Operation Rah-e-Rast (Swat)

[fatman17]

Army should send in more man power and stop using artillery.There is too much colletreal damage because of this.A lot of innocent swatis are being killed by Army.This is just wrong.The operation needs to be finished and ended soon or we will have angry Swat population turned into Talibans.

pls provide your data?

 

[Patriot]

pls provide your data?

Displaced orphan molested twice
Sunday, June 07, 2009
By Syed Bukhar Shah

PESHAWAR: A teenaged boy from Swat, who lost his parents in the ongoing military operation and arrived here to save his life, was reportedly molested by an unidentified person at the General Bus Stand on Friday night.

Jalal, 14, son of Musaib Khan from Mingora, also met the same tragedy in Rawalpindi, where he spent some days along with another child while cleaning vehicles at the bus stand.

To avoid miserable life in Rawalpindi, he reached Peshawar bus stand late in the night, where a person in plainclothes identified himself as policeman to the child.

“He was carrying a pistol. I told him I haven’t fled the home and had nowhere to go,” the ill-fated child told The News. “But he was insisting to take me to police station,” he added.

The unfortunate child was molested and left unconscious behind the bus stand near the canal. “A God-fearing lady brought the child to the Government Technical Higher Secondary School, Gulbahar, where the internally displaced persons have been accommodated,” said the in-charge of the IDPs shelter home, Zahir Shah.

Clad in worn-out clothes, the tired-looking Jalal was reluctant to speak more. With choked voice and tears rolling down his cheeks, Jalal recalled that he had gone outside his small house along with his sisters, but when he returned his parents were killed and the house destroyed in the military operation.

His father was working in a mechanics shop. His family was living hand to mouth due to his meagre income.

Jalal said he along with his three-year-old sister, Sidra, two- year-old Maryam and four-year-old brother Bilal ran for safety. He lost his brother and sisters on the way.

He first reached his relatives in Takht Bhai, but they forced him to go out and find a job. He also had some relatives in Charsadda, but the disappointed child preferred to go to Rawalpindi instead of living with his relatives.

Flanked by elders and human rights activists, in-charge of the IDPs shelter home, Zahir Shah said the government should take notice and take practical measures to stop such injustices with the helpless children.

He said the government could make such children useful citizens or they would become hardcore criminals.

The rights activists asked the government to hold an inquiry, punish those responsible and take interest in changing the live of hapless IDPs like Jalal.

Displaced orphan molested twice
I assume the house was razed by Artilierry shells.Sir this is getting out of hands IMHO.I also heard similar accounts from IDPs in other news papers where they said the artillery shells are killing a lot of innocent people.I am just troubled.

 

[Owais]

Malakand Operation: 4 more extremists killed: ISPR

Updated at: 1701 PST, Sunday, June 07, 2009
Malakand Operation: 4 more extremists killed: ISPR RAWALPINDI: DG ISPR said at least four more extremists have been killed in Malakand operation in the last 24 hours in Operation Rah-e-Raast, Geo News reported Sunday.

Talking to media, Director General (DG) Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Ather Abbas said he said at least three security personnel were martyred in the last 24 hours and four others injured.

He said Junior Commissioned Officer Naib Sobedar Darvesh was kidnapped on April 24 and the local tribals helped Dervesh escape.

In Shangla area of Balakot, the forces raided a house of Sardar Ali on the tip-off by local residents and killed two extremists in the exchange of fire, he said.

ISPR spokesman said the security forces cleared Shangla area of Aloj and the southern and northern areas of Faqirabad in Lower Dir and established their positions in Kozabadai, Barra Bandai and Negolai.

The army spokesman said two motor-riding extremists ambushed the security forces motorcade, injuring three security men in Lower Dir area of Faqirabad; however, they were killed in exchange of fire.

He said the forces captured an explosives-laden car from a shop in Mingora area of Tahiraabad during a search operation; as many as 15 pressure-cookers were kept in the car to make it fully geared for a suicide blast.

Major General Athar Abbas said a suicide attacker has also been arrested in cantonment area of Kohat; he entered the area through a stream he was heading to a school, when he was stopped by the security forces. On this, the suicide attacker threw the jacket into the nullah and tried to escape; however, he was caught.
Malakand Operation: 4 more extremists killed: ISPR - GEO.tv

 

[batmannow]

Hi,

The truth to the fact is that we had very poor marketing skills---we---means the govt of Gen Musharraf---market means the pakistani public---pakistani public didnot get the right information to make a better judgement---the General didnot have a better group of people and media savy personale to show a better picture to the public.

The general should have hired an outside source to play the media and the public---nobody with any political afiliations---and paid them well to portray a better image of his government and sell the public on the idea of fighting the taliban and portraying the al qaeda as an enemy.

That is where the american business savy should have come in worked their media magic---.

