Pakistan in Media

Editorial, Daily Times, Pakistan
May 16, 2009

On Monday, the government will try to persuade the opposition inside and outside parliament that the military action in Malakand Division should be allowed to go on. Before that our army chief General Ashfaq Kayani would have given them an in-camera briefing on how the military operations in FATA and Malakand are faring, after the army’s earlier declaration that the Taliban no longer control any area.

The APC has been convened after a strident demand made “in retrospect” by the opposition inside a parliament that has apparently changed its mind for the third time. The APC call was ignored when the parliament supported the military operation last week. But after the refugees started pouring out of Swat and other places, the mood changed back to the APC. So what will be the intent behind the APC?

Normally a government risks an APC when it knows that it will obtain a policy consensus out of it. If this consensus is not obtained, what are the options open to the government? It can either ignore the APC and go against the “nay-sayers” in it, relying more on its own popularity than on an all-parties support, or call off the operation. Will the APC be any help on Monday?

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Saturday, May 16, 2009
Like a Jack-in-the-box, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), banned after last year's Mumbai bombings, is reported to have sprung right back. Reports speak of the organization, operating now under a new name, setting up camps for displaced persons and offering them other assistance. As always, this is being offered in an organized, disciplined manner. We had of course witnessed the same phenomena after the October 2005 earthquake, when banned 'jihadi' organizations had re-emerged – quite obviously with their infrastructure totally intact. It is difficult to suggest that the relief work being undertaken by the JuD be stopped at this point. So intense is the misery of displaced persons that any activity that can bring them succour needs to be accepted for the moment. But the authorities need to remember that through the kind of work it is doing now, organizations such as the JuD are able to lay stronger roots which will in the future be more difficult to dig out. There must also be some assessment of quite how bans on specific groups are to be imposed and why it has proved so difficult, indeed almost impossible, to do so effectively so far.

The fact is that the JuD and other organizations like it have been able to combine charitable services with campaigns to recruit people towards militancy. As such they present an immense danger to our country and its safety. The work they do is also a factor in the support these groups draw, sometimes even from minority communities. We need to tackle them sensibly but determinedly. The re-emergence of the JuD after all goes only to further challenge the writ of a state that urgently needs to demonstrate that it is in command over national affairs and capable of enforcing its will when the need to do so arises.

Editorial, The News International, Pakistan
Saturday, May 16, 2009

The prime minister has told the National Assembly that both hearts and land will be won in Swat. The military is clearly aware of a similar need, with its offer to share its rations with local people obviously aimed to try and achieve this. The resolve to wage war till victory has been reiterated by the COAS while visiting frontline positions in Swat and we are now also hearing of plans to extend the operation to Waziristan, possibly coinciding with a similar operation launched by Afghanistan along the border. These are all important statements. But they are unfortunately not related to facts. So far the hearts of people are being lost – and this could have disastrous implications for the future given that eventually they hold the key to what happens in their home areas. There is after all a limit to how long troops can remain there and how long they can fight a battle that does not have the full support of people.Why is this happening? Why are hearts not being won? There is no big mystery involved. In Swat and other areas people are dying when bombs fall. We have no figures at all on the number of civilian casualties, but the anecdotal evidence coming in from those who have fled suggests it may be quite high. There is talk of hasty burials and the constant fear of death. Proposals for mass evacuations have been made. Perhaps, despite the obvious difficulties that would be involved, they need to be considered more earnestly. And as for those who have managed to make their way down, often after paying exorbitant sums of money to exploitative transporters, many who have turned to the state for help are paying the price. In Mardan and Swabi, where several camps have been set up, conditions are reported to be appalling. Inside tents the heat is oppressive and parents talk of children falling sick in huge numbers as diarrhoea and other sicknesses take rapid hold. Some who have been displaced speak of a refusal to register them because they have no NICs – a document that many in remote areas, especially women, have never possessed. A few angrily speak of being treated like criminals by officials. This is no way to win hearts.The government needs to do much more to ensure its words can be turned into action. Resources need to be found to help in a massive way the over 800,000 now said by the UN to be displaced. Maulana Abdul Sattar Edhi, collecting funds by the roadside in Lahore, has received tiny sums even from schoolchildren giving up lunch money. Those far more able to give have so far not come forward in a big way. A lack of trust for the government contributes to this. Reports of misuse of funds collected in this manner in the past still echo and leave behind their impact. There must also be more motivation. As the operation proceeds, there is a need to remember that taking people along is vital, as crucial as the actual strategy of fighting. We have still not heard of future plans. People must be given a picture of what lies beyond the bombs and the misery they have now been plunged into. Some light needs to be switched on so it can be glimpsed at the end of the tunnel. A failure to do so would be a disaster and may even mean a failure of the war we are now fighting. As the PM has said, this is a total war. It can be won only if we succeed on all fronts at the same time

