Petraeus: “The Next Two Weeks Will Determine If The Pakistan Government Survives” – Taliban Hold 2,000 Hostages

May 4, 2009 10 Comments ›› American Infidel

Daud Khattak, NorthWest Frontier

TALIBAN militants who have seized swathes of North West Frontier Province in Pakistan have inflicted a reign of terror on villagers, landowners and the police, using kidnapping, looting, pillaging and murder to impose their will.

Yesterday, as Pakistani forces stepped up their campaign to retake territory in the districts of Buner, Dir and Swat, it emerged that in one Taliban-controlled village, Pir Baba in Buner, the militants were holding 2,000 people as human shields in case the army attacked.

Elsewhere the Taliban appeared to be relying on kidnapping to extort funds and intimidate the population. Many of their victims have been members of rich families.

“Kidnapping has become routine in our village. Armed Taliban were picking up people and then demanding a huge ransom for their release,” said an elderly refugee now living with his family in a tent in Timergara, a town in Dir.

Police officers were also being abducted or killed. Last Thursday militants kidnapped a local officer and 11 guards in Upper Dir, an area that had been peaceful. In Mingora, the largest city in Swat, three policemen were abducted by militants.

On a two-day journey through the remote valleys in Buner, Dir and Swat, I discovered that many of the 90,000 refugees fleeing the conflict welcomed the military action despite their anger at being forced to leave their homes and farms.

President Asif Ali Zardari, who will meet Barack Obama at the White House this week, launched Operation Black Thunder last Sunday with the aim of rolling back the Taliban advance.

Many regard it as a last throw of the dice by a desperately weak president.

General David Petraeus, the commander of US Central Command, privately told officials that the next two weeks could determine whether the Pakistani government survived.

American confidence in the ability of Zardari’s government to confront the insurgents has fallen so low that Washington is reported to be reaching out to his arch rival Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister and opposition leader.

The origins of the crisis go back to February when local officials allowed the imposition of sharia, or Islamic law, in Swat in an effort to appease the Taliban, who had taken control.

The militants promised to disarm but instead moved their forces into neighbouring Dir and Buner, just 60 miles from Islamabad, the capital. It triggered panic in Pakistan and heightened fears in the United States about the stability of the nuclear-armed Muslim state.

In Dir the sound of heavy artillery could still be heard this weekend as the army attacked Taliban positions. Helicopter gunships could be seen hovering above the fighting. The military said they had killed more than 100 insurgents and lost several soldiers since fighting began in Buner on Tuesday.

Although Pakistani officers described their onslaught as a “mopping up” operation, much of Buner remained under Taliban control.

Juma Khan, a refugee from Kumbar, in Dir, said the Taliban is still in control of the hilltops surrounding his village. “There is heavy shelling and helicopters are firing at their positions. We were left with no option but to leave our homes and save our lives,” he said.

As we spoke we could hear the thunderous sound of artillery fire directed at Taliban hideouts in the hills.

Shah Mahmood, who had traveled on foot with his family through the mountains from the village of Chinglai, said many people, both Taliban and civilians, had been killed in the shelling.

“Everyone has been forced to leave their valuables and their cattle inside their houses and forced to leave to save their own skins,” he said. Hospitals have no drugs left to treat the injured.

In Mingora the security forces and the Taliban control different parts of the city. Half the shops in the market were closed. Schools were open, but attendance was thin. Parents have stopped sending their children to school, fearing a sudden outbreak of fighting in which they would be unable to take their offspring to safety.

The Taliban leadership, including Muslim Khan, its spokesman, has gone underground but its illegal FM radio channel – founded by Maula-na Fazlullah, nicknamed “Radio Mullah” – is still broadcasting. Taliban commanders continue to issue orders and propaganda on its airwaves.

The main roads leading in and out of Buner have been closed by the security forces, a curfew is in place and fleeing villagers are forced to pick their way through the remote mountain passes.

Mobile phones have been jammed and people can be contacted by telephone only in a few villages. All foreign press are banned and a television crew has been attacked.

On Friday the hardline cleric Sufi Muhammad, the father-in-law of Fazlullah, came out of hiding. The North West Frontier government hopes that he can become a go-between in talks to persuade the Taliban to withdraw peacefully.

Some fear he is losing his hold over the militants: the Taliban had ignored his request to stay in Swat. But without talks the fighting could be long and bloody.

While the battle rages, the local people continue to suffer. Zarif Khan, a villager in Shal-bandai, Buner, described his plight: “We’re hostages. We can go nowhere.

“We can’t leave or stay put. We’re caught between a rock and a hard place.”