On Thursday, the government announced that eight platoons of paramilitary troops have been sent to Pakistan’s Buner district, which has been infiltrated by the Taliban. Frontier Constabulary platoons have been dispatched to protect government buildings and bridges in Buner. In recent days, Taliban militants have been patrolling the area, snatching and searching vehicles, and ransacking government offices.
After the passage of the Nizam-i-Adl resolution, how will government forces ensure security in Buner and other parts of Malakand? Should Taliban activities in Buner and Shangla be viewed as a violation of the regulation? Are we in for a Swat part deux?
It’s very simple Taliban or not as long as Pakistan (Islamic Country)has nukes, I am afraid foreign meddling will ever stop.
Unfortunately,our religious and govt.leaders also go along where the wind blows.
Well how can we blame external influence when the internal elements need to be clean.
Pakistan is in danger and I pray that it’s not too late to save the boundaries.
I don’t think talking to Taliban would change any equation. These people will get stronger with more peace talks and deals. They will control more territories and force people to adapt to their jungle lifestyle. Taliban should be taught lesson that challenging the writ of the government will not be tolerated by anyone. This country belongs to every Pakistani. Majority of them wants Pakistan to be moderate and liberal country. They don’t want Taliban style Islam. They want Islam that was preached by Rasool Allah Peace be upon him. They don’t agree with the Islam preached by Mullah Omar or Maulana Sufi Mohammad. Its time for the Army to help establish the writ of the government. If they continued to snooze, they will be next.
Smart Muslim & Ali (UK):
Taliban is not as innocent and naive as you portray them to be. If you think they represent Islamic values, you have no idea what Islam is.
Taliban’s rule is oppresive, without ANY freedom or rights, subjucation of women, perpetual war, etc. They are the ultimate in evil, under the guise of a peaceful religion.
Please educate yourself before stating such ignorant remarks.
God does not change the fate of people who do not change themselves.
Time has proven that the people of this country have let rulers, religious parties etc. get away with all their corruptions in the name of relgion. So finally the Taliban are here probably knowing that no one would stand upto them, since no one did in the past to Gen Zia or to so many religious organizations ruling, looting, plundering in the name of religion. The Govt. and our fancy Army (who basically engineered all this in the first place & presently only are good at wearing a uniform and ready for a promotion) as everyone can see has done nothing except for empty slogans. If our present or past rulers were real they would have been at the forefront in Swat, Peshawar etc. to root this threat out, instead they are at the comfort of their drying rooms still discussing the situation, after thousands of innocent people have lost their lives.
The question again is are we gonna let the Taliban get away with everything and settle for this?? Sadly so, uptil now we have, since people only came out to re-instate the judges.
My dear fellow countrymen. Please wake up before it is too late.If our leaders are in denial it becomes our responsibility to defend our country from these ruthless killers. I firmly believe that if we all stand up and become united there is nothing which can overcome us. As far as our Army is concered, I feel ashamed that our army is no where to be found. All these years we were told how great our Army was but no I know they are nothing but paper tigers. My fellow countrymen please wake up. It now or never other wise our future generation will never forgive. Long live Pakistan, Pakistan always Zindabad.
Yes! this is a grave violation by the deadly criminals/extremists. They have no right to complete the un-finished agenda of the enemies of Pakistan.
Pakistan Army is the only last hope in order to protect the peaceful and innocent citizens of Pakistan.
What the hell is wrong with the government of Pakistan? Why aren’t they establishing the writ of the State?
Nizam-e-adle should act as an important document to bring peace to the people, and if this is not happening, then there arises a need to review the same.
It’s about time that everybody should become united right away in order to clean up the affected areas by helping the official forces.
Jihad Against Terrorism
If Jews can fight those who defame Judaism or Israel, Hindus fights those who defame their religion. Why don’t Muslims stand up to the criminals who call themselves Taliban…
If nobody else was watching, Buner, the rest of NWFP and districts in Punjab would go the same way as Swat.
We have become very insensitive to Islamization after Zia basically Islamicized the whole country.
But now there is pressure from America. So this is the end of the road for the Taliban.
Smart Muslim says, “Taliban are not here in Pakistan to cause trouble or cause disorder, most of them are so simple and naive and do not carry any weapons. They have just come to implement Islam and protect of this Muslim loving nation, why send military and airforce and waste our resources instead all Muslims in Pakistan should unite to implement Sharia laws, please explain me whats wrong with that.”
Islam cannot be spread by force. Only hypocrisy (Munafikat) can be spread by force. We have seen that in Iran. Islam is a path that shows how to have a peaceful, content and virtues life. Sharwar, Turban and Beard are not part of Islam. Mohammad (PBUH) did not teach Muslims to be stubborn and impose their will upon others.
Too little too late.