Members of banned group help Pakistan war refugees
By RIAZ KHAN – 1 day ago

MARDAN, Pakistan (AP) — Members of a charity banned for its alleged links to the Mumbai terror attack have resurfaced in northwestern Pakistan under a new name, distributing food and medicine Thursday among thousands of refugees from the government's bloody fight against the Taliban.

The makeover of Jamaat-ud-Dawa raises awkward questions for the embattled government, which has been trying hard to convince its skeptical Western sponsors that it is serious about taming Islamist extremism.

...

"We have sent 2,000 of our members to help our brothers and sisters," Mian Adil, deputy chairman of Falah and a former member of Jamaat, told The Associated Press. "We are silently helping the homeless, hungry and needy people, and let us do our work without maligning us."

The U.S. and the U.N. say Jamaat-ud-Dawa is a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group accused of planning and carrying out last year's attacks in India's financial hub, Mumbai, which left 166 people dead and hundreds more wounded

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The Wall Street Journal
MAY 15, 2009
(From THE FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW)
By Jeff M. Smith

Back in 2007, commentators were sounding the alarm that Pakistan was approaching a precipice. A lot has changed in two years. Pakistan's problems then -- protesters clogging the streets of Islamabad demanding President Musharraf's resignation, and sporadic Taliban raids on coalition forces in Afghanistan -- were but a glimpse of the danger ahead. No one could have imagined the speed and intensity with which the Taliban and their allies have since spread east from their sanctuary in the Hindu Kush mountains to threaten an invasion of the Pakistani capital.

Pakistan's deepening disorder coincides with the release of the Obama administration's new "Af-Pak" strategy. Unfortunately, President Barack Obama's "new" approach is wholly inadequate -- at least as regards Pakistan. Its drafters have attempted to approach an intractable problem by marginally improving a strategy -- providing billions of dollars of aid -- that has proved ineffective for the better part of seven years. Part of this dissonance may be attributed to an insufficient appreciation of the gravity of the threat. Part is due to a poor understanding of the strategic priorities of the Pakistani state itself. After all, in the words of United States' Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, "If Afghanistan had the best government on earth, a drug-free culture and no corruption it would still be unstable if the situation in Pakistan remained as today."

Everyone is familiar with Pakistan's combustible mix of nuclear weapons, underhanded intelligence services and terrorist safe-havens. It's long been clear that al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban have been using Pakistani territory as a safe-haven to conduct attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan. But it was not until recently, with the rise of the Pakistani Taliban or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a young and zealous new army of Pakistani Pashtuns formed in 2005, that the Pakistani state has come under threat, presenting the U.S. with a foreign-policy challenge with no peer. The TTP has swarmed out of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) into the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) and the "settled" valleys of Pakistan's east.

