SINGAPORE - The centuries-old Pashtunwali code, which predates Islam according to scholars, not only demands sabat (loyalty) among the Pashtuns but also tureh (courage) and badai (vengeance).
When the United States made clear it was targeting Afghanistan to get Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept 11 attacks, and the Taliban, for refusing to give him up, thousands of Pashtuns marched in Peshawar saying they would travel north to be the new mujahideen.
Executive photojournalist Mohd Ishak Samon and I were there in Pakistan's north-west frontier province in end-September 2001, in the middle of the protest march that was attended by over 10,000 people.
We met Mr Mohamad Amin Baba, then 35, with his four-year-old son Mohamed Khidarayat, who brandished a toy AK-47 rifle.
Mr Amin, a Pakistani, said he would answer the call to arms made by clerics from groups like Jamiat Ulema-e Islam (JUI) to defend Pashtun gairat (honour).
The religio-political party, founded in 1945, is overtly against Western values and pro-Taliban.
In our travels, we also met others like Pashtun Lehaz Gul, then 22, and Parvis Khan, an 18-year-old, who both said they would cast aside their ethnic differences to defend Afghanistan against the invaders. Both Afghan refugees, they claimed their fathers were mujahideen who fought the Soviet military, which occupied their country for 10 years from 1979.
The Pashtun tribes of Waziris and Afredis will fight each other, but will also unite to take on a common enemy, whether it is against another tribe such as the Tajik or foreign invaders.
The US officially launched Operation Enduring Freedom on Oct 7 while we were there. We visited the famous Nasir Bagh camp in Peshawar, which around 100,000 Afghans who fled the Soviet occupation once called home. They lived in mud-walled homes and schools for them were madrasahs, some set up by JUI.
At another camp, we spoke to the mohtamim (principal) of the Jamiyah Islamia Darul Ulloomai Sarhad school, one of the largest for refugees and set up by JUI.
Mr Syed Khalid, then 56, oversaw the religious education of 600 students and was also vice-president of the province's JUI headquarters.
He insisted the school did not teach anything differently, but then peppered the conversation with anti-American rhetoric. In speaking to 25-year-old student Fauzlullah, we learnt that others like him were making plans to fight the Americans as part of their jihad.
Mr Singh (centre) being forced out of a tribal area at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. PHOTO: ST FILE
It was made clear to us that we were outsiders in the tribal areas of Afghanistan but as melmas (guests), we were to be shown hospitality.
The Taliban militants were forged in such camps, raised on the Pashtunwali code and educated in JUI ideologies. While there are many tribes in Afghanistan - as many as 60, by some counts - more than one in three of its 40 million people are Pashtuns.
To outsiders, the Taliban militants are radicals. To many Pashtuns, they are upholding their tribal code.
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