Smart Muslim: What is wrong with Sharia you ask? Everything. There is no one Sharia. It is a fantasy dream. Basically the best we can do is provide laws, and try to make sure they dont go against religon. If we let these Mullahs take over, pretty soon there will be a civil war between the various Mullah groups as they fight over what constitutes Sharia. Sharia, as espoused by so called “smart muslims” isnt very smart.
When the military goes in, I hope they target the militants and not kill the locals who are resisting the Taliban.
The citizens of Pakistan and the world community are perplexed at the situation in Pakistan.The inaction of the Government and the armed forces is only plausible if as a State we have resigned ourselves to be governed by this militia or the State has decided to pull a Kemal Ataturk on this scourge. If it is the latter then we will breathe a sigh of relief and we will rid ourselves of this threat once and for all. If it is the former then God help us all.
The post by Smart Muslim earlier is a testament to a denial of reality. This delusional fantasy will end in a nightmare if we let the Taliban govern Pakistan.
To the leaders of Pakistan and it’s army , we say this.Do not play Russian Roulette with this country. You have the support of most of us in Pakistan , yes some of us are scared simply because of the “thug value ” of the taliban.
For once do right for Pakistan. It is more painful when you rot from the inside. Once incurably diseased cannot be reversed.
Do not believe for a moment that the Army or the Govt cannot fight or defeat the Taliban. They can, but will not. Their excuses are rubbish
A modern, equipped 600,000 strong army with tanks, heavy artillery, attack helicopters and F-16s designed to fight the Indian Army, cannot defeat less than 15,000 people only equipped with AK-47s, rocket launchers, grenades and bombs??? You tell me if that argument makes sense. That is HOGWASH of the highest order!
The Indian Army faced the same Taliban in Kashmir. They defeated them, kicked them out, conducted elections with massive voter turnout, and now there is peace there. Don’t forget that the Pakistani Army is just as good, but do not see the Taliban as an enemy — they prefer to fight India instead.
Yet the rest of the world continues to believe the nonsencse fed to them by the Pakistani Army and Politicians, that they do not have the “capability” and need more aid money — the money that is being funneled to line pockets and buy conventional weapons aimed at India.
Secretly, the Pakistani Army commanders do not mind being controlled by the Taliban. It will give them an excuse to fight India.
The ultimate irony is this. Pakistan has four provinces: Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh, and NWFP. The provinces of NWFP and Balochistan are now effectively controlled by the Taliban, and the Pakistan Govt. cannot control them.Punjab — you can see how it is falling too.
No, the West is getting wool pulled over its eyes and buying this stupid and deceiving argument. The Army wants to be controlled by the Taliban in order to have an excuse to fight India. The politicians know this and are busy lining their pockets with Aid money and preparing their golden parachutes.
This is why the Army and Govt was so upset at Obama’s demands of detailed accountability on how Aid money was being spent.
The truth is both Pakistani goverment and army have given up to Talibans then there is no reason to wish better circumstances, as CJ took one day to release notorious Maulana Aziz of lal masjid who announced shariah by force will be enforced in whole Pakistan, Zardari and Co signed deal with Talibans giving them control in Swat and adjacent areas, now when every one is blaming them , Zardari and company do only verbal threats to talibans which is a show,
Sad part is since its creation Pakistan never had a system of reality and what common Pakistani want , now Pakistan is being destroyed by Talibans, PPP , Chief justice and Army, common people are the worst victims.
It sounds scary when we hear that Talibans are just 70 miles away from Islamabad. We must stop these Talibans now otherwise they will capture Islamabad soon and they will move on to other parts of the country.
Our military is capable to fight against these Talibans and once they fully jumped in, Talibans will be no where.
Media should play their role throughout their channels by educating Talibans specially younger geneartion of Talibans about real Islam and Sharia.
The taliban are a cancer that pakistan has to treat. the government should order an immediate operation not only in Buner but also Dir. It is time that the people of Pakistan stand united with their armed forces to remove these taliban from the face of the earth. I ask nay i plea to the Dawn media group to support our army and inform the people how important it is that we fight these thugs.
i think pakistan can nomore be saved…the battle is LOST to the extremists…and when taliban will rule our country in near future it would be bombed to ground from all the peace loving countries in the world…we are now simply FINISHED!!!
Islam has nothing to do with extremism. We can find lot of examples from Prophet PBUH and Kulfas era where people from different religions live in peace and prosperity. State was responsible for the safety and security. On one hand we claim to be the best ummah and belongs to a universal religion. And on the other hand our corrupted Mullahs and Politicians try to impose there way of Islam on societies.
All Pakistani should protest against any form of specific school of thought. Listen, guys your faith is between you and your God.
If you think your school of thought is better than the only civil way is to talk about it not by banning other sects such as we have done to Ahmadies in Pakistan.