Former foot-soldiers from the Afghan civil war of the 1990s, they have invaded the Swat Valley and Buner Province (60 miles from Islamabad) in recent weeks, bringing them within reach of the Punjab-Pakistan's political, cultural and economic heartland, and the domain of its nuclear-weapons arsenal. A brazen attack on a police compound outside Lahore in March, only 20 miles from the Indian border, demonstrated that there is no limit to their reach within Pakistan. Analysts are particularly concerned that their eastward march could bring them in contact with the Kashmiri insurgent groups that operate out of Pakistan's northeast, such as Lashkar e-Taiba, infamous perpetrators of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Islamabad's response to this "mortal" threat has been tepid -- and impotent to date. Several military offensives by the army have been repelled or ineffective (several thousand Pakistani soldiers have been killed) and a series of ill-conceived peace deals have only provided the Taliban more land and breathing space. Only the government has honored them. A series of tribal lashkars or local militias formed to oppose the Taliban have failed. The TTP have overturned the traditional tribal hierarchy, beheading tribal elders and granting mullahs unprecedented authority (in Pashtun culture, mullahs historically occupy the bottom of the social ladder). The group has destroyed centuries-old Sufi shrines, symbols of the moderate form of Islam traditionally practiced in Pakistan. They have declared open season on girls' schools and government sympathizers and jeopardized NATO's favored supply route to Afghanistan, where three quarters of the coalition's supplies pass.

Their successes have created ample breathing space for al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban to conduct operations with impunity: Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik recently broke with official denials and admitted that "10,000 foreign militants" had taken refuge in the tribal areas. Perhaps most worryingly, the TTP's young and zealous chief, Baitullah Mehsud, has threatened to take his jihad to the steps of the White House in an attack that will "amaze everyone in the world." Meanwhile, the Taliban has solidified its relationship with al Qaeda. What was once an uneasy truce has been transformed into an enduring partnership. Local Taliban commanders now jockey to host bin Laden in their newly liberated territory in Pakistan. "Like a brother [al Qaeda] can stay anywhere they want," announced Taliban spokesman Muslim Kahn from Swat Valley. "We will help them and protect them."

Several government leaders in the NWFP, headed by the secular Pashtun Awami National Party (ANP), have either capitulated to the TTP, taken to hiding or fled the country. The rest have been brutally murdered. Once thought of as a potential secular bulwark against the Taliban, the ANP is a defeated force. The acting ANP president, Haji Adeel, laments: "Our children were killed. The government had lost its writ. Schools [were] burnt and infrastructure destroyed . . . we [have] suffered great losses." Islamabad, however, insists the "peace deals" are working.

Finally, a dark shadow hangs over the slow disintegration of Pakistan. For apathy and negligence are not the military's only sins in this sad story. Insurmountable evidence points to complicity in the Taliban's resurgence from Pakistan's army and the directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The army chief of staff has been overheard referring to specific Taliban commanders as "strategic assets." The U.S. has intercepted calls from ISI officials tipping off Taliban militants to American tactics and air-strikes. Hamid Gul, former chief of the ISI, proudly roots on the Taliban from the sidelines.

Secretary of state Hillary Clinton has rightly charged the Pakistan government with "basically abdicating to the Taliban and the extremists." The question is, why? Why has Pakistan refused to take this existential challenge seriously? And why has the army maintained links to the Taliban and refused to confront them with force? We are familiar with the historic links between the Pakistan and the Taliban; the U.S. helped fostered them in the Afghan-Soviet war. But why now, when the Taliban have set their sights on their own patrons and brutally murdered thousands of Pakistani civilians and officers, would Pakistan resist confronting this terrorist menace?

It is certainly not due to a lack of capability, as Pakistani officials regularly claim. It's true that Pakistan has a 1,800-mile militarized border with a neighbor against which it has fought three wars. And defending this border does demand a great deal of the military's resources.

Editorial, The News International, Pakistan
Thursday, May 14, 2009
According to latest figures from the UN, some 650,000 people have now been displaced in Pakistan. Most of these – according to some estimates up to 80 per cent – are living outside camps, most often with host families. Some families in Peshawar, Lahore and Rawalpindi have accommodated up to 20 relatives in their own home. The strong spirit of kinship that is a part of the culture of the north means doors are being opened willingly, but this does not negate the fact that the strain on host families is immense. Most are themselves impoverished wage earners – forced to cater to people who have no jobs, no homes and no means of survival. This situation needs to be addressed as part of a wide ranging plan for IDPs. Many people moving down from the northern areas have stated they prefer, for cultural reasons, to be based with relatives rather than in tent villages. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has initiated an effort to provide the IDPs, including those based with host families, with food – but there are still many loopholes that need to be fixed. The current situation, with 20 or 30 people living in two or three room apartments is simply unsustainable. This is all the more true given that we have no way of knowing how long the displacement will last.

