There is literally no light at the end of the tunnel. The fault, however, is with the Friendship Tunnel that links the Afridi Armory with the Kohat Valley. The Japanese engineers did not care about the English expression of hope. Instead they preferred a small curve at the Adamkhel end. Hence no light!
Some 600 lights that lit up the 1.75 kilometer drive were reportedly burnt in the fighting. Of course, the Japanese would be generous enough to replace the damaged equipment but they would be helpless as for light at the end of the tunnel.
Rest assured the area is cleared. You can now drive at your own luck in case you are driving a car. The heavy traffic is back to the old mountain route, the Darra Adamkhel Pass. The Handyside Post, a small fortress named after a British soldier that sits atop the mountain, is now back with enlightened and moderate Pakistan. The intelligent paramilitary Pukhtoon troopers abandoned the British picket as the religious militia hoisted its flag on the Adamkhel Pass. There was no point in fighting. There is no light anywhere.
In this war, Pakistan Army is being driven without any headlights. There is an intellectual and ideological blackout. Frankly, it can't even light a matchstick. It has no time to think. This war is an advance in a dark tunnel, much darker than the Friendship Tunnel this dark hour.
Just a few months back, The Pulse ran a story about a cultural revolution in Darra Adamkhel. The blood cost of the 'cultural revolution' was quite affordable when compared with the latest revolution. A group of young religious militants pulled the curtain on an underworld character who, being a native, had the birth right to be in this haven of gun-runners and drug traffickers.
Interestingly, there is no underworld in Darra Adamkhel. Here you can afford to be overt than covert. You can manufacture arms or smuggle weapons, drugs or any merchandise but every business has its own cautions as well. For a pretty long time, weapons, drugs and religion have co-existed without much mutual interference. In these hills, piety and piracy were neighbors. But times began to change as television found a cable. Obscenity is intolerable. Afridis are not that enlightened. They have developed great interest in cricket but they are mindful of limits. They are provoked when the limits are violated.
The Adamkhel Afridis are down to earth businessmen. For they know their business better than any other thing. In the anti-Russian war, they were the biggest Kalashinkov market in the world. Almost of two decades of fighting against the godless Russians in neighboring Afghanistan inspired too few Afridis to join the battle. They were minting money all through that period and the fluctuating prices of Kalashinkov in this market would let you gauge the status of the war.
What has provoked the gun runners is the question? Some may not acknowledge but there is a qualitative change in these hills yet that change of climate in not confined to the AdamKhel Pass. Pakistan Army is not ready to analyze that change because it is not mentally prepared to draw a line between its Pukhtoon and Punjabi soldiers. The battlefield is not in Punjab and there are too few in Khakis who can feel the pain of artillery shelling in Pukhtoon territory. The war is being reported in a mechanical fashion and the military spokesman has still to find the terminology for enemy. The word "Militant" –- translation: Askariat Pasand – is not a condemnation by itself. "Miscreant" --- vernacular 'Sharr Pasand' is a more familiar description of a rebel but the military is still to finalize its phraseology. The word "Taliban" was glorified and amplified by the State media so much that it just can't be abused. A suicide attacker in downtown can be called a terrorist but a militant in the mountain surely can't be condemned as a terrorist for he is not causing any damage to the unarmed civilians.
This war is not a war of weapons. It would never be decided by weapons alone. Certainly Pakistan Army does have the capability to eliminate or flush out the trouble makers from a small valley or hill pass but what has it achieved? How sure can it be of peace in the same area?
United States and NATO Forces in Afghanistan has a similar military capability to take out any target with a lot more precision that we could display in Darra Adamkhel but what is the aftermath of the military supremacy.
Besides weapons, wars involve courage as well. And Pakistan Army does require the courage to analyze as to why all militants are Pukhtoons? What is the phenomenon that is somehow pitching them against their own Army? Precisely, what do they want? Is there a way to avert a clash through the barrel of the gun?
Obviously, there is no military uprising in any part of Punjab or Sind and although the terrorist do casually, or even frequently, strike in those two provinces, the militancy is not so popular. So the problem is only with Pukhtoons and it should not be over simplified. It has nothing to do with the Indian funding potential as is being misperceived in the military quarters.
The new Chief of Army Staff had emphasized the need for popular support of the Armed Forces and he surely acknowledges the ethnic divisions in Pakistan. Even with the full support of Punjab and Sind, Pakistan Army could not counter the insurgency in East Pakistan because it did not have popular backing in that part of the country. If that is the yardstick of popular support, where is it to be found on the battle map? Rahim Yar Khan or Darra Adamkhel?
