Taliban terror holds 2,000 villagers as human shields

[Guest guest]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6211511.ece

From The Sunday Times

May 3, 2009

Taliban terror holds 2,000 villagers as human shields

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 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 travelled 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. "