Families who have taken in IDP families need financial support. The issue is not one just of food, but also of rents, utility bills and so on. Some scheme for this is urgently needed. And in the longer run we need also to consider the housing needs of IDPs and to improve camp conditions so that more feel able to move there. It is imperative that the situation be handled tactfully and sensibly, in a manner aimed to limit suffering for all the victims.

Editorial, Dawn, Pakistan
May 15, 2009

HUNDREDS of thousands of internally displaced persons are fleeing the strife-torn areas of Swat, Buner and other parts of the Malakand division while reportedly thousands more remain caught in the crossfire between the TTP insurgents and the military. The plight of these refugees constitutes a humanitarian crisis that may prove to be the litmus test of how far the government and citizenry support those who are the first and most immediate victims of the horror unleashed by the extremists. Unlike the overwhelming outpouring of sympathy and aid after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, the current crisis is marked by a lack of either material support or societal solidarity for the IDPs. Yet they are no less deserving of assistance and compassion than the victims of the earthquake — perhaps more so, considering that natural disasters cannot be prevented but the current tragedy is a result of a crisis that is political in nature and as such man-made.

The aid required by the IDPs includes, most immediately, food, shelter, clothing and sanitation. In the longer-term — given the uncertain security situation in their hometowns — affected families will require rehabilitation through employment opportunities, education and absorption into society at large. The primary responsibility for this falls upon the state, for it is incumbent upon the government of the day to protect the life and livelihood of the citizenry. Moreover, only the state has sufficient resources and outreach for long-term rehabilitation. This does not mean, however, that civil society can be absolved. Citizens across the country who have so far not been directly affected by the Taliban’s activities must come to the aid of their brethren. This can be done through making financial and material contributions to private and governmental agencies that are working towards the IDPs’ welfare. Then, the issue of the refugees must be de-linked from ethnic and political concerns since these undermine societal solidarity and further intensify the misery of the IDPs. As citizens of Pakistan, the refugees have a right to protection and assistance offered by not just the state and but also fellow citizens. Most importantly, perhaps, civil society must lobby with the government and its institutions for a successful, speedy end to the military operation and a clean-up of militant-infested areas. The government’s writ must be extended immediately to all its territories, for slow or evasive action against the insurgents may not only give the latter time to regroup, it may also encourage other militant organisations with intentions to spread anarchy.

Daily Times, Pakistan
May 15, 2009
INSIGHT: Ejaz Haider
One cannot dismiss the plight of anyone, even a single individual. But neither can the policy-maker sit back and allow a situation to get out of hand. So while the heart bleeds, as it must, the hand must wield what is necessary

Here is a dilemma. How would I report from Swat at this point? Here’s the intro:

“The military operation in Swat continues and security forces are notching successes against the Taliban extremists. Public opinion in the area seems to have turned against the Taliban and that fact, combined with good intelligence and effective planning and execution, has allowed the security forces to gain ground against the Taliban.”

Clear, concise, straight, simple, deadpan?

Is it really that simple? What, for instance, does a military operation entail? What does notching successes mean? What does gaining ground against the Taliban mean?

Use of the military means the use of force. Use of force means to capture, maim or kill. Shorn of any value judgement or without taking any partisan position on either side of an armed conflict, it means one human being using a lethal weapon to take the life of another human being.

