Kamran Shafi, a Pakistani journalist, provides the most scathing and revealing look at just how the recent negotiations and the legalization of sharia in northwestern Pakistan have emboldened the Taliban. After their blitzkrieg takeover of the district of Buner, which is just 60 miles from the capital of Islamabad, the Taliban held a road march through territory it has yet to take control of. And the Pakistani security forces never lifted a finger to stop the march:
ON Saturday, March 11, a convoy of 10 double-cabin four-wheel drive pick-up trucks loaded with Taliban armed with every description of portable weapons – Kalashnikovs, rocket launchers, heavy machine guns – drove from Daggar the headquarters of Buner district to the villages of Sohawa and Dagai in Buner. It entered Swabi district at Jhanda village, drove through the district headquarter (the town of Swabi), drove on to the motorway, exited at Mardan, drove through the cantonment of Mardan and, showing their weapons for all to see, went on towards Malakand. In doing the above, the Taliban broke many laws of the state of Pakistan not least those that prohibit the possession of heavy weapons; showing weapons publicly and so on. They drove through a district HQ of a district they have not yet occupied (but are well on the way sooner rather than later, given the non-governance being exhibited by the ANP non-government of the Frontier); on the federally policed motorway; through an army cantonment – as a matter of fact right past the Punjab Regimental Centre’s shopping plaza containing the usual bakery and pastry-shop run by serving soldiers – and thence through the rest of the crowded city of Mardan which is also the home of the chief minister of the province.
Mr. Shafi goes on to lambaste the supine Pakistani government and military establishment for bowing to the Taliban demands. It is well worth the read. David Kilcullen, one of the world’s premier counterinsurgency experts and a former advisor to the U.S. government on Iraq, said Pakistan is in danger of collapse within the next six months. Given the way things have gone in Pakistan, it is difficult to argue against his assessment.
