Taliban Seize Vital Pakistan Area Closer to the Capital

[cowboysfan]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/world/asia/23buner.html?_r=1&hp ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pushing deeper into Pakistan, Taliban militants have established effective control of a strategically important district just 70 miles from the capital, Islamabad, officials and residents said Wednesday. The fall of the district, Buner, did not mean that the Taliban could imminently threaten Islamabad. But it was another indication of the gathering strength of the insurgency and it raised new alarm about the ability of the government to fend off an unrelenting Taliban advance toward the heart of Pakistan. Buner, home to about one million people, is a gateway to a major Pakistani city, Mardan, the second largest in North-West Frontier Province, after Peshawar. “They take over Buner, then they roll into Mardan and that’s the end of the game,†a senior law enforcement official in North-West Frontier Province said. He asked that his name be withheld because was not authorized to speak to the news media. The Taliban had pushed into the district from the neighboring Swat Valley, where the Pakistani Army agreed to a truce in mid-February and remains in its barracks. On Wednesday heavily armed Taliban militants were patrolling villages, and the local police had retreated to their station houses in much of Buner, officials and residents said. The staff members of local nongovernmental organizations have been ordered to leave, and their offices have been looted, they said. Pakistani television news channels showed Taliban fighters triumphantly carrying office equipment out of the offices of the organizations. “They are everywhere,†one resident of Daggar, Buner’s main city, said by telephone. “There is no resistance.†The Taliban advance has been building for weeks, with the assistance of sympathizers and even a local government official who was appointed on the recommendation of the Taliban, the senior official said. It also comes 10 days after the government of President Asif Ali Zardari agreed to the imposition of Islamic law, or Shariah, in Swat, as part of the deal with the Taliban. A local politician, Jamsher Khan, said that people were initially determined to resist the Taliban in Buner, but that they were discouraged by the deal the government struck with the Taliban in Swat. “We felt stronger as long we thought the government was with us,†he said by telephone, “but when the government showed weakness, we too stopped offering resistance to the Taliban.†On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was concerned that Pakistan’s government was making too many concessions to the Taliban, emboldening the militants and allowing them to spread by giving in to their demands. “I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists,†Mrs. Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill. She added that the deterioration of security in nuclear-armed Pakistan “poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world.†A senior American official said Mrs. Clinton’s remarks were prompted in part by news of the Taliban takeover in Buner. The officials said that the further erosion of government authority in an area so close to the capital ought to stir concern not only in Pakistan but also among influential Pakistanis abroad. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday for the second time in two weeks, reflecting the sense of alarm in the Obama administration. He was scheduled to meet with Pakistan’s top military and intelligence commanders. The takeover of Buner (pronounced boo-NAIR) is particularly significant because the people there have tried in the past year to stand up to the Taliban by establishing small private armies to fight the militants. Last year when the militants encroached into Buner, killing policemen, the local people fought back and forced the militants out. But with a beachhead in neighboring Swat, and a number of training camps for fresh recruits, the Taliban were able to carry out what amounted to an invasion of Buner. “The training camps will provide waves of men coming into Buner,†the senior law enforcement official said. The Taliban expansion into Buner has begun to raise alarm among the senior ranks of the Pakistani Army, said a Western official who was familiar with the Pakistani military. -------------------------------- i am so sick of this piece of garbage country and also very afraid.how long till they seize a single nuclear weapon in pakistan?.how long till they spread their hatred to Kashmir-an all out is the only solution to wipe out these militants.

[Desi Cartman]

The problem is that most pakis believe in sharia etc even the educated ones agree with taliban in theory. Its all finished for pak but im worried about India now and yes the paki Nuclear weapons

[Desi Cartman]

Just watching on Geo .. Taliban in Buner has agreed to "not to carry TOO many weapons , they have also forgiven people who fought against talian in the region except for few whom they really hate, police wont be attacked" .. LOL at the time newsreader was telling this story they got a breaking news that a police post has been attacked and a cop has been killed

[Macj]

I say fortify our borders NOW, especially the porous Rajasthan desert border.