Read more

Editorial, The News International,Pakistan
Friday, May 15, 2009
We have begun to see an effort from the government, NGOs and others to persuade people to open their hearts to the people displaced from the northern areas, whose number now exceeds 700,000. Aid centres have indeed been set up in major cities, and students, young doctors and other groups have begun collecting goods to send up to camps or to families hosting IDPs. The effort will no doubt expand over the coming days. Philanthropy is a well-established trait among citizens and many are anxious to give. Some indeed have already been travelling to camps to see what help they can offer on the ground. But in all this there is also a need to exercise sensitivity. Reports say that among the items sent to the IDPs have been old, quite obviously dirty and in some cases badly damaged clothes. These have been cast aside with considerable anger. The people forced out of their homes are after all not beggars. Most have lived in dignity, even if their earnings are limited, for most of their lives. They need now too to be treated with respect. Pride is the one thing they still retain. It must not be snatched away from them through insensitivity or a desire to show off how much is being given away. This too was a factor we saw up close following the 2005 quake, with many – individuals and organizations alike – seeking to claim credit for what they sent, rather than to do so silently – in the true spirit of giving.

Other steps too need to be taken. The stage has come where needs should be ascertained so that goods that are most urgently needed can be dispatched. The services of female doctors are too urgently needed as are summer clothes, supplies of flour and milk for children. The experience from 2005 must be put to good use now. The relief effort must be expanded. But it must also be organized so that the people it is intended to help truly benefit and we do not see huge wastages of goods and of effort.

Reuters
May 13th, 2009
Making decisions in Pakistan
With Pakistan facing a refugee crisis, and its army engaged in intense fighting in the Swat valley, the question of who makes decisions in the country and how these are taken may not seem like the top priority.

But Shuja Nawaz at the Atlantic Council makes a strong argument in favour of deepening institutional mechanisms for decision-making. While President Asif Ali Zardari, who has retained the sweeping presidential powers of his predecessor Pervez Musharraf, made many decisions himself and also personally represented Pakistan diplomatically on trips overseas, the institutional process of decision-making that would allow coordination between the different branches of the country’s government is lacking, he writes. As a result the government seemed unprepared to deal with the million refugees created by Pakistan’s military offensive against the Taliban.

“If there had been an institutional mechanism for national security analysis and decision-making with a clear central command authority … the exodus would have been anticipated and arrangements put in place to look after the displaced people,” he writes. ”The National Security Council has been abolished. The Defence Committee of the cabinet does not appear to have met to discuss the crisis. And in the absence of a National Security Adviser, sacked by the prime minister in a moment of pique following the Mumbai attack, there is no formal mechanism for studying such issues nor a central point in government to ensure that all parts of the administration work together to anticipate problems and resolve issues.”

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Los Angeles Times

By Mark Magnier May 14, 2009
Reporting from Takht Bhai, Pakistan -- At the entrance to the Hazrat Usman camp just south of the Swat Valley, a welcoming committee greets those fleeing violence between the government and militants with a cool glass of water, a meal and a place to sleep with fans and a pharmacy.Though camp organizers don't voice any overt sympathy for the Taliban, their view is clear: The entire crisis is a creation of the government and the army.

Two miles up the road sits the much larger government-run Jalala camp. It is hot, mosquito-ridden and busy turning newcomers away. Water, food and medicine are in short supply, tempers flare and many people are forced to sleep in the open -- a particular indignity for women in this Islamic society.

If counterinsurgency is about hearts and minds, the rapid, efficient way some Islamic groups have aided the needy amid the recent army offensive against the Taliban -- and the lumbering state response -- suggests the hard-liners could win the battle that counts.

The various private efforts like Hazrat Usman often benefit from the goodwill generated when helping just a few thousand people. By contrast, the government, already under suspicion for unleashing its firepower in the region, faces criticism if it falls short in any respect when addressing the needs of millions.


The two camps offer refuge to some of the 1.3 million people the United Nations estimates have fled the fighting between the Pakistani army and the Taliban since the fall. Though many of those displaced by the latest conflict have shunned such camps, preferring to squeeze in with relatives whenever possible, the camps remain vital to a large number of families with no alternatives.

