Dancing girls returning to Swat

LAHORE: Hundreds of the dancing girls belonging to the trouble stricken Swat district of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), who had to leave their homes in the wake of a Taliban crusade and a subsequent ban on traditional dancing, followed by a military operation, have returned to their homes since the Pakistan army declared victory against the jehadi mafia in Swat and its adjoining areas.

Over 1000 dancing girls had left Swat after the killing of one of their colleagues and issuance of warning to the others that the Taliban would not tolerate any un-Islamic vices. “Any other girls found performing traditional dance in any part of the NWFP would be killed on the spot”, so said Tehrik-e-Taliban spokesman led by Fazlullah in April 2009 before the launching of the military operation there, while claiming responsibility for the brutal murder of a dancing girl Shabana. Shabana’s bullet-ridden body was found slumped on the ground, strewn with money, video recordings of her performances and photographs from her albums. Most of the dancing girls immediate posted signs outside their residence saying they would no longer dance before. Afterwards, most of them packed up and fled to Peshawar, Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Before killing Shabana, the Tehrik-e-Taliban directed the parents of the grown up girls in Swat through their FM Radio to marry them to the militants or face dire consequences. The parents were asked through Radio announcements to declare in mosques if they have unmarried girls so that their hand could be given in marriage to militant followers of Maulana Fazlullah. If they did not do so, the Radio announcement said, the girls would be forcibly married off to the Taliban-e-Taliban militants. However, with the defeat of the TTP in Swat at the hands of the Pakistan Army, hundreds of the dancing girls have returned to Swat district’s famous Banr Bazaar.

According to Pakistani media reports, thousands of those who have returned to Swat since the army declared victory, took to the streets on the night of August 14 to celebrate Pakistan’s Independence Day. Among them was an 18 year old Seema, who had recently arrived from a refugee camp at Mardan. She had been a pupil of Shabana, the late dancing girls, and had fled to Karachi after her body was found in the square. Before she fled Swat, she was earning up to £400 per performance, and said while many of the girls and their families remained scared the Taliban would return, August 14’s public celebrations had given her hope that her customers would return. She said half the dancing girls had returned as the city heard music on the streets for the first time since the army ousted the Taliban earlier this summer.

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