The erstwhile ancient kingdom of Gandhara, ruled by the Kushan kings (1^st to 4^th century AD), was reacquainted to the world in March 2001, when the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan – the world’s biggest rock-cut Buddha statues - the cultural twin towers of Gandharan art, and now in 2009 once again when Taliban occupied and vandalized the Swat valley in Pakistan. Swat, a district in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, 160kms northwest of Islamabad, and Bamiyan were once a part of Gandhara, a historical region (1^st to 5th century AD) in present-day northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan.

I first visited the Swat Valley in the August of1980 – almost three decades ago. Zia’s politics of Islam, though bubbling in urban areas, had not touched the serenity of this picturesque region with its trout-rich streams and ski slopes. I remember the post-sunset stillness and the silence, the rain-soaked dirt roads, the fragrance of rice in the mountain air, the ancient Buddhist relics, the friendly and warm locals who often asked for medicines – vast areas had no basic medical facilities even within reach of a day’s walk. Swat was a romantic destination for visitors from Lahore and Islamabad but certainly not for those living in its remote regions. On my subsequent trips to the area, I carried paracetamol, eye drops, band-aids and throat lozenges in bulk – that was all I could do for the folks there.

Swat, today, is a ghost valley – its 2 million residents having fled the insanity that the Taliban had begun to unleash upon a populace that did not want them in their midst. Houses and public buildings lie demolished; girls’ schools a heap of rubble. A small band of indoctrinated individuals have transformed a peaceful past into a killing zone. As I write this piece, NY Times has just flashed Breaking News on the screen of my laptop – Lethal Bomb Hits Hotel in Northwest Pakistan. Today is June 9, ‘09. Just four days ago the Breaking News was – Pakistan Mosque Bomb Kills Dozens. And before that – the Lahore Blast, and before that ..... – so it carries on – only the names of places, venues, and targets keep changing. This is a nation plagued by a bunch of small groups of extremists and terrorists believing in a version of Islam that most Muslims do not identify with.