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From: Hasan Essa <hasniessa@yahoo.com>
To: pakistanpost@yahoogroups.com; writers_forum@yahoogroups.com; Multiculturalism-PluralismGroup@yahoogroups.com; batunimurid@yahoogroups.com; ismailisoul@yahoogroups.com; ismaili-imamat@googlegroups.com; IHRO@yahoogroups.com; mikeghouse@aol.com; uma@umanet.org; mameenk786@yahoo.ca; ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com; sak555@yahoo.com; Zakhum@hotmail.com; drmookhi@gmail.com; ibramsha7@yahoo.com; tarekfatah@rogers.com
Sent: Tuesday, 28 April, 2009 22:47:07
Subject: [IHRO] Fight Escalates Between Pakistani Military, Taliban
| Pakistan Sends Jets to Battle Taliban Fight Escalates Between Pakistani Military, TalibanBy MATTHEW ROSENBERG in Lahore, Pakistan and ZAHID HUSSAIN in IslamabadThe Taliban controlling Pakistan's Swat Valley declared a peace deal with the government there "worthless" Monday amid a second day of clashes with troops in a neighboring district seen as a possible route for militants to Afghanistan. But government officials gave mixed signals on whether they would abandon the truce in Swat, as the military made its first sustained response to militants' move out of the valley over the past week, which has stoked fears of an Islamist push to dominate the nuclear-armed nation. Pakistan faces intense pressure from U.S. officials to abandon the pact and take stronger action against the Taliban, including in Swat. The truce, which allowed the Taliban group that controls Swat to impose Islamic law there, was supposed to end fighting and lead to the militants laying down their arms. Instead, Swat has become a major militant base since the accord was struck in February, and Pakistani officials estimate there are now 8,000 militants in the valley. Reuters Some of the up to 20,000 refugees fleeing Pakistan's Lower Dir district cross a bridge, above, to escape fighting between Taliban and government paramilitary police, which is backed by army helicopters, below. The military said it is screening refugees to keep Taliban fighters from slipping out.   In the neighboring Lower Dir district, the scene of the fighting Sunday and Monday, the military said that at least 47 people, mostly militants, had been killed. A Taliban spokesman said nine troops and two militants had been killed, the Associated Press reported. The fighting pits militants against the Frontier Corps paramilitary police unit backed by army helicopter gunships and artillery. Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said the district had been cleared of militants, but residents said clashes were still taking place. Lower Dir bridges the mountains between Swat and the Afghan border. U.S. officials say that Taliban domination of Lower Dir could create a pipeline for fighters from Swat to reach the battlefields of Afghanistan. Pakistani officials fear the same route could be used in reverse, to move Taliban fighters from bases in the mountains near the Afghan border to within striking distance of Pakistan's plains, where most of its 170 million people live and its industry is concentrated. Pakistani media reported that as many as 20,000 people had fled the fighting in Lower Dir. A senior official said only women, children and elderly men were being allowed to leave the district to keep Taliban fighters from slipping out with the refugees. ![[pakistan]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA-AX358_PAKIST_DV_20090427193531.jpg) Associated PressIt remained unclear whether Pakistan's military was engaged in a limited operation or preparing for a broader campaign to battle the Taliban in Swat, where 1.5 million people reside. It has already failed once to dislodge the Taliban from the valley before the peace deal was signed. On Monday, both Taliban and government officials insisted they were committed to the peace accord. But both sides also said they were ready to fight. President Asif Ali Zardari, speaking to reporters, called for Pakistan's allies to provide more aid on top of the more than $5 billion pledged at a donor conference earlier this month, saying the country needs money to safeguard its nuclear arsenal. Top Pakistani officials have insisted in recent days that the nuclear arsenal is secure, despite U.S. concerns that some weapons could be at risk if the Taliban pushes deeper into the country. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, visiting Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Monday the U.K. would give Pakistan a £10 million ($14.6 million) package of counterterrorism support. Aid, he said, would focus on education in the border areas, which he called a "crucible of terrorism," the AP reported. The Taliban, meanwhile, decried Pakistan's reliance on the U.S. and other Western allies. "We can have no agreements with the government because it is not a government for Pakistani people. It is a government for the Americans," Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the Taliban in Swat, said in a telephone interview. The agreement, he declared, was "worthless if we are being attacked." Mr. Khan said his forces were on alert and waiting for word from a hard-line cleric who negotiated the deal, Sufi Mohammed. "If he says the deal is finished, it is finished," Mr. Khan said. That decision could lead the militants to fully engage Pakistani forces in and around Swat. A spokesman for Mr. Mohammed said the cleric was trapped in Lower Dir, where he lives, and couldn't be reached. "We will not hold any talks until the operation ends," the spokesman said, according to the AP. The government agreed to the introduction of Islamic law in Swat and the surrounding areas in the hope it would undercut support for the Taliban, who have rallied the poor in rural areas by promising to upend Pakistan's often corrupt courts. The Taliban rose to power in Afghanistan in the 1990s making a similar commitment to impose rule of law. But the details of the Swat pact have been murky. Taliban forces in the past week began pushing into adjacent areas, such as the Buner and Shangla districts, saying those too fell under the accord's terms. Hasni Essa Islam for Pluralism |
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International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO), of the Indian subcontinent, is a NGO, with national focus and overseas lobby network. It agitates both in India and internationally.
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