MUST READ: PAKISTAN'S TALIBAN BATTLE MILITARY FOR FRONTIER ARMS BAZZAR & STRATEGIC TUNNEL

Pakistan’s Taliban Battle Military for Frontier Arms Bazaar and Strategic Tunnel
By Imtiaz Ali

Darra Adam Khel is a familiar name to all those who have any acquaintance with Pakistan's lawless tribal frontier region of seven tribal districts, or agencies. The town takes its name from the Adam Khel clan of the Pashtun Afridi tribe native to this region. Situated about 20 miles to the south of Peshawar, capital of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), and halfway to the garrison city of Kohat, Darra Adam Khel has long been considered a hub of criminals, car thefts, fake academic degrees and counterfeit foreign currencies. More importantly, this small town has a notorious reputation as South Asia’s largest illegal arms and ammunitions market (Dawn [Karachi], March 27, 2003). It is entirely run by local tribesmen without any state control or supervision. The extraordinarily skillful gunsmiths of Darra Adam Khel can make replicas of anything from small arms to AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns. The Afghan War provided a great boost to the local arms industry as local weapons manufacturing became a highly profitable business (Daily Times [Lahore], June 9, 2003). A survey conducted by the Peshawar-based Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO) three years ago found there were 1,200 shops selling guns in Darra Adam Khel. According to the survey, these were supplied by nearly 1,500 small workshops and more than 50 medium-scale manufacturing units employing over 6,000 gunsmiths.

Unlike the turbulent Wazir and Mehsud tribes in the Waziristan region, the Afridi tribe—living mainly in the Khyber Agency and partly in the region of Darra Adam Khel—is considered to be composed mostly of business-minded people with little or no inclination toward militancy or sheltering foreign militants with links to al-Qaeda. However, the local arms production industry long ago made Darra Adam Khel an attractive spot for local as well as foreign militants. It did not take long for weapons made in Darra to reach al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan for their battle against U.S. troops (Dawn, December 3, 2002).

The roots of militancy in Darra can be traced to a local tribesman returned from Saudi Arabia, Haji Saidan Gul, who launched a Taliban-style movement against what he called "social evils" in mid-2005. In an interview with this writer, Gul vowed to take all steps necessary to rebuild society along Islamic lines. Soon other local Taliban also made their appearance on the scene and launched full-scale activities within a year. As usual in the region, the first target was female educational institutions. Local Taliban not only affixed notices to the gates of girls' schools asking people to keep their daughters away, they also started bombing them. Similarly, they targeted music and video shops, sending threatening letters to barbers not to shave beards and warnings to female health workers and female teachers (Dawn, December 22, 2006).

With the passage of time, local militants gained more ground and began to take the law into their hands. In Darra town, militants warned people to stop all criminal activities upon threat of punishment. Those who ignored these warnings typically paid a heavy price—last summer, an alleged gang leader was shot dead by militants in broad day light (Daily Times, August 7, 2007).

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1) Pakistan’s Taliban Battle Military for Frontier Arms Bazaar and Strategic Tunnel