You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Afghanistan/South Asia
Sounding the drum for the al-Qaeda hunt
2004-06-09
It is early morning and a man in his early thirties is beating a beautifully decorated drum in an open field in Wana, main town of Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal region. He is playing the drum as loud as possible. The intention is to let people know proceedings have begun. Soon men of all ages with guns hanging from their shoulders start gathering around him. A few of the young lose control and start dancing to the drums.
"Get down and boogie!"
The occasion looks festive, but it definitely is not. The tradition of beating drums is as old as the Pathan race that lives in this part of the world. The drum is known locally as the "dhol" and in tribal tradition its beating announces a danger or emergency. The Pathans in this area are considered a warrior race, so the Lashkar is an inseparable part of their life. Lashkar is a Pashto language word meaning a group of men raised to fight a war against a common enemy. The term can be applied to both a dozen men going to a nearby village to exact revenge or to the thousands who poured into the Kashmir valley in 1947-48 to wrest it from Indian control. Historians say the drum became an integral part of the Lashkar as a tool of communication. "In the absence of modern means of communication it is used to gather people and declare war but also as a means of entertainment for volunteers," says Hazrat Khan, a tribal writer from the Mohmand tribal region. "It is also useful in raising the soldiers’ morale to make them fight better." A 4,000-strong Lashkar has for the past few days been searching for al-Qaeda suspects in South Waziristan’s remote Shakai area. They have yet to catch any.
And today when the fighting started, they took off.
Much to the dislike of US forces in neighbouring Afghanistan, the Pakistani government has set two conditions for the tribesmen to clear their area of al-Qaeda suspects - either arrest them or make them leave the area. The problem is that the al-Qaeda and Taleban militants enjoy a good deal of tribal support. Consequently, some argue that it seems odd to use loud drums to lead a Lashkar for a surprise raid on al-Qaeda suspects. An expert on tribal traditions, Raj Wali Khattak, says: "It’s not clear why they are using the drums in these searches. "No doubt it is a tradition but now politics have also crept in. Maybe the tribesmen don’t want to arrest the militants. Their policy might be only to let them clear the area."
Bingo, we have a winner.
"Form up the Lashkar Honor Guard™! We have to provide an escort!"
But a tribal elder, who preferred not to be named, defended the use of the drums, saying they were a long-standing tradition. "A Lashkar without dhol is incomplete."
"It's like having a wedding without automatic weapons"
"In the present circumstances, it’s even more necessary. Making 4,000 people gather and then conducting them is not an easy task in our under-developed areas."
Posted by:Dan Darling

#5  I see a Madonna moment here.
Posted by: MinneMike   2004-06-09 4:13:38 PM  

#4  **boom diddie boom diddie boom boom boom**
"Osama, did you hear something?"
"Just the leftover throbbing in my ears from Tora
Bora."
**boom diddie boom diddie boom boom boom**
"I heard it again, Osama. Those are drums! We must flee!!"
"Forget it Ahmed. Its just another one of those rowdy Lashkar dhol happenings. We have at least 6 hours before they finished making their racket and get underway. Besides, its only a show for Perv and the Great Satanists. Give me 4 hours of sleep and I will be refreshed and ready to go."
"Well, they sure scare me, Osama."
"Just go back to sleep. Nothing to worry about. They have been doing this dhol nonsense since Christ was a corporal."
"Hokay, good night."
"'night."
**boom diddie boom diddie boom boom boom**
**boom diddie boom diddie boom boom boom**
**boom diddie boom diddie boom boom boom**
**boom diddie boom diddie boom boom boom**
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Chefornak   2004-06-09 2:43:29 PM  

#3  Making 4,000 people gather and then conducting them is not an easy task in our under-developed areas." Please send us money. And some Toyota trucks.
Posted by: remote man   2004-06-09 12:38:15 PM  

#2  Ah. NOW we know why they're not catching anybody.

Then again, if they were Christians, they'd have heeded Jesus' counsel to not sound a trumpet before themselves. Or a drum, IMHO.
Posted by: Ptah   2004-06-09 10:07:49 AM  

#1  Do the Lashkar drums have like pictures or nic names on them? You known like biggest boom in dixie.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-06-09 9:47:21 AM  

00:00