[Desi Cartman]

Pakis saying "we cant defend since we cant move our troops from the Indian border " I mean what the hell ... koi tumhari full time le raha hai but tum sweater bun nay mein busy ho

[cowboysfan]

I say fortify our borders NOW' date=' especially the porous Rajasthan desert border.[/quote'] i am seriously worried that the next target for the taliban will be Kashmir-they will try to get their ideas into the mosques and convert and radicalize the local population.

[Desi Cartman]

i am seriously worried that the next target for the taliban will be Kashmir-they will try to get their ideas into the mosques and convert and radicalize the local population.

:dito:

[Macj]

i am seriously worried that the next target for the taliban will be Kashmir-they will try to get their ideas into the mosques and convert and radicalize the local population.

Its already happening. When the Taliban run over Pak Punjab guess where they'll try to push - further Eastward. Like the 1971 Pak villian Niazi claimed Lahore to Lucknow by breakfast, Delhi to Dhaka by lunch, they still have wet dreams of bringing India back to the Islamic fold and make no mistake about it, Pakistan is just a footprint, borders mean nothing to these people. Ill give you an example, in a country in Southern Africa close to where i grew up that just came out of a brutal war had accepted funds from Saudi Arabia 1990, now the place is teeming with fanatics. This a sub saharan African country that was only 12% Muslim 30 years ago.

[cowboysfan]

wthe well intentioned plan of the americans(to get rid of the taliban in afghanistan) are backfiring on the enitre world-surely they saw this coming?.its their reponsibiltity to fix this.

[Macj]

wthe well intentioned plan of the americans(to get rid of the taliban in afghanistan) are backfiring on the enitre world-surely they saw this coming?.its their reponsibiltity to fix this.

Texas will secede before that happens mate - :winky: What I hope the US would do is move away from meddling in the crescent corridor, from Pak all the way to the Maghreb. Isolate the entire region let them fight kill decapitate and what ever else they love doing by their religion. Again the Liberals in our society will clamor about Taliban this women that if they dont do anything , then turnaround and then accuse the next soldier of emulating the infamous Nazi if they do step in. Remember Somalia and the unfortunate AID mission. According to Janes - Pak Nuclear warheads havent been maintained that well and like the famous 'Purdah' story is just used as a deterrent against Indian aggression. Jane mentions that delivery and guidance systems are pretty rudimentary and cannot be deployed immediately.

[Desi Cartman]

Texas will secede before that happens mate - :winky: What I hope the US would do is move away from meddling in the crescent corridor, from Pak all the way to the Maghreb. Isolate the entire region let them fight kill decapitate and what ever else they love doing by their religion. Again the Liberals in our society will clamor about Taliban this women that if they dont do anything , then turnaround and then accuse the next soldier of emulating the infamous Nazi if they do step in. Remember Somalia and the unfortunate AID mission. According to Janes - Pak Nuclear warheads havent been maintained that well and like the famous 'Purdah' story is just used as a deterrent against Indian aggression. Jane mentions that delivery and guidance systems are pretty rudimentary and cannot be deployed immediately.

Maybe thats why US is giving them so much money .. I guess either they are giving control to the US or something is happening on that front. One thing that I find hard to understand is , where is the army , the police etc

[cowboysfan]

Texas will secede before that happens mate - :winky: What I hope the US would do is move away from meddling in the crescent corridor, from Pak all the way to the Maghreb. Isolate the entire region let them fight kill decapitate and what ever else they love doing by their religion. Again the Liberals in our society will clamor about Taliban this women that if they dont do anything , then turnaround and then accuse the next soldier of emulating the infamous Nazi if they do step in. Remember Somalia and the unfortunate AID mission. According to Janes - Pak Nuclear warheads havent been maintained that well and like the famous 'Purdah' story is just used as a deterrent against Indian aggression. Jane mentions that delivery and guidance systems are pretty rudimentary and cannot be deployed immediately.

are yaar-the idiotic pakis have nukes now-what do you think will happen if we isolate them?.they still have nukes -even one working guidance system is enough to wreck havoc.

