Farooq Tariq, General secretary, Labour Party Pakistan
I am writing this from Toba Tek Singh, my home town, 300 kilometres away from Lahore, in the central Punjab. It is mainly a peasant dominated area, and main income comes from crops like cotton, wheat, sugarcane and maize.
In the Seventies, it was once a hub of a peasant movement led by the Stalinist Left. On 23rd March 1970, over 500,000 attended a peasant conference in the town.
Now the town is in the grip of religious fundamentalists. In the main centre of the town, we see the paintings of the martyrs (those youth who have been killed during the "holy" war of Kashmir during the last few years). Many religious madrasas (schools) can be found at every street corner.
The street power is in the hand of the religious fundamentalists.
Many working class youth have been recruited during the past years by the Jihadi (holy war) organisation to fight in Afghanistan and Kashmir. The youth finding no possibility of jobs, can at least find the basic necessities at the religious schools and in the training camps.
I was told by Javaid Hashmi, the central president of Muslim League, in an informal chat, during the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) meeting on 15 September that he has been invited many times during the month to visit families whose sons have become martyrs in Kashmir.
Hashmi told me that when he arrives at a certain house, he has been asked not to condole but to congratulate the family for this great achievement. Sweets are brought to be taken as a gesture of the happiness of the family. And the same goes for the whole village from where these youth normally comes.
It is same sad story of most of the central and Southern Punjab areas from where the bulk of the recruits come for these religious organisations.
In Lahore, the mood among many workers and ordinary citizens was of joy and happiness that the Americans had been taught a lessons at last: but there was also a sympathy for those been killed in the terrorist attack.
The ARD two day meeting on 14,15 September, condemned the attacks but also gave a warning to the Americans that they should not attack the innocent citizens of Afghanistan.
But at Toba Tek Singh, the mood was of fanaticism. As I arrived after a six hour drive from Lahore to see my ageing father, I was bombarded with questions by him.
A trader all his life, he is now fighting with the banks to give back the loans he once took in the hope that the agriculture income would improve – but disappointed al the time.
All his initiatives to enhance his ever decreasing income went nowhere. All his life, he remained loyal to the Muslim League, a conservative bourgeois party.
When I condemned the attacks and also told what could happen to the Taliban government in future, and that the act has endangered the lives of the Muslims across the globe, he was untouched, and told me "You could be the only one talking this way in the town." "No one would support you here."
Lesson
He was of the view that the Taliban will teach another historic lessons to the Americans, and that the military regime in Pakistan have little time left in power as they are playing at the hands of the Americans.
He said "I am very happy what has happened in America. The IMF and World Bank have destroyed my life and I am in the grip of the banks as my whole agricultural business has been destroyed by these institutions."
"I cannot afford to pay the price of the pesticides now the state subsidies are gone and my orange garden has been ruined."
I spoke to Afzal, one of my cousins, who told me:
"There is no way the Taliban will be defeated by the Americans. How can they defeat the Taliban when they cannot defend their own cities? It is great what has happened."
He also told me that many will join demonstrations if the Americans attack Pakistan or Afghanistan.
"There is a great hatred among us against the military’s capitulation at the hands of Americans, " he added. Other people nearby had the same feelings as Afzal.
Six days after the Tuesday attacks on American cities, it seems that generally many are happy and feel pride that at last someone has done the job they should be doing.
It shows an utter hatred of American imperialism among the general masses.
But the mood is turning in favour of the fundamentalists. Once the attack by the Americans starts here, the military regime will face an extraordinary situation of demonstrations and rallies led by the fundamentalists.
One villager told me that the incident of America is like a peasant getting up in a village to fight against the feudal lord with no weapons. No one in the village ever thought of fighting against the feudal lords before. But when this peasant wins the fight, peasants in the whole village will be very happy.
America is a big feudal lord of the world, which has lost the fight at the hands of someone without any resources, and we must celebrate.
Whenever I raised the issue of innocent Americans losing their lives, the normal reaction was, yes we sympathise, but what about those millions of Palestinians, Sudanese, Vietnamese and others who have lost the lives at their hands?
"Who supports Israel?" is another question raised immediately by every one.
It is very clear we, the progressive forces, are among the very few who see we have to condemn terrorism, whether at individual or state level.