The Lost Generation of Kurram

American novelist Earnest Heming Way describes the psychological and societal effects on the generation that survived World War I in his book The Sun Also Rises. Following the war, a large number of people were squandering their abilities and creativities on pointless pursuits like drinking, having extramarital affairs, and cruel sports like bullfighting. After the war, Hemingway depicted a time of moral bankruptcy and spiritual disintegration in the Western world. After reading this book more, I realized that it is not only a novel, but Hemingway has portrayed a true depiction of the Kurram Agency’s 2007 post-war generation. I also belong to that generation whose dreams vanished in the flames of the 2007 war. The war that broke out in 2007 had an impact on the lives of Shias and Sunni communities equally in Parachinar.

The war started in 2007 when Sunnis took out their procession on 12 Waffat (12th Rabiul Awal) on March 30, 2007. In that procession, all of a sudden, Sunnis started abusive slogans against Imam Hussain (Shahadat-i-Hussain murdabad), and its video is still available on You tube. When Sunni elders were asked about the slogans, they replied that Shias pelted the procession with stones, which infuriated their people, and they did it in response. On April 7, 2007, Shias organized a rally, and when they were passing in front of Sunni Mosque, a firing started, in which six Shias lost their lives and three of them were students, and war broke out. In 2007, then governor of NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai visited Kurram Agency just a few weeks before the war and even prophesied the war. In his book Beyond Tora Bora: Orakzai Memoir, Orakzai has justified the entrance of the Pakistani military in Kurram. He argued that it was Pakistan’s move to hinder the entrance of Al Qaeda into FATA (which merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018).

Shias stayed in Parachinar after the Sunni community was driven out during this battle, although it has served as a torture cell for them since then. There is just one route connecting Parachinar to the rest of Pakistan. For five years, Sunnis blocked that route for Shais, allowing only the Pakistani army to pass through. Shias traveled through Afghanistan, passing via Jalalabad, Khyber Agency, and Kabul before arriving in Peshawar. Despite the risk, the residents of Parachinar had no other alternative but to travel across Afghanistan. In Peshawar, the practice of harassing and kidnapping Shia students began in 2007. Numerous Shia students were kidnapped, and their families are still unsure of their whereabouts. Besides Shia students, doctors, teachers, engineers, and police officers were also targeted in Peshawar. The fear of kidnapping and then slaughtering them scared the whole Shia community in Parachinar.

Students discontinued their studies, while professionals quit their employment and went back to Parachinar. These professionals and students began their illegal immigration to Australia by crossing the sea, abandoning their jobs and education. Over 200 people died in the 2013 shipwreck; over 80 of them were students, and many of them were government employees. They were all from Parachinar, and several of them were my schoolmates.

A string of suicide attacks that claimed hundreds of lives began in Parachinar after 2008. Over 200 Shais lost their lives in two suicide attacks that occurred on the same day in 2017 during the month of Ramadan. The minds of the entire generation were weaponized in various ways after 2007. With just a quick glance, children could identify any firearm by its bullet shells in Kurram. A group of people used to come to our school while I was in the fifth grade in 2006, and they would show us a dummy bomb. We eventually understood the message they were trying to convey to us in our schools, even though we did not grasp it at the time.

In 2008, I remembered that we were on our way home when the Taliban abducted us. Because many of us were schoolboys, we were really scared. We were all mentally prepared for death and waiting for their call. To get away from the psychological violence, we all wish to die quickly. After three days of psychological torment, our community members abducted a few Taliban militants, which is why we were set free. Today I’m here, but I’m still dealing with those traumas. Regretfully, our young generation is facing the same fate as we did in the past. The people of Parachinar are still using army convoys to reach there, but despite the army’s protection, people are killed. On May 4, 2023, five government teachers were doing their duties when, suddenly, armed individuals entered the school and slaughtered all of them. Not a single person was taken into custody.

Both communities experienced devastation in each of these incidents. If both faced defeat, then who was the true victor of the conflict? It is an enigma that needs to be solved. It is crystal clear that the triumphant is using the policies that were used by Afghan amirs in the 19th century. In the 1880s, Afghan Amir Abdur Reham also used to incite one tribe over another in order to weaken every tribe. Amir Abdur Rehman used to collect revenue from the tribes of the Kurram valley. Occasionally, the tribes used to revolt against the Afghan Amir. Afghan Amir wanted to avert the threat of revolt; in this way, he started weakening them. Only time has changed while his policies are intact in other versions. The influence of Amir Abdur Rehman’s policies can easily be noticed by deep observation of situations in Kurram in 2023. Every time a war breaks out, the state does not interfere.

The people of Kurram would like to know when the state will succeed in ceasing wars and violence in Parachinar. Since 2007, the entire generation has lost their creativity and talent in the fog of war. We have been tortured psychologically. Torture that is psychological is more painful than physical. We have nothing but war and violence stories to tell the next generation.

The writer is a student of history at Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, hailing from Parachinar. He can be reached at [email protected].