[veeru_rocks]

Very well written piece about threat we face http://dailypioneer.com/171406/India-faces-a-new-enemy.html India faces a new enemy Shobori Ganguli The country is in great danger,” Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf has warned. While the ex-Army chief could not be more accurate in his perception of the state of affairs in Pakistan today, his ominous comment contains an equally serious message for India. With the Taliban only a few hundred kilometre from its border, India today faces the gravest ever threat from Pakistan. For more than six decades Pakistan has stood as India’s conventional enemy with four bitter wars over Kashmir fought and concluded in India’s favour. The rules of the game are about to change. Ironical as it may sound, Pakistan under martial rule, with the Army in total control of that country, has served India’s interest best. With the Army at the helm, it has not been difficult for India to anticipate Pakistan’s moves and counter them effectively. Admittedly, the ISI has worked overtime with Kashmiri militants and has been sending jihadis into the Valley to bleed India incessantly. However, it is also true that a Pakistani Army in total control of the Islamic jihadis is a far more concrete and visible enemy for India to tackle than the destabilised and Talibanised democracy that stares us in the face today in the shape of Pakistan. It is indeed an irony that Pakistan’s military rulers, who have been more aggressively anti-Indian than its political leaders, have displayed far greater control over the country than the political jokers who today are systematically signing away Pakistan’s right to be a part of the civilised world. With the Pakistani leadership rendered paralytic by the Taliban, India may also have to bear the cost of this affliction. Even as the debate rages over whether sharia’h is after all such a bad idea for a country that is officially known as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, it is agreed that the version of Islam which the Taliban threaten to impose on Pakistan is an extremely regressive and barbaric interpretation of the religion, a move no ethical Muslim can ever support. In the name of buying peace from the fundamentalists — except that the move came across as a shameful act of capitulation — President Asif Ali Zardari signed the controversial Bill recognising the introduction of Islamic sharia’h law in the country’s Swat region. What he could not, or did not want to, foresee is that the malaise would spread, and rapidly so. Sample what is happening in Swat and the horror that the Taliban seek to replicate across Pakistan. Once known as the Switzerland of Pakistan and a paradise for honeymooners, the Swat Valley stands completely Talibanised today. Time was when the region’s natural splendour and Buddhist ruins attracted tourists from places as far off as Europe and Japan. Today, women have been forced behind the burqa, girls have been withdrawn from schools, female activists have been killed and aid workers arrested, even alleged adultery attracts the penalty of execution, traders have been forced to shut shop during prayer times, uniform times have been set for congregational prayers and it has been made mandatory for men to join the prayers, all political activity has been banned, and each family is being asked to spare a son for the extremist militia. Ears and noses of those who dare to say no are lopped off. Having successfully managed to send Swat back to a barbaric medieval era, the Taliban and Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Sharia Muhammadi chief Sufi Mohammad have now categorically stated that they want the implementation of sharia’h not just in Swat but across Pakistan, to enforce the “rule of allah in the land of allah.” In their final analysis, Taliban leaders maintain that democracy and political parties are ‘basic hurdles’ in the implementation of sharia’h. Their threat is not an empty one. Already, Taliban militants have captured Buner district, only 100 kilometre from Islamabad, since they wanted to “implement sharia’h in its true form.” Such has been their terror that legislators and parliamentarians of the Awami National Party that rules the North-West Frontier Province have fled the region. In their stead the Taliban are now manning mosques and office buildings. With Taliban commander Fateh Muhammad in charge the militants have gained complete administrative control of the district and can be seen patrolling the towns and villages of the region and intimidating residents, unchallenged by law. Islamabad may be next in line. Admittedly, there is little India can do to prevent Pakistan’s rapid descent into chaos. The political leadership that is ostensibly in power in Pakistan is betraying a woeful lack of will to fight the militants. Politically and diplomatically, therefore, New Delhi cannot engage Islamabad to any constructive end. There is another roadblock India faces. Unlike on previous occasions when India has militarily repelled intrusions by the Pakistani Army, there is no such identifiable ‘enemy’ across the border today. What India confronts instead is a burgeoning tide of extremism which does not believe in civil society, leave alone engage with it. Therefore, the conventional construct of an armed conflict, which India has always managed to come out on top of, has been replaced by an ideology that believes non-conformists must be sentenced to a brutal death. This then is the bomb that is ticking away dangerously at India’s doorstep. This is where the United States can play a role. While US President Barack Obama’s Af-Pak policy has found both favour and opposition in various measures, it cannot be denied that the apprehension which informed that policy is a genuine one. Experts watching the war on terror and the US role in it have been warning Mr Obama that the Pakistani state could collapse in a matter of months now, that its nuclear arsenal may soon acquire a new master, the jihadi extremist, that this would dwarf anything the world has so far witnessed in the name of terror. Needless to say, Mr Zardari’s surrender to the Taliban’s writ in Swat is only the beginning of the collapse foreseen by the Americans and dreaded the world over. Fortunately for India, the Americans are genuinely worried about Pakistan and terrorism now than ever before. And if there is one country in the world that can even hope to curb the militants on their own territory it is the US. If the US manages to restore even a semblance of order to Pakistan, India can breathe a little easy. Unlike the previous regime, the Obama Administration is concerned more about Pakistan than Afghanistan and the worry is not misplaced. The fear that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is perilously close to being captured by Islamic extremists has genuinely made the United States sit up and take note. The Talibanisation of Pakistan in the past few months is a reminder to the US that it no longer has the luxury of debating ‘my terror, your terror’. Therefore, India can draw solace from the fact that Pakistan is a huge blip on the American radar, a terror bomb which the US realises needs to be defused urgently.

