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In Pakistan's Tribal Areas, 'A Clear Dividing Line Between Right And Wrong'

Dera Bugti, Pakistan: tribal guards stand alert. (2006 file photo.)
Banaras Khan
/
AFP/Getty Images
Dera Bugti, Pakistan: tribal guards stand alert. (2006 file photo.)

Morning Editionhost Steve Inskeep came home from this recent reporting trip to Pakistan with one more story to tell, and it offers a unique look into the "tribal areas" we hear so much about because they are home to terrorists.

It's his discussion with 79-year-old first-time novelist Jamil Ahmad, a retired civil servant whose book The Wandering Falconis, as Steve says, "a work of fiction that takes the reader all along the border" of Pakistan and Afghanistan and vividly describes an "ancient and often violent culture" that Ahmad clearly loves nonetheless.

To Ahmad, the people in the region may live brutal lives — but also know "there's a clear dividing line between right and wrong."

They will, for example, condemn to adulterers to death. Yet those same tribesmen will faithfully turn themselves in to authorities if they are caught committing a crime.

And Ahmad worries that in the quest to rid the region of terrorists the U.S. and Pakistani authorities are endangering the trial system. That system, he cautions, can be a force that opposes terrorism. The tribes, he argues, could be effective counterweights to the terrorists.

Take a listen:

For an excerpt from Ahmad's book, click here.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.