Photo by the Author
 

In a town called Peshawar in the wild west of Pakistan, there’s a gang that call themselves God’s Children. They are rough guys, some as young as 13, armed to the hilt with Kalashnikovs and six-shooter revolvers, who cruise around doing good deeds in the name of Allah. When they’re not rebuilding houses that have been destroyed by floods or earthquakes, you’ll find them riding around the countryside fighting for any other cause they can find. And with no other government law to guide them, they answer only to God.

I met one of their members, Nazir, who was busy putting back together an old ladie’s shack while smoking the biggest hash joint I’d ever seen. At around one dollar per quarter ounce, I’d be smoking big joints too. I asked why he was helping out.

“We like to do good deeds as we get a little money and a little bit of janna (heaven). Allah commands us to do good things. My father was a great man. He fought against the Afghans and the Indians. I wanted to be a hero like my father so I started God’s Children. Plus we get to meet some pretty girls.” He laughs and all the other guys slap hands. “Once some guys came to raid a village we were paid to protect. I greeted them with my gun shooting. One shot, and their leader was dead. Well okay, not dead, I shot him in the neck and blood was coming out in little spurts as he was trying to hold it in. I think he got the point and fled for it.”

While we spoke, the whole gang kept quizzing me on Western women. They asked how sexy and loose they were and whether they were like the girls they had seen in porno. Nazir and the boys are from the Waziristan tribe, one famous for their strength, who fight Afghani drug lords and other tribes that try to steal their food and women. His dad was originally the leader but was killed in Kashmir. Nazir took over from his father and got busy doing good deeds to establish himself as a local hero too.

When I asked them about the best thing they had ever done, they said it was when they went to Balakot to help after an earthquake. “We rode in on horses, bringing food and medicine and we helped build some shelters for women and kids. We felt like heroes when we left.”

I met Nazir’s little brother Adif who was like thirteen and hanging around the gun shops in his Pakistani cricket uniform buying bullets like they were candy. He told Nazir he had been off fighting Afghan drug dealers in the tribal lands. I spoke to Adif and his buddies while they did some target practice with Coke bottles.

VICE: What else do you guys do?

Adif: We work any job; mechanics, bakery, chopping wood, but then people pay us money to do the fighting. There’s lots of fighting. Tribes pay us protection money to keep other tribes and Afghanis out of their land. Usually during spring and summer they hire us.

How much do you get paid?

4000 Rupees (AU$90) a month. Sometimes we get bonus when we kill Afghanis. They always have much money on them.

Have you killed anyone?

No, brother Nazir won’t let me go fighting, not for some years, I want to go fighting though.

Do you guys take drugs or drink?

No, alcohol is forbidden by Allah. We smoke hashish though.

What else do you like? Do you guys like music?

We love music!

Like what? What English music do you guys like?

James Blunt.

What the fuck? You don’t like rock n roll?

They do not play rock n roll on the radio.

I got out my iPod and let them listen to some classic AC/DC (“Highway to Hell”), some Death from Above 1979, (“Blood on our Hands”—which they liked even more when I told them the singer was half Pakistani) then topped it off with some Rage Against The Machine (“Killing in the Name Of”), which just blew their minds.

They had been told rock n roll was the devil’s music by their mullas.

What do you think?

This is gun shooting music! I keep your iPod?

No way, I’ll make you a cassette.

Alhamduillah (God be praised)

MILD SEVEN LIGHTS