Peshawar, epicenter of jihad

(Reuters)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani provincial minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti spends much of his time handing out envelopes containing checks. Some people suffering from shrapnel wounds limp to collect them.
Others weep and hug him after the names of their deceased sons are read out as dozens await their turn.
It has become a ritual in Peshawar, where those devastated by bombings -- the worst in the country in a militant campaign against the government -- receive compensation from authorities.
"We are facing an insurgency at its best. It's natural that I have to give maximum time for these activities," Hoti, Chief Minister for the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) , told Reuters. "If we lose this war. God forbid. This country will go to the dogs."
Peshawar and its surrounding areas near the border with Afghanistan are the epicenter of the battle against militants, who recently raised security alarm bells with a suicide bombing and gun attack near Pakistan's military headquarters, 30 minutes from the capital.
Failure to contain violence in Peshawar could mean more operations like that one because it would make it easier for militants to get to large cities and strategic areas, spreading more chaos and fear in the nuclear-armed country.
Authorities seem well aware of that, judging by Peshawar's siege atmosphere. Military and state police check vehicles for weapons and bombs at checkpoints. Behind them soldiers with machineguns keep an eye out for suicide bombers.
Sandbags have been placed in front of vital businesses. School children are taught drills to follow in the event of a bomb.
DASHED HOPES, FEAR OF DEATH
But tight security may only produce short-term success in Peshawar, a run-down city 105 miles northwest of Islamabad, once home to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Militants often exploit poverty and unemployment, enticing impressionable young men with promises of glorious holy war. Winning long-term trust in the state is half the battle.
"It's not only the military operations. Military operations are to be followed by relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation," said Hoti.
"The space that was exploited by these (militant) elements. We need to fill that space. Administrative issues, political issues. The social sector. Poverty. You name it. A system of good governance."
Two students in a market area reinforced that view. Taliban fighters in their village paid other young men "good" money to join the group and take up arms, they said. At first Peshawar had offered high hopes. Until the bombings killed more and more people, hundreds since October.
They spend their time hanging out in a hunting gun shop and making small talk with its owner. The ripple economic effects of violence has cut his sales to a rifle a month.
"I am afraid I am going to die," said one of the students, Azhar Farooq.
During the 1980s, Peshawar became a den of spies and jihadis when the United States and Saudi Arabia covertly funded a mujahideen guerrilla war to expel Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Pakistan also supported the effort. It's a bitter irony.
Nowadays, Peshawar police chief Liaquat Ali Khan sits at his desk explaining how Taliban, al Qaeda and criminal elements are coordinating in a shadowy network trying to terrorize the city.
Khan is a confident hard-nosed man who says he has no doubts the police will emerge victorious, perhaps in a few months. But his description of the police force's resources, and the methods of the enemy, highlighted the magnitude of the task.
The police force needs highly sophisticated bomb and weapon detectors. They only own a handful to improve the safety of a city of 1.5 million.
Militants, on the other hand, are brainwashing boys as young as 14, or threatening to blow up their homes and families, to force them to become suicide bombers, said Khan.
For now, he must rely on police officers like Inspector Khaista Khan, whose picture hangs on a wall outside the police chief's office. On Saturday, he was killed after pouncing on a suicide bomber outside a Peshawar court who killed nine people. The act may have prevented a much higher death toll.
"A suicide bomber comes and the policeman goes and hugs him and takes all the blast for himself and protects the public. I think this needs motivation, devotion to duty and courage," Khan told Reuters. "This you can only find in the Peshawar police."