Milli even wrote poetry which was known as the ‘Conquest of Swat’. In 1050 AD great poet of Pushto Khushal Khan Khattak came to Swat. During his stay in Swat, he wrote “Swat Nama” in verse. It was a great contribution to Pushto literature in Swat. After Moghuls in the middle of the 19th century two local rulers Akbar Shah & Mubarak Sha ruled Swat. From 1863 to 1915 this region was ruled by the neighboring state of Dir than one day the tribes’ men of Swat held a Jirga in Kabal and they chose Mian Gulshan Zada Abdul wudood as the Wali of Swat. Mian Gul Wudood was crowned in 1916 and he was popularly called as Bacha Saheb of Swat. He made Pushto the official language replacing Persian for the first time and in 1969 Swat came in full control of Government of Pakistan.

The lush green and historic Swat Valley lies between 34°-40′ to 35° N latitude and 72′ to 74°-6′ E longitude and is a part of the Provincially Administrated Tribal Area (PATA) of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan and is surrounded by Chitral, Upper Dir and Lower Dir in the west, Gilgit-Baltistan in North Kohistan, Buner and Shangla in the East. The valley of Swat is located in the middle of foothills of Hindukush mountain range. The main town of the valley is Mingora and Saidu Sharief. There are regular flights from Islamabad to Swat and back.  One can also get here either from Peshawar (160 KMs) or Islamabad (250KMs).

Swat is known as the Switzerland of Pakistan. The river Swat is a clear water river starting from the Ushu range of mountains to the spread of the valley of Swat. It is one of the greenest valleys of the Northern Pakistan.

Despite several challenges, Swat has remained a centre of education since long. University of Swat and Saidu Medical College are well known for providing quality education. 

Paradise Swat started facing problems when Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) took control of swat in 2007. They tried to impose their version of Sharia law in the valley that included preventing women's education, death penalties for barbers, music shop owners, and thieves, along with an anti Polio-vaccination campaign to prevent the local population from getting vaccinated. On 24 October, more than 3,000 Pakistani infantry troops were sent to Swat to confront Taliban forces. This battle is known as Operation Rah-e-Haq. The battle consisted of 1 month, 1 week and 6 days i.e. 25 October- 8 December 2007. 15 soldiers and 3 policemen were killed, 48 soldiers were captured and then released whereas 290 millitants were killed, 143 were captured and 30 civilians lost their lives. Pakistan tactically won.

Operation Rah-e-Haq had ended with a peace agreement which the government had signed with the Taliban in February 2009. However, by late April 2009 government troops and the Taliban (Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Islam and TNSM) began to clash once again, and in May 2009 the government launched military operations throughout the district known as Operation Rah-e-Rast. In the end Pakistan won and Swat returned under government’s control. According to statistics 168 soldiers lost their lives, 454 were left wounded and overall 2,088 militants were killed in the operation.

IDPs were housed in camps and schools were run by the government and international NGOs. The vast majority of the 2.5 million registered IDPs stayed with host families, relatives, or in rented homes. According to Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) 96 percent of IDPs had returned to their homes.

During the operations local people and Police were threatened by the militants. The local law-enforcement mechanism was badly damaged. Moreover, over 400 schools, and almost 8,500 houses, shops and hotels were either partially damaged or completely destroyed during the period of Taliban control and operations.

After operations, security in the city remains tight. Security forces continue to maintain checkpoints and it is rare to see any populated area or roads that are not being patrolled or watched by the army, the community police, a unit is also created after the Swat operation to involve locals in the provision of security and encourage the undermanned district police. Locals say that they are sometimes inconvenienced by the heavy security force’s presence but we do realize it is for our own protection. The army initially took the lead in much of the reconstruction. It helped to renovate and rebuild number of schools, clinics, bridges, mosques and roads, among other projects.  According to data received from the education department, a total of 119 girl schools were destroyed by militants in Swat, out of which 51 have now been reconstructed, 50 others are under construction while 16 are still untouched.

After the operations life appears to be returning to “normal”. Today you can visit swat anytime without any fear. Swat is a place for leisure Lovers, Hikers, and archeologists. There are many comfortable hotels where one can stay a while to relax.