An Encounter with the taliban in Bara

When my host in Peshawar advised me to dress in a Shalwar Kameez instead of jeans and a T-shirt, wear a prayer cap and refrain from shaving, I ignored his advice. But in Bara, when I saw the Taliban and heard them shouting at me in Pashto, I really regretted not paying heed to my host’s sincere warnings.

My host, who is an influential person in Khyber Agency, arranged my trip to the Khyber Agency and insisted I visited all its three Tehsil — Bara, Jamrud and Landi Kotal — and also advised me to take a public bus to reach Bara. Once again, ignoring his advice, a local friend and I hired a rented car to reach Bara bazaar, the stronghold of the followers of Mangal Bagh of the Lashkar-e-Islam.

Lashkar-e-Islam is a militant organisation that is imposing its own brand of Islam on the residents of Khyber Agency and also fighting a local rival group, the Ansarul Islam, in the Tirah Valley, a far-flung area of the Khyber Agency. Their aim: to have full control of the most strategic point along the Afghanistan border.

Other militant organisations with a similar agenda are also active in the area, including the Amr Bil Maroof Wa Nahi Unnil Munkar who also use force to impose their own brand of Islam and the teachings of their Amir, Haji Namdar, on local people as well as visitors.

We entered the Bara bazaar of Khyber agency by travelling on the Bara road that leads to the tribal area. Heavy contingents of paramilitary troops and police were seen patrolling the road while several pickets were also established there. They were, however, not bothering people travelling to the tribal areas.

The shock of glimpsing the Taliban for the first time in the Bara bazaar was unexpected, given that the area is hardly a 45 minutes’ drive from Peshawar. There was not a single security personnel present in the bazaar although government officials make daily claims of re-establishing the writ of the government and clearing the area of militants. Instead, we saw three vehicles with black flags mounted on their front and my guide told me that they were either Mangal Bagh’s men or the Taliban.

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