2013-10-28
Farooq Mehsud
PESHAWAR: \"The terrible deafening blast, followed by smoke and dust that covered the house of my neighbour was frightening; my whole body was trembling; but I dared to look at what happened in my neighbours. I saw mutilated bodies buried under the debris of the destroyed house,\" said 40-year-old Rukhsana Bibi while narrating the ordeal of the US drone strike at a house in Baghar, a border village of South Waziristan, on 12th August, 2008 in which 13 people including women and children were killed.
Journalists and local tribesmen were not allowed to visit the spot hit by the US drone attack because the Taliban had cordoned off the targeted area, but being the closest neighbour, Rukhsana Bibi was the first to witness the devastation even before Taliban\'s arrival. \"Since the day I witnessed I am restless, using sleeping pills on regular basis to have some sound sleep,\" Rukhsana Bibi added.
\"Whenever my mother sees drones flying in the area she hides herself in a room to avoid hearing the buzzing sound of the unmanned planes,\" said Shams Ullah, the older son of Rukhsana Bibi.
\"Our mother is under treatment, but we can\'t hope for Rukhsana\'s complete recovery until the end of US drones\' buzzing sounds and strikes in the region,\" Shams Ullah added.
Arms-twisted analysts and so-called human rights activists missed the gory aspect of the controversial and unabated drone strikes, which left many tribesmen, women and children psychologically ill in the tribal badland.
Forget about the steps taken by the government and international community for the education and health of families who left parts of the war-battered Fata, most of the elderly and children of families trapped inside Fata have developed mental problems following years long campaign of remotely-piloted drones flying over the region almost round-the-clock.
An illiterate village lady, Rukhsana Bibi, is one victim among hundreds or even thousands of women living in the border region who have developed psychological disorders due to the continuing US drone campaign and strikes in the tribal belt of Pakistan, especially North and South Waziristan.
\"About 80 percent of the womenfolk and children in the restive tribal regions are suffering from mental disorders and psychic problems, said Dr Muneer Dawar, head of the District Headquarters and Teaching Hospital Psychiatry ward in Dera Ismail Khan. Dr Muneer mostly deals the patients from North and South Waziristan Agencies.
The alarming increase of psychiatry patients in the tribal regions has been reported but the government has failed to help the tribesmen and provide them with better health care facilities. Due to meager resources the poor tribesmen couldn\'t migrate from the tribal region to nearby settled districts.
Gul Bano, 45, a housewife has developed a mental disorder since 24th February 2010, when a US drone strike at a house next to her home killed nine including a child and inflicted injuries on three others in the Dargai Mandi area of North Wazirsitan Agency. She has become a psychiatric patient and whenever she hears the sound of US drones immediately she runs inside the cellar built inside their house for protection from drone strikes and shelling from military and militants, said her husband, Ayub Khan.
Ayub Khan added, \"Gull Bano was taken to a psychiatrist in District Bannu where the psychiatrist suggested shifting of Gull Bano to an area where Bano couldn\'t see US drones hovering over there and also couldn\'t hear its buzzing sounds.\"
Acting upon the advice of Dr Javaid Akhter, head of the Psychiatry department of Khalif Gull Nawaz Teaching Hospital in Bannu, Gull Banno was shifted to Dera Ismail Khan (DIK). Gull Bano\'s husband said that consequently Bano lost her fear of US drones.
\"But after two years we went back to our hometown as I lost my job abroad and now could not afford to live in a rented house in DIK. As we reached the limits of North Waziristan Agency, Gul Bano again heard the same hateful sounds of drone planes and this time her sense of insecurity and fear of being hit was stronger than before,\" said Ayub Khan, a taxi driver in United Arab Emirates.
Dr Mian Iftikhar, focal person for the Pakistan Psychiatrist Society in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa said that there are 450 registered psychiatrists in the country inhabited by 200 million people but there is not even a single post in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) for Psychiatrist.
\"No care is taken for mental problems of FATA people and it is the reason that the number of psychological problems in the people of FATA are constantly on the rise,\" Dr Ifitkhar said, adding that alongside drone strikes, joblessness and lack of opportunities are also contributing to the increase of mental disorder patients in FATA.
Dr Muneer Dawar, further explained that women feel insecure while children develop a severe sense of fear in the areas where drone strikes are conducted frequently, adding that the situation has worsened with the passage of time as the number of US drone planes are increasing to fly over the region. Dr Muneer added that mental weakness is developing in the young generation who are living in areas which are under continuous surveillance of the US drones, saying that future generation will have a lot of mentally weakness and psychological disorder.
\"Such future generation with psychological disorder can easily be recycled by militants to carry out terror attacks and suicide bombing,\" Dr Muneer warned.
The London based Bureau of Investigative Journalism has compiled press reports that indicate US Drone strikes have killed up to 2525 to 3613 people in Pakistan since 17th June 2004, the first strike in which Taliban commander Nek Muhammad, and two children were killed in Wana, South Waziristan. Less than 2 percent of the high-profile targets are killed by C.I.A drones in the tribal belt of Pakistan.
The issue of psychological disorders faced by tribal women has been highlighted by the non-governmental organizations as the number of psychiatric patient visiting Peshawar and other cities is growing in leaps and bounds.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has finalized its program to conduct a fact finding survey inside the tribal areas.
\"Women there are the worst sufferers as they are totally confined to their houses and cannot share their problems with anyone\" Shahid ullah Jan, Peshawar based head of the HRCP said.
However, the issue of the US drone strikes in FATA has been raised before the Peshawar High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan and both the highly esteemed courts declared US drone strikes as illegal and in violation of the country\'s sovereignty. \"Despite high Judiciary\'s decision, declaring US drones strikes illegal, no practical steps have been taken in this regard and this is in contempt of court, said Advocate Shahzad Akber, a lawyer handling the cases against US drone strikes in Pakistan\'s tribal belt.
Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Member of the National Assembly from South Wazirsitan, Ghalib Khan Wazir, said that innocent tribal people are becoming victims of the US drone strikes, and therefore, US drone operations must be halted as soon as possible. Ghalib said that the N-league leadership is not silent over the issue adding that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had raised the issue of US drone strikes in United Nation General Assembly session.
A global movement who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights.Amnesty International,new major report released on 22 October 2013 said,New evidence indicates that the USA has carried out unlawful killings in Pakistan through drone attacks, some of which could even amount to war crimes,
\"Secrecy surrounding the drones program gives the US administration a license to kill beyond the reach of the courts or basic standards of international law. It\'s time for the USA to come clean about the drones program and hold those responsible for these violations to account,\" said Mustafa Qadri, Amnesty International\'s Pakistan Researcher.
I am looking towards the sky and thinking with fear, watching US drones flying continuously, and praying for the vanishing of US drones from this part of the world, Rukhsana Bibi concluded.
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