Pakistani security personnel patrol in Buner district
The Pakistani Troops are winning the Civil War. That is completely obvious.
Taliban behead two Pakistani officials in Swat (click title to entry - thank you)
Sun May 3, 2009 8:26am EDT
MINGORA, Pakistan, May 3 (Reuters) - Pakistani Taliban have beheaded two government officials in the northwestern Swat Valley in revenge for the killing of two insurgent commanders by security forces, a militant spokesman said on Sunday.
Authorities struck a peace deal in February aimed at ending militant violence in the former tourist valley of Swat but the militants have refused to disarm and pushed out of the valley into neighbouring districts.
The Pakistani Taliban aggression raised alarm in the United States and in Islamabad, and a week ago the security forces launched an offensive to expel militants from two of Swat's neighbouring districts.
The two government officials were kidnapped and beheaded on Saturday evening in Khuwaza Kheil, a village 18 km (10 miles) north of the valley's main town of Mingora, said town police chief Danishwar Khan.
Their bodies were dumped beside a road."
They beheaded the officers. We've sent an ambulance to pick up the bodies," Khan said.
Militant spokesman Muslim Khan said the beheadings were revenge for the killing of two low-level Taliban commanders earlier on Saturday....
Muslim Khan, the militant spokesman, obviously knows who is behind the murders, why is he not in prison for aiding the terrorist Taliban militants? He should not be allowed to continue to help the Taliban that have declared a civil war.
Pakistanis march during an anti-Taliban protest rally in Rawalpindi
Pakistan creates Islamic court (click here)
4 hours ago
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — Pakistan has announced the creation of an Islamic appellate court in its northwest, pushing ahead with a flagging peace deal even as its offensive against Taliban extremists raged on Sunday.
The army said 20 more militants had been killed in the nearly week-long assault on insurgents who advanced into two new districts in Malakand region, the fringes of which are only 100 kilometres (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad.
Pakistan in February agreed to allow religious hardliners to enforce Islamic law in the Swat valley, a part of Malakand that was once a tourist hotspot, and other districts to try and end a two-year rebellion led by a radical cleric.
But instead of disarming as required under the deal, the Taliban instead pushed further south toward the capital, taking over large swathes of the districts of Lower Dir and Buner -- and prompting the latest army offensive.
"The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government announces the setting up of Darul Qaza, or an Islamic appellate court, in Malakand," provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told reporters late Saturday.
Hussain said two judges had been appointed to serve on the court and the government "has now fulfilled its promise," but a Taliban spokesman on Sunday rejected the court and condemned the ongoing military assault.
"Any such decision under the shadow of a military operation is not acceptable to us," Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told AFP....
The Pakistani government did not have to institute the Islamic Court simply because The Taliban broke their promises. Will the new Islamic Court actually stand up to the militants of the Civil War and bring them to justice? If not, will they remand them to the Pakistani government for further hearings?
Taliban kill US 'spy' in NW Pakistan (click here)
1 hour ago
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) — Taliban militants shot dead an Afghan national in Pakistan's restive northwest tribal belt after accusing him of spying for the United States, a police official said Sunday.
The bullet-ridden body of Fazal Haq, 28, was found on Sunday dumped by the side of a road in Naurak village, 15 kilometres (nine miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in the semi-autonomous North Waziristan tribal region....
What constitutes a spy under the Islamic Court? Was this man tried before being assassinated. No, of course he wasn't. The Taliban instituted 'marshall law' and who said they have the right to do that? Since when do Taliban militants have the authority of a judge, jury and executioner?
The citizens of Swat are not safe from tyrannical Taliban rule !