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Comment, Daily Times, Pakistan
May 13, 2009
It should be repeated constantly that refugees are coming out of Swat by the many thousands not because the army has gone back to the attack, but because the Taliban have reneged on every aspect of the peace deal and have brought bloodshed and misery

Suddenly, like a Kansas tornado, the Pakistan Army and government have reversed direction and are pushing back — and if the excited media coverage is to be believed — pushing back hard against Pakistan’s existential enemies. The Taliban are on the run, it is said, in Buner, on the defensive in Swat, and nervous, it is hoped, about their ability to hold on to their other gains.

However, I wonder if they, or their extremist allies, those jihadi groups which also provide foot soldiers for attacking the Pakistani state, as well as their ideological mentor, Al Qaeda, are breathing fearfully these days. Are they feeling endangered by this sudden shift in Pakistan’s policy and strategy? Do they think it possible that their encroachment on the writ of the Pakistani state has reached its apex and is about to become much more costly to sustain?

Or, do they take the view that this is just another spike in the army’s sporadic campaign against them, brought on by public anger over Taliban overreach and overconfidence that will peter out as all the previous army campaigns against them have.

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Editorial, The News International, Pakistan
Thursday, May 14, 2009
President Zardari is coming in for quite a bit of stick ñ again. It is all too easy for the media to have a go at our ëaccidentalí president, whose style of governance has variously been described as ëdictatorialí, ëineptí and ëfeudalí to name but three. Complaint is being made currently about his absence from the country at a crucial phase of the military operation in Swat and other parts of NWFP; as well as not ëbeing hereí for the IDPs. Both the national and the international press and sections of our electronic media have castigated Mr Zardari for being AWOL at a time when the country needs him and that this is yet another example of his somewhat cavalier approach to governance. It is easy to criticize the president, but there is another side to this coin, and that side tells us that the president is doing exactly what he should be doing, and lets leave aside how well or ill he is doing it.

Presidents visit other presidents and prime ministers. They are always preceded by a bevy of aides and civil servants who will have met with a bevy of aides and civil servants representing whoever they are meeting, and it is their job to work out the details of the agreements that the presidents then sign. Presidents have no part of this detail work; they are just there for the photo-call and the ceremonial signature with perhaps a little gentle discourse to make sure that both sides actually have an understanding of what it is that their civil servants have written and that they have just signed. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the government and the country gets on with whatever it was doing before the president went a-junketing ñ and in todayís case it is getting on with a large military operation against a determined enemy and the management of the biggest movement of IDPs since partition. The show at home is managed by the prime minster, Mr Gilani ñ a man who has grown perceptibly in recent months. He will of course be consulting the president, but events are moving so fast and are so complex that arms-length micro-management is not a presidential option. It is Gilani who needs to be here, not Mr Zardari. The president is apprised of the state of play at least daily and probably hourly, will conclude his business overseas and eventually return. The IDP-Swat crisis will have done little for our image elsewhere, but it may have ñ perversely ñ strengthened the roles and clarified the role-definition of, our president and prime minister

Editorial, The News International, Pakistan
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Maulana Fazlur Rehman has shaken the spirit of unity over the operation in the northern areas by staging a walk out from the National Assembly. He has denied his party backs the action and claims they were never consulted. This damages the claims of the government of support from all major parties, though a new attempt to forge cohesive thinking is to come through the All Parties Conference on security which the PM has said will be held. Creating unity is good. But of course it is not always possible, in a democracy, to keep all dissent at bay. Indeed some dissent is important because it can help trigger debate and thus play a part in rationalizing opinion. This is what should happen now. The JUI should be asked to explain how it would deal with a situation such as that in the northern areas. The time has come to abandon the air of apology we see too often in discussions regarding the Taliban and to speak out openly and without ambiguity. Attempts to defend men who have seized state and private property, burnt down schools, whipped people, posted heads atop stakes and paraded them in cities and dug bodies out of graves are simply ludicrous. Such behaviour cannot be condoned. Those who attempt to do so should be made to justify their stance so that the Taliban can be more fully exposed for what they are.

