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SWATing The Taliban
US inspired
Pak Army offensive on in Swat as
Islamabad claims 1000 Taliban fighters killed even as the tourist
valley is teeming with million plus refugees.
Priyaleen K Renuka
 ISLAMABAD:
Even as thousands of innocent civilians, including some 300 Sikhs,
continued to flee the embattled Swat valley in Pakistan, and the
Taliban retrenched -- some of them reportedly cutting their
trademark flowing beards and long hair to go into hiding, the
Pakistan army stepped up its offensive, reiterating that it will
remain in Swat and other restive areas in North West Frontier
Province till complete peace is restored.
Though at what cost
will this peace come is yet to be seen.
The offensive in
the one-time tourist valley, 130 km northwest of Islamabad, has also
forced at least 1.17 million people from their homes, the U.N.
refugee agency said, though many are believed not to have bothered
to register. They are joining about 565,000 displaced by earlier
fighting in the northwest.
More than 300 Sikhs
from Buner and Swat in Pakistan's northwest have sought shelter at
the panja Sahib gurdwara ever since pakistan Army decided to take
head on the Taliban it once patronised. Conditions are not good
though local officials are being of some help.
While Pakistani
Prime Minister Gilani claimed his army’s operations against the
Taliban were being conducted with "great success," reports surfacing
in the western media about the Pak army using U.S. aid worth
billions of dollars to beef up its nuclear capabilities have only
shed more light on the Pakistan’s intentions.
While the average
Pakistani is battling the suffusion of radical Islam in its body
politic, which suited Pakistan very well till it continued to
destabilize a strife-ridden
Afghanistan,
it became a problem once the Taliban spilled into Pakistan.
Officials of the
Obama administration have said that they had communicated to
Congress that they have informed the U.S. Senate of Pakistan piling
up its nuclear arsenal with the intent to assure that military aid
to Pakistan was directed towards counterterrorism and not diverted.
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Heavy
fighting continues in Swat as
Pakistan
goes all out to rout Taliban in a bid to appease the United
States and take up its money laden offer of a partnership
against religious extremism |
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Washington has
‘officially’ admitted that Pakistan is expanding its nuclear
activities, it still remains to be seen whether it would reduce or
delay the aid to
Islamabad promised earlier.
The U.S. Congress
is considering proposals to spend $3 billion over the next five
years to train and equip Pakistan’s military for counterinsurgency
warfare. This is in addition to $7.5 billion that Capitol Hill has
promised in civilian assistance.
As it tried its
level best to reach an understanding with the ideologically
extreme-tilted Taliban through a fractured peace deal and approval
of the Nizam-e-Adl regulation for enforcement of Islamic laws in the
Swat and Malakand regions, hoping that this would make the Taliban
lay down weapons, this only fomented unrest and tension in the
region.
Former Pakistan
dictator and President Pervez Musharraf only echoed Pakistan’s
hypocritical stand by saying that half of
Afghanistan
was under the control of Taliban, adding that extremist forces,
including Al-Qaeda, could only be totally purged if they are
completely cleaned out from that country. Musharraf conveniently
forgot Pakistan’s
ISI and army’s active involvement in encouraging the Taliban till it
suited them to do so.
While the Pakistani
government claims to have killed over 1,000 Taliban fighters in the
Buner, Dir and Swat districts, Pakistani troops on Sunday entered
the Taliban strongholds of Matta and Kanju and reportedly advanced
towards Mingora, the main city in Swat that is still controlled by
the Taliban.
Meanwhile, at least
seven people were killed and about 30 wounded on Saturday in a
suspected car bomb blast in Peshawar. The blast hit a passing school
bus and several children were wounded, residents said.
Another U.S. drone
attack killed 10 people near Peshawar. It was third such attack this
month. This week, eight people were killed in a similar attack in
neighbouring South Waziristan. The United States has carried out
about 40 drone air strikes since the begining of last year, most
since September, killing more than 320 people, according to a tally
of reports from Pakistani security officials, district government
officials and residents.
It is widely known
that the drone attacks led by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA), even though publicly condemned by
Pakistan,
have the tacit support of the Pakistani army.
U.S.
officials have also said that the missile strikes are carried out
under an agreement with Islamabad that allows Pakistan's political
leaders to decry the attacks in public.
20 May 2009
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