Haza Umar, Haza Umar, Haza Umar!
(This is Umar)”
The TTP, the largest militant outfit of Pakistan, is not just known for atrocities and the deadliest attacks in the country—it is also a cracking good PR agency. In July 2016, it started a new propaganda service called Umar Radio FM, which airs recorded podcasts, top militant leader speeches and poems sung by leading Taliban vocalists, praising the deeds of their heroes and promoting their version of jihad in Pakistan and Afghanistan. While the TTP is no stranger to radio itself, what is new is the podcast format, which is essentially their way of evading censorship.
“The emergence of podcast FM radio is an easy propaganda tool which could be operated from any part of the world,” says Gohar Ali Gohar, a journalist in Malakand. “Old style FM radio could be easily traced and jammed but tracing and shutting the modern-day channel down is difficult.”
Before the emergence of social networking sites, FM technology was one of the leading mediums for militants. Maulana Fazlullah, the current leader of the TTP, started his movement from a small mosque with the help a FM radio channel in Swat valley; this was why he was nicknamed ‘Maulana Radio’ and ‘Radio Mullah’. People would use FM transistor radios to listen to him. During the fighting, however, it became difficult to move the FM station from one place to another which is why the TTP has switched to podcasts.
The first Umar Radio FM episode was aired on July 18. It was a poem written in praise of militants being killed fighting their rivals. So far eight episodes have been aired. Visitors have played them around 7,627 times and the channel’s website page has ratcheted up 555 downloads. Umar Radio FM broadcasts are produced in a professional way and the militants share its audio content across the internet.
Just as with RJs on mainstream radio channels, an Umar Radio announcer starts each episode with a program ID, “Dear listeners, this is Umar Radio FM”, and gives details about the upcoming segment and a back announcement at the end of episode. A jingle in Arabic, “Haza Umar, Haza Umar, Haza Umar”, is aired at the opening, middle and sometimes at the end of the programs. At the closing, the presenter shares their web and email addresses in a bid to elicit listener feedback, participation and requests.
So far, most of the segments have focused on recruitment and spreading fear by trying to persuade that the Taliban movement is still organized and its fighters are “present all around the country”. For example, on one show, Sheikh Gul Muhammad, the Amir Halqa (chapter) Bajaur, pitched training from their instructors. Likewise, commander Hilal Ghazi, the head of Ghazi Force, who was once a student of Jamia Faridia in Islamabad, declared that his organization was using the TTP platform in its fight against the state of Pakistan. He issued warnings of revenge for Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa and claimed that young people from urban areas were signing up. In the last week of July, during one episode, the deputy of Maulana Fazlullah, Sheikh Khalid Haqqani, verbally attacked Pakistan and urged revolt.
War poems on embracing “martyrdom to reach paradise” wax lyrical about young men bargaining their lives away. Most of the poems are sung by leading Afghan Taliban vocalists such as Faqir Muhammad Darwaish and Fazaldin Siraji.
On August 7, a special listen-on-demand program titled “Ghuraba” was presented in Urdu by an RJ. Listeners from different parts of Pakistan and abroad participated via telephone calls and emails, making requests for poems of their choice in Urdu and Pashto.
The government usually blocks the Taliban’s Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Skype, Instagram and other social media accounts but they only remerge with new ones. “After receiving complaints about certain accounts spreading hate material, we approached the relevant social media administrators to close down those particular accounts,” said an official of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, who did not want to be named given the risks. “But they re-emerge with new names and create fresh accounts that are still a challenge.” Another goverment official said that this kind of material was being monitored and the new cyber crime law would likely help crack down on it with the PTA and FIA springing into action.
The TTP also tries to spread its message to mainstream media, cranking out emails, pamphlets, audio and video messages for them or posting their content on social media websites if they have to claim responsibility for acts of terrorism.
Umar Radio FM is a part of the TTP’s Umar Media propaganda wing, which produces press releases, audio and video messages and which has released CDs and DVDs of hate material. It is run by Muhammad Khorasani, also known as Mufti Khalid who belongs to Gilgit Baltistan. Well-placed sources in militants say that the media department also monitors TV, radio and newspaper content to keep track of how mainstream media treats the Taliban. Indeed, the TTP spokesperson’s Twitter account shows that he follows all leading news services.
The TTP is certainly not reinventing the wheel. In this part of the world all militants outfits have understood the power of the media. For example, Ihya-e-Khilafat is the media wing of TTP’s splinter group Jamaat ul Ahrar, which is led by Ihsanullah Ihsan. Similarly, Manba al-Jihad studio belongs to the Haqqani network and Al-Shahab is the media wing of Al-Qaeda. Jandullah used to be the media studio of jihadists from central Asian countries. Al-Emara Studio belongs to the Afghan Taliban and the Islamic State owns Al-Hayat Media Center and Al-Bayan.
Tahir Ali is based in Islamabad and he tweets at @tahirafghan
DIY radio vs podcasts
According to a technician in Malakand who used to make FM stations for mosques and madrassahs, the technology is simple: you need a transmitter, a 12 volt DC and a mic. For high coverage the transmitter is hooked up to an outdoor antenna and for the short range a rubber ducky antenna can also work. The device included a volume adjuster, a button with a high and low frequency option and a knob to change frequencies. For live speeches the clerics would use a mic and you could air recorded recitations or poems by connecting the transmitter to devices such as tape machines via an auxiliary cable.
The transmitters (locally called transistors) were so simple that technicians could even assemble them on their own. They would charge between Rs12,000 and Rs150,000 in 2009. But these days this kind of radio is banned in the entire region.
According to Awais Butt, who heads the technical department at one of the country’s major radio stations, normal FM radio transmission reaches listeners via signals while internet radio is based on internet streaming. The most significant difference between the two is the delay. The sound of normal radio travels fast while the internet sound reaches with a delay. Normal radio is for select geographical areas while internet radio has no boundaries. Another difference is that people have to pay to get the internet, while normal radio is free.
Normal FM radio transmission can be interrupted or jammed with a jammer but you can’t do this with internet radio. If two channels appear on the same frequency, listeners will only hear the one with the higher frequency.
As a podcast is prerecorded it can be prepared any time and listened to any time after it is uploaded. All the listener has to do is download it. Podcasting doesn’t need a schedule or timing. But with the FM radio, whether on internet or streaming, programs are aired according to the traffic of listeners and visitors.