Editorial, The News International, Pakistan
Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The NWFP government says there are now at least 700,000 IDPs in the country. Many have yet to be registered. While concern is growing over their plight, and agencies including the UNHCR and the ICRC have made appeals for immediate help, there are many issues that need to be considered. One of these is that the vast majority of IDPs are opting to move in with relatives or rent out accommodation, even when the rates are exorbitant given that many of those forced out of homes are no longer working and have only limited savings. This means the strategy of setting up camp villages which have already appeared in Mardan, Swabi and other places across NWFP is somewhat less effective than it may have been in other circumstances. There are cultural reasons linked to the behaviour of the IDPs. Even though some concede they would have better access to food and other forms of relief at camps, they argue that their women observe 'pardah' and cannot be put up in tents living next door to strangers. The issue of blood rivalry has also been brought up, and the displaced people say they fear that in a camp they may be vulnerable to enemies who may seek to extract revenge.

These factors may seem irrelevant given the scale of suffering we see and the need for basic items such as food and water. But the fact is that they matter deeply to those affected. For some at least the simpler issue of human dignity also plays a part. Living independently is for them preferable to living on what they perceive is charity. Our government needs to step in, help attune international relief teams to these realities and find means to work around them. At the moment we have a situation where up to 20 or 30 people are living in single-room apartments. Some means of offering them assistance, perhaps in the form of jobs, or compensation for what they have suffered must be found.

Some thought must also be given to those who have opted to stay on in their homes or have had no choice but to do so. Severe food shortages are being reported in Mingora, medicines are unavailable and almost all doctors have left the city. Some plan must also be put in place to help the people caught up in the midst of fighting. Many of them are the most impoverished residents of war-hit towns and villages, who lack the resources to flee. These people, like the IDPs, must not be punished for their helplessness. In the months ahead we may find that the people of the northern areas hold the key to their future. All that is possible must therefore be done to show them they have not been abandoned and that all that is possible is being done to ensure their suffering is as limited as possible. A failure to do so would benefit the Taliban.

By NAHAL TOOSI – 9 hours ago
JALALA, Pakistan (AP) — The Pakistani teenager remembered recognizing her distant relative almost instantly, even though his head had been severed and placed on his back, punishment the Taliban claimed was for spying.

The brutal discovery was just one example used Tuesday by Kulsoom, a 16-year-old refugee, to describe life in the Swat Valley under Taliban control. As tens of thousands flood refugee camps to escape fighting between the army and militants, some are cautiously sharing their stories, detailing how extremists ran roughshod over cities and hamlets.

The Taliban's brand of Islamic law proved too harsh for many residents in the relatively conservative region of Pakistan, and it appears to be a major reason large numbers of the displaced support the military's latest offensive in the area.

Read more

Tue May 12, 2009
(Reuters) - Pakistani soldiers closed in on Tuesday on a Taliban headquarters in Swat, the military said, as the United Nations called for help for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the fighting.

The offensive in Swat, 130 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, is seen as a test of the government's commitment to face up to a growing Taliban insurgency and comes after the United States accused it of "abdicating" to the militants.

Here are some facts about Swat and the insurgency there.

* Swat is not on the Afghan border but Western countries with troops in Afghanistan fear the area could turn into a bastion for Taliban militants fighting in both Afghanistan and Pakistan and for al Qaeda.

* Islamist militancy emerged in Swat, an alpine beauty spot and former tourism favorite, in the 1990s when cleric Sufi Mohammad took up arms to impose sharia law there and in neighboring areas of the Malakand region.

* Mohammad was arrested after he returned to Pakistan having led thousands of fighters to Afghanistan in 2001 in a vain attempt to help the Taliban resist U.S.-backed forces.

* Pakistani authorities released him in 2008 in a bid to defuse another uprising, led by his son-in-law, Fazlullah, who has ties with other Pakistani Taliban factions and al Qaeda.

* Fazlullah called his men to arms after a military assault on the Red Mosque in Islamabad in mid-2007 to put down an armed movement seeking to impose Islamic law. Fazlullah used illegal FM radio to propagate his message and became known as Mullah Radio.

