-“You watch TV and you’ll think that Peshawar has imploded, been destroyed. But walk around the city, go to any neighbourhood, and you’ll see life goes on.” -Photo by ONLINE

PESHAWAR: Battered by a relentless wave of militant violence between 2007 and early 2010, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has clawed its way back to relative stability in recent months. “You watch TV and you’ll think that Peshawar has imploded, been destroyed,” said Liaqat Ali, CCPO, Peshawar, “But walk around the city, go to any neighbourhood, and you’ll see life goes on.”

Indeed, at the site of a devastating car bombing in the congested Meena Bazaar area, there are few signs of the carnage that claimed 137 lives in October 2009.

The crater left by the bomb has been filled in with rubble and smoothed over by traffic passing through the narrow lane. The buildings and shops destroyed by the bomb and the resultant fire which swept through the area have been rebuilt and customers milled around the fully stocked stores.

It is a similar story at dozens of other blast sites in the old quarters of Peshawar and surrounding neighbourhoods, where the majority of militant attacks have taken place in the city.

A hole-in-the-wall restaurant and butcher shop that was struck by a suicide bomber and destroyed in 2009 hummed with activity as diners crowded into the cramped space on a weekday afternoon.

“Life has to go on. People need to eat, to buy basics,” said Osman Bilour, president of the provincial chamber of commerce and son of Bashir Bilour, the senior provincial minister. “Business may be down, but it’s still running.”

The gradual upswing in commercial and social activity in the city has been attributed mainly to a decline in violence, which peaked towards the end of 2009 and early 2010.

“Like the tsunami in Japan, this place too was swept away by the tide of militant violence,” said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Masood Kausar.

Speaking in his office at the stately governor’s mansion, Mr Kausar argued that as provincial administrative and law-enforcement officials began to grapple with the nature of the militant threat to Peshawar, the officials adapted their approach and slowly began to tackle the threat.

“Today, the job is 60-65 per cent done. We’ve pushed and pushed (the militants) further and further into the tribal areas. It’s still a work in progress, but there are definite results,” claimed the governor.

According to Liaqat Ali, the city police chief, two tactics in particular had helped. “Peshawar is ringed on three sides by tribal areas, Darra, Khyber and Mohmand. With the help of the Frontier Constabulary, we’ve sealed off Peshawar from those parts,” claimed Mr Ali.

But the police chief also pointed out that not all the threat radiated from the tribal areas: “The suicide bomber comes from the tribal areas, but he gets his jacket, his target, his transport from inside this city.”

In order to clamp down on the threat emanating from inside Peshawar, Mr Ali claimed the police conduct daily search operations in at least two neighbourhoods: “We are constantly collecting intelligence, picking up people. Every day the interrogations go on until 2-3am and then we start the sweeps again in the morning.”

The improved security also appears to have lifted the mood of the city. According to Dr Bashir Ahmed, a practising psychiatrist, mental health professionals in Peshawar have noticed in recent months that the “situation of despair has improved” and “the cycle of deep pessimism had been broken.”

But if the collective recovery of Peshawar has been real, it is also fragile.

Ghulam Ali, the general secretary of the traders’ association in Meena Bazar, claimed that business at his family’s cotton shops was down precipitously: “We used to earn Rs50,000-60,000 a month. Now we barely make Rs7,000-8,000.”

A senior revenue officer who spoke on condition of anonymity concurred: “Trading is down sharply, investment is slow and the property market has cooled. But because Peshawar caters to surrounding areas and smuggling is huge, there can be a misleading impression that the economy is fine.”

More unsettling are the warnings by senior officials that the security situation in the city could deteriorate in the months ahead.

“There’s been an upsurge in recent months after a spell of calm. When we couldn’t figure it out, we went to the jails. A-Z, everyone we had picked up, the courts had set free,” said one security official who requested anonymity to speak about terrorism suspects.

“If I keep militants in custody, I’m accused of illegal confinement. If I kill a terrorist, a section 302 case (murder) is registered against me. If I hand suspects over to the court, they set them free,” claimed the official. “What am I to do?” the official asked, going on to claim that many of the suspects freed by the courts were being picked up as suspects in recent terrorism cases.

But at least for now, Peshawar appears to be limping back to some semblance of normality. Perhaps some of the resilience is owed to an ancient city and a people all too familiar with being on the frontline of various conflicts.

Still, the customary sangfroid on display in Peshawar sits alongside a more modern pragmatism. “Our appeal to the outside world is, don’t forget us. This is our war, we will fight it. But we can’t do it alone,” said Governor Masood.