Details of daily life in the Islamic city of ‘Waqar’ in Abyan
‘Ansar Al-Sharia’ are opening a new front which is the media front, so will they be superior in it as they were superior skilfully in the front of military war, either we like that or not all the data on the ground indicates that ‘Ansar Al-Sharia’ is superior to the military machines of the government, and they are today opening a new front which is the media front after they achieved a partly relative stability in the battle front... Those who follow the news of these Islamic groups see that they may succeed in the media front and they thus seek to achieve a new victory... which may be in this stay stronger than the military victory. Departure of the plundering gangs and banditry In an exploratory tour which the weekly Adeni newspaper ‘Al-Omanaa’ did in the Islamic Emirate of Waqar (formerly Jaar), to view the impression of the people and their coexistence with ‘Ansar Al-Sharia’ who control the city and manage the responsibility of the social life and security in it. This city was from the most uncontrollable and chaotic where banditry, theft and murder spread and gangs were a consistent and organized power, and have leaders that supervise it and lead it and there is no one similar to them in any other region or city as many have was known about them in Jaar and outside it. As soon as ‘Ansar Al-Sharia’ controlled this city and imposed themselves as a reality, the gangs of banditry and theft in the beginning showed cooperation with them, and lost when it tried to keep the city in chaos and continuing the plunder and looting to fulfil their desires, which was meet with refusal and fighting from ‘Ansar Al-Sharia’ and they demanded the implementation of the Islamic Sharia on every violator as what happened later after the full control as implementing the Haad of theft and the
Qisas in murder and other Hudud, which made the leaders of these gangs forced to leave the region and the city after a fierce fight as the people of the city say. Return of life to the city of Waqar ‘Al-Omanaa’ newspaper visited several locals who were selling and buying in the stalls and stores, as well as offices of the administrations of ‘Ansar Al-Sharia’ and public markets, also took some photos that show the vehicles and equipments of ‘Ansar Al-Sharia’ which does its role in cleaning the streets from rain water and fixing some of the dilapidated water pipes and cleaning the environment from the pile of garbage, in addition to seeing the projects that were presented by ‘Ansar AlSharia’ to the locals during the period of their rule to the city. One of the youth called ‘Razq’ sells petrol in the black market hangs the picture of the Jihadi leader Osama bin Laden behind him on a tree that he leans against and in front of him are the barrels of petrol, he said to ‘Al-Omanaa’: ‘Frankly the situation that we live in from security, stability and justice we haven’t heard of and seen before except when ‘Ansar Al-Sharia’ came to us and fought the thieves, murderers, gangs and corrupt people and they helped us in many unresolved problems and solved it’... and he added: ‘Thanks to ‘Ansar Al-Sharia’ I leave my belongings in the street in any time and go to sleep in the night and return in the morning and they remain in its place and nobody can take anything, and if someone dared he will find his hand separated in front of him’. As for Lutfi Abduljaber the owner of a shop of cloth: ‘I have never witnessed this security and stability before, we used to be blackmailed by the thugs of the regime under any excuse like the commercial register and licenses and sums of money were taken from us daily under any excuse, I used to pay to display my merchandise on the door of the exhibition, I mean in front of the shop… But today Alhamdulillah with the grace of Allah and due to the presence of ‘Ansar Al-Sharia’ I didn’t pay one Riyal and I’m not afraid or concerned on my trade as before, I go out from my shop to pray with my shop open and I don’t need from close it as long as there is someone who will do justice to me if someone dared to touch my work’. On his part Adnan Al-Sharaabi a vegetable seller said: ‘Yesterday we used to pay everyday 1500 to the thugs of the authority for squatting on the street but today we don’t pay one Riyal under the rule of ‘Ansar Al-Sharia’, they didn’t ask for anything except to move away from the street so that we don’t cause congestion for the shoppers’. The food aid
On the other hand in a visit to the office of public relief and meeting – Obaid Marzooq, one of the supervisors of the relief committee – who explained that the office of relief was opened since the departure of the displaced from Zinjibar and it gathers the subsidies and receives it several organizations and distributes it on the poor and displaced stating that it covers 20 thousand family from Al-Haror to AlArqoub except Batees, Al-Hissin and Al-Rawaa for the presence of another branch that covers these regions and all of it are under supervision and organization of ‘Ansar Al-Sharia’. And he added: ‘There isn’t any problems or shortening or disorder since every family is given a sack of rice and a sack of wheat and some sugar and lentil and two bottles of 10 liters oil and some salt and sack of barley and beans, in addition that these subsidies are delivered to the far away people to their homes, including the displaced of Zinjibar in the Emirate of Waqar who are almost 3700 family. Solving cases unsolved from 20 years The court of ‘Waqar’ became a model that people speak about everywhere and one of the women said to one of the youth ‘If you have a right you will only find justice with ‘Ansar Al-Sharia’ after they gave me my right which no one gave me from twenty years’, the court in Waqar solved cases which were unsolved from more than 20 years after all the people were unable to solve it and today these cases only took one week to solve it. Restoration of health Regarding the health aspect, the deputy of the director of the health centre Mohammed Nassir Saeed said to me that after the warplanes targeted Al-Razi hospital which covered many of the problems, ‘Ansar Al-Sharia’ equipped a health centre like the first aid and providing services to it... stating that who remained from the medical staff which departed after the destruction of the hospital with the aerial bombardment are working next to the Doctors Without Borders. And he said that the problems that they face is that the centre is small because of the receiving and throng of the sick. And Mohammed Nassir requested from the benevolent wealthy people and the organizations to present medical services and rehabilitation of Al-Razi hospital and develop it to return to work and save the lives of the citizens who suffer hardship after it covered some of the important matters like operations and surgeries and other in a state of instability, but today after providing security and safety and spreading instability we find that it is a chance to rehabilitate the hospital and develop it. And if we find someone who listens who has humanity and conscience to
help us in rehabilitation of the hospital and return of the doctors to it after they were displaced by the shelling of the warplanes – according to him. Piles of garbage and sewerage In the same time ‘Al-Omanaa’ visited one of the faltering projects from almost 15 years and wasn’t rehabilitated despite receiving sums of money in its name, which is the project of the sewerage and the piles of garbage that were neglected by the former local authority and ‘Ansar Al-Sharia’ expelled it and restored the sewage system who the locals said that they very much affected from it because of the return of the sewage water to the bathrooms in the houses, it is supposed that Asphalt passes over these sewage that extends to the cement factory and these sums of the money were paid from the German project but it wasn’t completed because of the corruption that was practiced by the former authority. Providing the water and electricity services Regarding the water projects the water system was rehabilitated by ‘Ansar AlSharia’ after the project was neglected and some of it were stolen by the farmers that were investing it and depriving the locals from their drinking water and the Ansar Al-Sharia role was fighting disorder and rehabilitated the systems and brought pumping equipment and rehabilitated one fifth of the wells, after they in the beginning they kept barrels in every neighborhood until the water project was rehabilitated. In addition to that Ansar Al-Sharia launched a project of electricity and delivering it to several regions after it were deprived from it since 1986, and from these regions Sakin, Eiis, Sayhan, Al-Jabalain and Hajfour, which was met with widespread satisfaction among the people of these regions since they accomplished within months what the former authority was able to do in tens of years. And Ansar Al-Sharia don’t receive any sums of money from the citizens in return for providing these services that they present to the people. Wagdi Al-Shaabi Source: Aden Life