* The army deployed troops in Swat in October 2007 and used artillery and gunship helicopters to reassert control. But insecurity mounted after a civilian government came to power last year and tried to reach a negotiated settlement.

* A peace accord fell apart in May 2008. After that hundreds, including soldiers, militants and civilians, died in battles.

* Militants gained control of almost the entire valley and unleashed a reign of terror, killing and beheading politicians, singers, soldiers and opponents. They banned female education and destroyed nearly 200 girls' schools.

* Pakistan offered in February to introduce Islamic law in Swat and nearby areas in a bid to take the steam out of the insurgency. The militants announced a ceasefire after the army said it was halting operations. President Asif Ali Zardari signed a regulation imposing Islamic law in the area last month.

* But the Taliban refused to give up their guns and pushed into Buner, only 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad, and another district adjacent to Swat.

* Amid mounting concern at home and abroad, security forces launched an offensive to expel militants from Buner and another district near Swat on April 26.

* Taliban seized government buildings in Mingora, the main town in Swat, and the military began attacking them.

* Last Thursday, the prime minister directed the military "to eliminate the militants and terrorists" and the army stepped up its attacks the next day.

* Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said on Monday 700 Taliban and 20 soldiers had been killed. Most reporters have left Swat and there was no independent confirmation of that estimate of militant casualties, which was higher than figures provided by the military.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

May 12, 2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's military is dealing with more than a million Pakistanis who have been displaced by fighting since last year, a military spokesman said Tuesday.

The military has set up headquarters to manage the 1.3 million internally displaced people, spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas said.

That number includes 500,000 Pakistanis who were uprooted from their homes since August, before the latest military push against Taliban militants in the country's northeastern region, he said.

The army has set up hospitals in many of the refugee camps and plans to build camps near the conflict zone, he said.

Pakistan's military is continuing an offensive against the Taliban along its western border with Afghanistan, particularly in the Swat Valley.

The military has been releasing regular reports saying it has killed Taliban militants in the region, but it has produced little evidence of the successes it claims. Journalists have not been permitted to observe the offensive and the army has not shown bodies of the militants it says it has killed.

Curfews have been imposed in the conflict zone, but are relaxed periodically to allow civilians to travel. It is not unusual now to see rickshaws and cargo trucks filled with fleeing civilians, rolling down Pakistan's main east-west highway.

Vehicles are not allowed back into the region, which has led to a shortage for those trying to leave.

On Sunday, at least 25 boys stranded at the Khpal Kor Foundation orphanage in Swat Valley had to flee the district capital, Mingora, on foot, according to director Mohammed Ali.

He said local government officials told him there were no vehicles to evacuate the children.

The 175-kilometer (110-mile) journey from Mingora to the western city of Peshawar normally takes about three hours by car. The boys walked for several hours, but had to spend the night in a madrassa -- a religious school -- outside of Mingora, because authorities had re-established the curfew.

By Luke Baker - Analysis
Tue May 12, 2009 1:46pm BST
LONDON (Reuters) - Pakistan's heavy-handed offensive against the Taliban in northwest Pakistan is misguided and risks further destabilizing the country, western military and intelligence experts argue.

By throwing up to 15,000 troops and heavy weaponry against an estimated 5,000 Taliban in Swat, a valley northwest of Islamabad, the Pakistan army may make short-term gains, but it increases the likelihood of terror-style attacks on targets in more stable areas of eastern Pakistan in the longer-term.

While the army essentially had no choice but to go on the offensive after the Taliban broke a peace accord and the U.S. administration piled on pressure for action, the broader strategy needs overhauling, the analysts say.

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Longer-term stability depends not just on bolstering Pakistan's military and police, and pumping money for jobs and development into poor or remote areas to undercut insurgency, but on U.S. forces getting out of Afghanistan, he said.

"The U.S. presence in Afghanistan is what's really feeding the insurgency in Pakistan. That can't be overlooked and it's the big issue for militants in Pakistan.

"The fundamental thing to do is get out of Afghanistan as quickly as we reasonably can. I'm not talking tomorrow, but there's got to be a strategy to do it and soon."

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