Six months ago, Fahimuddin was a Pakistani businessman and local councillor. Today he heads a private militia using rocket launchers, guns, grenades and daggers to repel Islamist attacks. Fed up with kidnappings, bombings and rising fears of militancy around Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar, the 40-year-old packed up a prosperous property business and took matters into his own hands. He formed a lashkar, a traditional militia raised by tribesmen in this part of the world for centuries, armed and mobilised temporarily to settle disputes.It's a dangerous business. Fahimuddin says his men kill assailants. He says he survived two car bombs and escaped a kidnapping attempt, but nothing deters him from staying to flush out Islamist radicals. "How can I leave my family, my village and my children? I will fight all those who attack my village whether they are Taliban, Lashkar-e-Islam or anyone else," he said at his home in Bazed Khel where Peshawar runs into Khyber.
Fahimuddin wears a custom-made black leather jacket over his traditional shalwar khamis -- its pockets loaded with Kalashnikov magazines and grenades. His brother Asif ur-Rehman wears a similarly laden jacket. A dagger sticks out of his waist band. Taking out the blade, Rehman whispers: "I also have four grenades inside my shalwar khamis".
One of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal zones on the Afghan border, Khyber has become increasingly dangerous. Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud is active. Attacks on NATO supply trucks bound for Afghanistan are common. Fifty people were killed in a mosque bombing last March.
Fahimuddin's nemesis is Mangal Bagh, who heads Lashkar-e-Islam, which -- much as the Taliban acts like police -- enforces prayers five times a day and punishes people accused of prostitution, gambling and other vices. "I received a phone call from a Mangal Bagh man who said they will kill me if I don't stop," said Fahimuddin.
Pakistan says government representatives handle allied tribesmen and elders, dishing out money and ammunition to help them in their fight. "The military -- in areas like Bajaur and Dir and part of Khyber -- is encouraging these people to expel these militants and terrorists," spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP. "They are so deep-rooted and widespread it may not be possible for the government and law enforcement agencies to completely get rid of them.
"Lashkars in Bajaur and Upper Dir -- they are pretty successful, they are resisting, expelling all the Taliban," Abbas said.
Fighting between lashkars and militants in the latest government offensive in and around the northwest district Swat has reportedly killed dozens. But pro-government militias are increasingly at risk. Suicide bombers targeting them have killed more than 100 people since last October. "These Lashkars are made to save America and people should not be part of this. TTP (Taliban umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) will hit very hard anyone who participates," Taliban spokesman Mulvi Mohammad Omar told AFP.
But analysts warn unlimited support could be a risky business, much as historic support from spy agencies to Islamists to counter-balance rival India has come back to haunt Pakistan on its western rather than eastern border. They warn that friends of today can turn into enemies of tomorrow. "We have the example of Mulvi Nazir who raised a militia against Uzbeks (in 2007) but later become a warlord," said analyst Mahmood Shah, a former security chief for the tribal areas.
The assassination of Qari Zainnuddin Mehsud on June 23 was considered a blow -- but not the end of efforts to raise tribesmen against Baitullah. "Jihad in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine is right but jihad in Pakistan is wrong. There are no foreign troops here," Turkestan Bhittani, an ally-turned-rival of Baitullah, told AFP claiming, to have thousands of men. He says he is determined to be part of the government's expected offensive against the Taliban chief in South Waziristan. "After they give me the green light, I will attack Baitullah."