Pakistan: Taliban Begin Spread from Conquered Swat Valley
mimus
Sunday and were stationed at Gokand Dara, locals and officials said.
The officials told Daily Times that when tribal elders heard that Taliban
had entered Buner, a grand jirga was held in the office of the Buner
district coordination officer to devise a strategy to tackle the Taliban.
The jirga decided that prompt action must be taken against the Taliban and
called on the people of Buner to take up arms to evict them from the
district. They gave the Taliban one day deadline to leave the district,
warning that the residents would otherwise be compelled to take action
against them.
The police and armed civilians took up positions at Bhangra area to stop
the Taliban from moving further into the district.
However, the Taliban said they meant no harm to the people of Buner,
adding that they had come to make a peace deal with the people of Shal
Bandai.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\04\06\story_6-4-2009_pg1_12
Gosh, what happened to the "laying down of arms" that was supposed to
occur when the Pakistani government surrendered the Swat Valley and its
one or two million people to them?
And isn't an offer of peace in a time of peace an implicit threat of war?
The Taliban's "salami tactics"-- one slice of Western Pakistan at a time--
continue, with an obvious middle-term strategy of isolating Peshawar, a
city of three million people, lying on and controlling the Khyber Pass
route between Pakistan and Afghanistan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NWFP_FATA.svg
Oddly, the Long War Journal's map at
http://www.longwarjournal.org/maps/pakistan/NWFP_redmap_021020081.php
already shows Buner District under Taliban control, so what the deal is
with this one does not know-- perhaps one-a these weird distinctions
between "local Taliban" and the other kind?
--
And now the saints began their reign,
For which th' had yearned so long in vain,
And felt such bowel-hankerings,
To see an empire, all of kings,
Delivered from th' Egyptian awe
Of justice, government and law.
< _Hudibras_
mimus
BUNER: Three police officials, two Lashkar (militia) men and sixteen
militants were killed in overnight clash between Taliban and Qaumi Lashkar
in Buner district, police and residents said on Tuesday.
The fierce fighting erupted on Monday night when the Qaumi Lashkar and
local police force made efforts to enter the Gokand valley via Rajagaly
Kandow from Pir Baba side to flush out Taliban militants who had sneaked
in to the district on Saturday from neighbouring Swat.
The militants had earlier been asked to leave but had refused and took
positions in the Gokand valley. The local jirga elders and district
administration officials held several rounds of talks with the Taliban
through a reconciliatory committee which included leaders of Tehrik
Nefaz-i-Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) in a bid to convince them to leave the
area with an offer of safe passage. But the militant commander was of the
view that Tehrik Taliban high command had ordered their Tashkeel (stay) in
the area and they would leave after holding a peace march and visiting the
families of six killed Taliban in Shalbandi.
Sources told Dawn that Taliban militants had dispatched sixteen bodies and
shifted thirteen wounded colleagues to Swat via Kalil Kandow early on
Tuesday morning after the shootout. However, militants and their local
supporters were tightlipped about the casualties on their side.
Following the battle, the Taliban took possession of the bodies of two
Lashkar men and three police constables and even opened fire on Lashkar
men when they tried to rescue the bodies early on Tuesday morning.
Malakand commissioner Mohammad Javed Khan, Taliban commander Mehmood Khan,
TNSM vice chief Maulana Mohammad Alam, district chief Maulana Salar and
others visited Dara Gokand on Tuesday.
They held several rounds of talks with the Taliban commander Rizwan Bacha
of Puechar Swat. The dialogue continued till Tuesday evening and the
Taliban commander allowed the handover of the bodies of the Qaumi Lashkar
men and police personnel to a third party.
The bodies of the police personnel were dispatched to their hometowns
after funeral prayers at Police Line Buner.
Sources said the Taliban set on fire seven houses of an influential member
of the Qaumi Lashkar in Barwazee area and a petrol pump in Barikot, Swat
district, on Tuesday.
Tense calm prevailed in Gokand valley and rest of the district as
influential people who have affiliation with Qaumi Lashkar have shifted
their families from Sultanwas village to safer places in fear of Taliban
reprisal.
Sources close to the Taliban said the militants were in no mood to leave
the area. They have reportedly established their headquarters in Buner
district and were bent on holding peace march in the district and to
monitor the affairs in accordance with the Nizam-i –Adl Regulation.
The reconciliatory committee has succeeded in cooling down the situation
but both sides have taken positions and final showdown is expected any
time as reinforcement and heavy weaponry have been shifted to Taliban from
Swat on Monday night.
The Taliban have claimed consolidated their position in whole of Dara
Gokand, advanced to Kalabat in Batai Dara and near occupying Bagra post, a
few kilometers from Pir Baba Bazaar. Sources said Taliban have now kept
their eyes on the Sultanwas area and it would be next target of militants
if it consolidated its position in the area.
I guess it's about time for Islamabad to drink a little tea and declare
"peace" and turn the area over to the Taliban, like the Swat Valley.
How long before we see the Fall of Peshawar, I wonder?