Capt. Qasim Abbas had finished a six-month stint fighting the
Taliban close to the Afghan border and was heading home to get engaged
when the militants struck, ambushing his convoy, pitching his vehicle
off a 90-foot cliff and leaving him with brain injuries that make
speaking and walking a daily battle.
Abbas and the other soldiers
recovering at Pakistan's only military rehabilitation hospital are a
testament to the human toll from Pakistan's fight against Islamist
militants. Their plight receives little attention from Pakistani
politicians, possibly because they are afraid of associating themselves
with an unpopular fight that many citizens see as driven by the United
States.
"Fight, fight, keep fighting," Abbas said slowly but with
purpose when asked if he had a message for his colleagues still
battling the Taliban. He raised his fist in the air to drive home his
point.
The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11
attacks saw thousands of Taliban militants cross over the border into
Pakistan, where they meshed with homegrown Taliban fighters and their
allies. Under heavy American pressure, Pakistan's army in 2004 began
fighting the local militants, who have responded with hundreds of
attacks against security forces and civilians across the country.
Nearly
3,000 Pakistani troops have been killed fighting insurgents — more
soldiers than NATO forces have lost in Afghanistan. Over 9,000 others
have been wounded, many by buried bombs that blew off limbs and caused
other life-altering injuries, the Pakistani military says.
The
most severely wounded, like 24-year-old Abbas, are sent to the Armed
Forces Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine just outside the capital in
the garrison town of Rawalpindi. The institute's spotless interior,
attentive staff and relatively advanced equipment are a far cry from
Pakistan's crowded and dirty public hospitals.
But the rooms are filled with stories of pain and suffering.
Abbas
fought with paramilitary special forces in the Orakzai tribal area
during the first half of 2010 and was awarded a commendation by
Pakistan's army chief for his role in seizing a strategic hilltop, said
the soldier's brother, Maj. Usman Abbas.
The tall and lanky
former army basketball player grew out his hair and beard during his
deployment so he could blend in among the locals in the mountainous
region near the Afghan border, said Abbas' brother. But his luck ran
out when he was ambushed on June 21 of last year as he was leaving
Orakzai to meet his future wife.
The attack left Abbas in a coma
for six months, but he is now driven to recover. He spends three hours
every morning in the hospital's gym trying to coax strength back into
his arms and legs and overcome partial paralysis on the left side of
his body.
The most common injuries the rehab hospital has had to
deal with have been from homemade bombs the militants bury throughout
the tribal region, said the head of the institute, Maj. Gen. Akthar
Waheed. These weapons also pose the greatest threat to U.S. troops in
Afghanistan.
Capt. Kaleem Nasar was part of an operation
elsewhere in the northwest in January of this year when he stepped on a
bomb. The explosion blew off one of his legs, and the other had to be
amputated below the knee. He visited the rehab hospital recently so
doctors could work on his artificial limbs.
Despite his injuries, he does not regret going to war against the Taliban and hopes he can return to active duty.
"I
am satisfied I have done something for my country," said the
27-year-old soldier. "If I can go back to that area and serve my
country, God willing I will."
But Waheed, the head of the
hospital, is worried that Pakistani troops wounded in battle don't
receive enough recognition in the country. None of Pakistan's civilian
leaders or other politicians have visited the hospital in the five
years he has been running it, he said.
"They need much more recognition because they have done so much sacrifice for the cause," said Waheed.
Waheed
contrasted the lack of political attention in Pakistan with a visit he
made to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the U.S. in April. He was
there for only five days but saw a stream of officials and reporters
come to the facility to meet with U.S. soldiers wounded in Afghanistan
and Iraq, he said.
The battle against the Pakistani Taliban is a
touchy subject in Pakistan because many citizens view it as an
extension of support for the unpopular U.S. war in Afghanistan. A poll
conducted by the Pew Research Center earlier this year found that only
37 percent of Pakistanis support using the army to fight extremists in
the tribal area, down from 53 percent in 2009.
The U.S. has
repeatedly demanded that Pakistan target Afghan militants using its
territory to launch attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan, but
the military has said its troops are stretched too thin by operations
against the Pakistani Taliban. Many analysts believe, however, that
Pakistan is reluctant to target militants with whom it has historical
ties and could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign troops
withdraw.
As operations against the Pakistani Taliban have
escalated, the army has expanded its rehab hospital, adding a workshop
to build artificial limbs and specialists in speech therapy and
vocational training, said Waheed. But the facility still suffers from a
shortage of staff and has struggled to deal with the number of wounded
soldiers. The hospital hopes to expand its capacity to 150 beds in the
next few years from 100 today, said Waheed. He hopes this expansion
will be accompanied by greater appreciation of what the soldiers have
gone through. AP
