Pakistan Forces Flee As Taliban Takeover Military Strongholds In Swat, NWFP
Dated 6/11/2007
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The imposition of emergency in Pakistan has not put any pressure on Taliban in Swat district. Taliban have taken over police stations in Matta, Khawazkhela and Charbagh. This scribe visited the Matta police station after the imposition of emergency in Pakistan.
Taliban there have replaced the Pakistan's flag with their own at the police station after more than 120 soldiers surrendered two days ago. Taliban commanders controlling Matta police station were not worried about the emergency.
Immediately after President Musharraf's speech, the Pakistan Army swapped 25 Taliban fighters for 211 kidnapped soldiers in South Waziristan. There was a feeling of achievement among local militants over the banning of private TV channels all over the country as they think Musharraf had accepted their point of view in this matter. Many shopkeepers in the main market of Matta condemned both Taliban and the new NWFP government. They said the government is creating problems by bombing civilians while Taliban are inflexible.
Taliban leader Maulvi Fazlullah is moving around half of the Swat area like a ruler with full protocol. He has appointed his own 'governors' in Kabal, Matta and Khawazkhela. He has also ordered setting up of Islamic courts for providing justice in areas under his control. He has opened a complaints register in his headquarters at Iman Dherai, which was bombed many times in the last couple of weeks by the Army. Local Taliban claim they are not responsible for slaughtering people. They claim local population took revenge from them because gunship helicopters killed a large number of innocent people, which was regrettable.
As tension between security forces and local Taliban is increasing day by day, more than 50,000 people have fled the Taliban-controlled areas. Many areas of this tourist paradise look like haunted places. More than 500 hotels and restaurants have closed down in the last two months. Schools have been closed in all Taliban-controlled areas. Security forces have converted many restaurants and shopping plazas into trenches. I went past more than 20 Taliban check-posts from Koza Bandi to Matta. The Saidu Sharif airport is closed, though it is still under government control but Taliban have surrounded it from two sides. Mingora city is still controlled by the government but nobody is ready to speak against Maulvi Fazlullah even in areas, which were under government control.
Many people told us privately that the 32-year Maulvi Fazlullah is not a Mufti, he can not issue Fatwa, many well-respected Islamic scholars of the areas don't like him but they are not ready to speak against him because he is popular among local people. Recently he got a donation of more than 4 kilogram of gold from the women of one village in Kabal because he arrested and punished three people who had kidnapped a local woman. People under his areas are safe from dacoits and thieves but they are not safe from gunship helicopters. Many locals have requested Maulvi Fazlullah to start negotiations with the government for peace in the area.
Official sources in Mingora claimed that more Army troops are coming to Swat and a new operation will be launched soon against the al-Qaeda-sponsored Taliban. The Taliban commanders of Swat, Bajaur, North and South Waziristan have decided to adopt a well-coordinated new strategy. They will open new fronts to counter the new operation.
Associated Press: Militants Seize Pakistani Town
Hundreds of Islamic militants seized a town in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday after outnumbered security forces laid down their arms, militants and police said. About two dozen police officers and several troops offered no resistance to militants who seized three police stations and a military post in and around Matta, a town in the Swat valley. "We didn't harm the police and soldiers and allowed them to go to their homes as they didn't fight our mujahideen," said Sirajuddin, a spokesman for Maulana Fazlullah, a firebrand cleric whose armed followers are battling security forces.
He said the militants had hoisted their black and white flags over the captured posts. Swat has been a focus of a wave of militant violence in Pakistan that began in July and has left more than 1,000 people dead, many of them in suicide attacks and army offensives. Once a popular tourist destination because of its mountain scenery, Swat is also an example of how Islamic militants are trying to extend their control of areas near the Afghan border.
A Swat police official confirmed that militants had seized Matta without a fight. He said authorities had sent helicopter gunships to target militant positions in the area. The official, who sought anonymity because of the sensitive nature of his job, had no information on any fresh casualties. Sirajuddin, who goes by one name, acknowledged that militant positions were under attack. "This ruthless firing from helicopters is likely to kill civilians," he told an Associated Press reporter by telephone.
Authorities sent extra troops and police into Swat last month in a bid to curb Fazlullah's activities, but have yet to regain control. The government has cited the fighting to justify President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's declaration on Saturday of a state of emergency. Meanwhile, security forces and riot police were deployed in full force at the airport in Islamabad on Tuesday ahead of the arrival of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who came to the capital from Karachi to meet with other political parties.
Hundreds of supporters and journalists waited outside the main gate, rung by troops, as she touched down. Pakistan's deposed chief justice called on lawyers nationwide to defy baton-wielding police and protest President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule. "Go to every corner of Pakistan and give the message that this is the time to sacrifice," Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who is under virtual house arrest in Islamabad, told lawyers by mobile phone Tuesday. "The day will come when you'll see the constitution supreme and no dictatorship for a long time."
Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, said over the weekend he was declaring a state of emergency to respond to a growing Islamic militant threat. He suspended the constitution, put a stranglehold on the media and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent. Thousands of people have been rounded up and thrown in jail. And Pakistan's Cabinet discussed Tuesday possibly delaying by up to three months crucial parliamentary elections after Musharraf declared a state of emergency, a minister said.
"The issue of holding elections was discussed at length, and after attending the Cabinet meeting I feel that the elections may be delayed by two months," the minister told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. "There will not be a delay of elections for longer than three months." "There is no final decision," he said.