The Awami National Party (ANP) of Pakistan was founded by the late Khan AbdulGhaffar Khan, known as the Frontier Gandhi. He was very close to Mahatma Gandhiand tried to popularise Gandhiji's concept of non-violence among trhe Pashtunsof the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally-Administered TribalAreas (FATA). He strongly opposed the partition of India and the creation ofPakistan.
After Pakistan became independent in 1947, its authorities arrested himbecause of his advocacy of the creation of an autonomous, if not independent,Pashtoonistan and because of their suspicions regarding his contacts with India.He made no secret of these contacts and of his love for India. When he wasreleased after many years of his detention in the 1960s, he had the courage toopenly visit India to renew his friendship with Indian leaders.
Ghaffar Khan was a leftist by ideology. The party founded by him is the onlypolitical formation in Pakistan, which is to the left of the political spectrum.It is secular and is strongly opposed to fundamentalism and wahabisation of theMuslim community in Pakistan.
The Frontier Gandhi was succeeded by Khan Abdul Wali Khan, his son, who was asgreat a lover of India as his father was. He was even more leftist than hisfather by conviction. He was very close to the erstwhile USSR and the thenPresident Najibullah of Afghanistan. He openly used to visit India for a fewweeks every year to meet Indian leaders, as well as Kabul as the personal guestof Najibullah. He was a strong critic of the jihad being waged by the US'Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)in Afghanistan. He ignored with contempt a disinformation campaign mounted bythe ISI against him projecting him as an Indian and Soviet agent.
There were only two Pashtun organisations--both equally moderate, equallyenlightened, equally secular, equally friendly to India--which strongly opposedthe Afghan Mujahideen, the late Zia-ul-Haq's attempt to Wahabise the Pakistanisociety, the Taliban when it came into existence in 1964 and the trend towardsthe Talibanisation of the tribal belt of Pakistan under President PervezMusharraf. The ANP is one of them. The Pakhtoonkwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP)headed by Mahmood Khan Achakzai is another. The ANP's following is confined tothe Pashtuns of the NWFP. The following of the PMAP is confined to the Pashtunsof Balochistan.
When Wali Khan was incapacitated due to old age and illness, he was succeeded byAfsandyar Wali Khan, his son, another moderate and secular-minded person, whohas been strongly opposed to the Taliban. After the death of Wali Khan in 2006 ,differences cropped up between Afsandyar Wali Khan and Naseem Wali Khan, one ofthe two wives of Wali Khan, who was the step-mother of Afsandyar. The Army andthe ISI took advantage of these differences. As a result, the party has beenweakened, but it continues to be as secular, as moderate, as leftist and asopposed to the Taliban as it has always been.
Unidentified jihadi terrorists targeted an election rally of the ANP held atvillage Nahaqi, near Peshawar, in the NWFP on February 8, 2008, killing 27members of the party through an improvised explosive device (IED), which issuspected to have been detonated by a suicide bomber. In accordance with thesecurity advice of the police, the meeting was held in a closed place and not ina public place. The enclosure had been subjected to security checks by thepolice. Despite this, the bomber managed to gain entry with his concealed IEDundetected by the Police. The enclosure was closed immediately after the meetingstarted. It is stated that a large crowd of ANP supporters found themselveslocked out. They pressed those responsible to let them in so that they couldattend the meeting. The door was opened and the waiting crowd entered withoutbeing subjected to security checks. It is suspected that the bomber must haveentered along with them.
Afsandyar Wali Khan was not present at the meeting, but Afrasiab Khattak, one ofthe senior leaders of the party, was. He escaped reportedly unhurt. AfrasiabKhattak was very close to Najibullah and used to live in Afghanistan in the1980s, when Najibullah was the President along with Ajmal Khattak, anothersenior leader of the party. Both of them returned to Pakistan after BenazirBhutto became the Prime Minister in 1988.
No organisation has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack hascome shortly after Baitullah Mehsud, the Amir of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan,had announced an unilateral ceasefire in its operations against the Pakistanisecurity forces--not only in the tribal areas, but also in the non-tribal areas.According to well-informed Police sources, this cease-fire announcement cameafter secret talks between the Pakistan Army and Serajuddin Haqqani, son ofJalalludin Haqqani, the Afghan Mujahideen leader, who belongs to the Neo Talibanled by Mulla Mohammad Omar. Serajuddin, for whom the US agencies have beenhunting, is widely perceived as the mentor of Baitullah. According to thesePolice sources, the Pakistan Army is keen that the elections should be held asscheduled on February 18,2008, and hence had reached an informal cease-fire withBaitullah to prevent any disruption of the electionbs by the Mehsuds.
The fact that despite this cease-fire, the ANP election rally was attacked showsthat either Baitullah has not been able to enforce the cease-fire or that otherorganisations such as the ant-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad(JEM) do not feel themselves bound by this cease-fire and are determined todisrupt the elections at least in the NWFP, if not elsewhere.
There have also been indications that the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is not asunited behind Baitullah as it is perceived to be. Even as Baitullah's followerswere fighting fiercely against the Pakistani security forces in South Waziristanand the Darra Adam Khel-Kohat area of the NWFP, the leaders and cadres of theTehrik in North Waziristan and the Bajaur Agency were observing an informalcease-fire.
The ceasefire with the Mehsud component of the Tehrik does not necessarilyguarantee that the elections will not be subject to serious disruptions. That isthe message from the attack on the ANP rally.
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B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. ofIndia, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai.
