The men of my age remember quite clearly that there was a good trade between Chitral and the north-eastern region of Afghanistan known as Badaxan since time immemorial and it was a lucrative one for both sides both at Garum Chama bazaar and Chitral town where the Tajiks brought their products including good horses for sale and brought back certain items that reached Chitral bazaar from Punjab. This business started in May/ June over Durah pass, at the end of Lotkuh valley and continued till late October and snowfall did stop it for winters. This age long commercial activity, cultural mix up and linguistic interaction came to a stand still after Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1978/79 when Russian troops occupied the north-eastern parts of that country that joined Chitral boundry. But before the influx of the refugees into Chitral that region came under Russian troops so the migration was made in great haste and most of the assets were lost in this haste. The trade activities stopped but after some years the Durah pass region of the Afghan side was reoccupied by the Mujahideens and the pass was re opened for logistics of arms and ammunition that lasted for a few years till the occupation of TALIBAN who after some initial successes resorted to brutal execution of suspects and a wave of horror swept all over Afghanistan and that horror invited world attention towards that war torn country once again resulting in the defeat of Taliban and interference of NATO alliance.
The Tajiks, Pathans and Nooristanis who had taken refuge in Chitral were welcomed in Chitral by the Chitralis with great Islamic spirit. Houses were vacated for them, foods were supplied in the beginning, shelters were given, and all kind of financial and moral support was extended and shops were given to them on soft rent to begin some business but they had brought their traditional enmity with them and soon after a space of relief they began to show their hatred of each other in groups and murder cases began to be reported and some went unreported. This was a very bad impression for Chitralis. They had also brought with them livestock including horses and they did slaughter the horses and sold in the market and their intentions went undetected. I am myself one of the eaters of the meat of a horse which was either slaughtered in Islamic way or an already dead horse had been sold to us. They were registered by UNHCR but many remained unregistered and started their businesses and business dealings led to murders among them. They did not have any idea of cleanliness and the small town of Chitral then became a heap of garbage and TB broke out in the refugee camps that compelled the local authorities to shift them to barren tracts of lands in the outskirts of the town. Nobody was then happy with their presence and the initial zeal of fraternity faded with the increase of crimes and thefts that overtook the city. The crisis in Afghanistan spread to more provinces under the War Lords who entertained vengeance against each other, a sense of unity for liberation of their country was either non existent or it was not in their favour so they unwittingly exported their Jihad to Pakistan and injected the same into the youth that was an easy target and thus a new phase of confrontation spread in our country. This was the gift that we received from our ex-guest.