Pls.guys read the writings about Quaid-Azam (Founder of Pakistan) about what kind of Pakistan he dreamed.
Islam is not a entity of anyone, it’s a way of life. Pakistan could be great nation, only if we practise justice.
For years, Pakistani army personnel enjoyed the best life. They were put on a pedestal. The poor of Pakistan sweated their lives away feeding the military. They had everything – good housing, good pay, respect in society, happy retirements and children studying in UK or US.
Now, when the time came to payback to the country by fighting Taliban, they are sitting on the sidelines or even worse, supporting them.
People should demand cleansing the armed forces and ISI of elements that are fundamentalists and supporting militants. To do that country needs strong leaders in PM and President roles.
Taliban are showing their true colors. The government is showing its incompetency to fight terror. We need to crush the Taliban if we want to keep Pakistan alive. Wake up Pakistani’s wake up Pakistani’s. Taliban do not want Nizam-e-Adl, they want power and make the country into the Poppy capital of the world. It is time Army, take over and take on the Taliban as a military operation. This has to stop, at all cost. The 1973 constitution has the shariat in it. Taliban are hypocrites, shariat is their escape goat and they only want to break apart Pakistan. Pakistan needs to put Martial law in NWFP now and ban any type of weapons, turban and burqas. If a person refuses, terminate. I am a Pakistani, I would NOT let any Mullah near Islamabad. Mr. Sufi, if you are reading this, my ATTF(Anti Taliban Task Force) is coming to get you.
Taliban are showing their true colors. The government is showing its incompetency to fight terror. We need to crush the Taliban if we want to keep Pakistan alive. Wake up Pakistani’s wake up Pakistani’s. Taliban do not want Nizam-e-Adl, they want power and make the country into the Poppy capital of the world. It is time Army, take over and take on the Taliban as a military operation. This has to stop, at all cost. The 1973 constitution has the shariat in it. Taliban are hypocrites, shariat is their scapegoat and they only want to break apart Pakistan. Pakistan needs to put Martial law in NWFP now and ban any type of weapons, turban and burqas. If a person refuses, terminate. I am a Pakistani, I would let any Mullah near Islamabad. Mr. Sufi, if you are reading this, my ATTF(Anti Taliban Task Force) is coming to get you.
I feel sorry for those who think of Taliban as “nice”, “innocent”, peace-loving” and “wonderful”.
Arguably, the Taliban were created and/or helped/fed by the militant and zealous wings of Pakistan to control Afghanistan, especially to reduce the influence of India in Afghanistan. Like in many Sci-Fi movies, the dragon you create will eventually eat you. Unfortunately for Pakistan that moment is perilously close.
India should take heed of the fact that if Pakistan is swallowed by Taliban, India will have a serious problem on all of it’s borders. Yes, all of its borders!
If the India Government has any sense, it would quickly come to terms with Pakistan on Kashmir, because, the Taliban is not just a Pakistan problem. If the Taliban succeed, they will be India’s problem as well.
But to expect these neighboring states to exhibit common sense and the right kind of courage can only be an impossible dream!
So, let me just say, Good Bye Pakistan, Good Bye India!, however imperfect you both may have been.
Looks like Pak government is waiting, so that Taliban will move closer to the major cities and do the more demage in all aspects, so it can demand more aid from International community. Higher officials will jump out of the country with the AID money, rest of the comman pakistanies suffer Taliban ruling, crying and praying Allah to come and save, like another Afghanistan, which suffered in late 1990’s.
Sharia law enables the inequality of women in society. The prevention of feminine influence in a culture tends to enable the type of aggression and militancy that is the hallmark of the Taliban. Do you think a society in which women have legitimacy and proper input would share the level of cruelty and violence we are witnessing?
Mankind has become more humane as women have gained in influence over time, and those cultures in which women are treated as equals are the most advanced and peaceful.
Ali suggests to talk with Taliban and not let the army take on them for the fear that taliban may butcher them, so much for our bravery!
It is famously said that every country has army but only pakistan’s army has the country (pakistan). Let them defend their own country, afterall even a house owner will defend it even at his own life’s cost.
You know what pakistan is missing? the rallying cry of it’s educated and wise people, unless they want to be ruled by taliban (if they do, their voices will be muffled for ever, open your mouths and shout against taliban so loud that the very cry shall send the chill down the spine of taliban).
Just take the ban from taliban and fold the tail (tali) in half and tie it permanently, there you go the solution for taliban is just to ban it and shoot any one who dares to defy it.
Swat now and what next? taliban to rule pakistan? think dear country folks think for afterwards no one will eve be alive to do anything later.
Why are we using the words “Violation” of agreement? Which sane person in Pakistan really thought that these brutes will abide by anything? Wake up from your slumbers buddies!!