[King Tendulkar]

The problem is that most pakis believe in sharia etc even the educated ones agree with taliban in theory. Its all finished for pak but im worried about India now and yes the paki Nuclear weapons

so true. In fact you can say most muslims beleive in sharia , even the eduacted ones

[veer]

freak... just reading up on this.. this is worry sign for India... i was thinking about this when pak govt made peace deal with taliban.. but never thought ki they are this close to islamabad.. this is scary stuff people.. i am gonna say this.. if we have to, Indian army should go in to save islamabad..

[Desi Cartman]

freak... just reading up on this.. this is worry sign for India... i was thinking about this when pak govt made peace deal with taliban.. but never thought ki they are this close to islamabad.. this is scary stuff people.. i am gonna say this.. if we have to, Indian army should go in to save islamabad..

theoretically yes .. but not while their army is busy :joyman: .. im where the hell are they ?

[Macj]

Not to worry lads, the US military is primed to enter Pakistan and take control of 100 odd nuclear warheads should Islamabad fall. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1893685,00.htm Yeah right, and we should sit idly by wait for a UN fart.

[varun]

theoretically yes .. but not while their army is busy :joyman: .. im where the hell are they ?

That is what is most disconcerting.. The Pakis have a pretty decent armed force, so why aren't they taking these Taliban out. Possible answers 1. They WANT the Taliban to progress inwards maybe 'coz elements inside ISI support them ? 2. This is just posturing from the Govt to show that they won't bow down to the US and attack "their own people" in the FATA region ? 3. Their army and govt really is incompetent 4. They've got their head in the sand and think this is a little blip.

[EnterTheVoid]

Here is an attempt to view the situation from the perspectives of Pakistan, India and the Western Nations led by USA Pakistan: Taliban have Sympathisers within the Army and the ISI If the Army wanted, they can dismantle the Taliban. They won't They'll bypass Islamabad and head mto Kashmir to be used as proxies with Let against India. Trigger a war between India and Pakistan. Force Pakistan to relocate the soldiers from Afghanistan to J and K. Grab Kashmir. Let NATO come to the conclusion that they're not winning and force them out of Afghanistan. America: Fuel the radicalism and hatred by continuing the Drone attacks Make the Taliban view the Pakistani government as an American Proxy. Give the impression the country is ungovernable. Send American soldiers to Pakistan to "restore" Law and Order. Take control of the Nukes This stops Iran from getting nuclear help which they'll use against Israel India: Watch Pakistan tear itself apart. Only a matter of time before America get involved Ludicrious ? Far fetched ? Perhaps ? Maybe ? The same was said for previous attacks which we thought weren't even possible. What a convoluted situation

[Desi Cartman]

^ Good analysis Sree I have no freaking idea .. all i know is that our politicians are too busy with elections and are already planning how to buy mps and form the next govt.