My disappointment arises from the fact that the americans never used their media skills in pakistan and never got together with the paks to further their goals and make life easy for the paks---paks ( govt reps ) were absolutely clueless in how to talk and confront talk show hosts like Dr Masood , Mr Mir and others.

This battle was lost by the media---those peole should also pass on the blame to Dr Shahid Masood, Hamid Mir and The botomline is the Gen Musharraf failed to take the taliban to task---at the end of the day---he will be solely held responcible for the job left incomplete.

The nation gave him its confidence for the longest period of time---at the end---he didnot deliver. Got too far above his head into issues that were beyond on beneath him---got mired in the muck---and left us holding the cards---sayonara.

salute sir! NLI from kargill is in for its due civillian role!
& i would like to salute you!

 

[batmannow]

Displaced orphan molested twice
Sunday, June 07, 2009
By Syed Bukhar Shah

PESHAWAR: A teenaged boy from Swat, who lost his parents in the ongoing military operation and arrived here to save his life, was reportedly molested by an unidentified person at the General Bus Stand on Friday night.

Jalal, 14, son of Musaib Khan from Mingora, also met the same tragedy in Rawalpindi, where he spent some days along with another child while cleaning vehicles at the bus stand.

To avoid miserable life in Rawalpindi, he reached Peshawar bus stand late in the night, where a person in plainclothes identified himself as policeman to the child.

“He was carrying a pistol. I told him I haven’t fled the home and had nowhere to go,” the ill-fated child told The News. “But he was insisting to take me to police station,” he added.

The unfortunate child was molested and left unconscious behind the bus stand near the canal. “A God-fearing lady brought the child to the Government Technical Higher Secondary School, Gulbahar, where the internally displaced persons have been accommodated,” said the in-charge of the IDPs shelter home, Zahir Shah.

Clad in worn-out clothes, the tired-looking Jalal was reluctant to speak more. With choked voice and tears rolling down his cheeks, Jalal recalled that he had gone outside his small house along with his sisters, but when he returned his parents were killed and the house destroyed in the military operation.

His father was working in a mechanics shop. His family was living hand to mouth due to his meagre income.

Jalal said he along with his three-year-old sister, Sidra, two- year-old Maryam and four-year-old brother Bilal ran for safety. He lost his brother and sisters on the way.

He first reached his relatives in Takht Bhai, but they forced him to go out and find a job. He also had some relatives in Charsadda, but the disappointed child preferred to go to Rawalpindi instead of living with his relatives.

Flanked by elders and human rights activists, in-charge of the IDPs shelter home, Zahir Shah said the government should take notice and take practical measures to stop such injustices with the helpless children.

He said the government could make such children useful citizens or they would become hardcore criminals.

The rights activists asked the government to hold an inquiry, punish those responsible and take interest in changing the live of hapless IDPs like Jalal.

Displaced orphan molested twice
I assume the house was razed by Artilierry shells.Sir this is getting out of hands IMHO.I also heard similar accounts from IDPs in other news papers where they said the artillery shells are killing a lot of innocent people.I am just troubled.

your assumption , could be wrong sir!
but , lets find & kill that evil, even his from , president house.
belive me people had started looking for him!

 

[muse]

Friends. I would request your attention to MastanKhan's post - INFORMATION OPERATIONS, is one way to look at it, Mastan has it exactly right - we will win or lose in the media, rather we will LOSE if we do not do a better job with the media.

I do not want to suggest the Pak govt. can do this job, they are a miserable lot, it is up to the FAUJ, it will for the near and middle future continue to be the responsibility of the FAUJ -- and in this regard, FAUJ should have ensured that media get some familiarization with Counter insurgency ideas.

We are continually being fed the notion that our citizenry is "naturally" attracted to the Talib and Al- Qaida, I would suggest to you, that this is simply not the case - You can examine for yourself, are Talib not being huge salary, at least by standards of the FAUJ and Police? Why if Pakistanis are "naturally" attracted to the Talib or Al-Qaida would this be necessary?

Friends, reality is that Pakistan has come to be seen as a weakling without a will to survive, not just by our enemies but by our friends as well - media can help change this, but it cannot create this success without the FAUJ and Police actually being successful.

For your part, every letter to the editor, every opportunity to make public your discontent with the negative role of the media should be taken, you must be active about this - write letters to the editor in a calm tone, please do not inject wild emotion in these letters, please write to the Managers of TV stations, to the producers of the shows which feature "talking heads" glorifying the Talib and attacking the FAUJ, you may imagine that there must be thousands of such letters, you would be wrong, apathy and complacency, someone else will do it, are the kinds of attitudes that our enemies are counting on; our enemies want to break our will, with a bombing here and a bombing there, they hope to break us and if we allow them to succeed, then perhaps we do not deserve Pakistan, don't allow them to defeat us

Sorry if I came across as preachy, but it is my strong conviction and I am sure yours as well, that we can and must do more than be passers by, more than voyeurs, this is about us and the kind of Pakistan we are determined will be created, Talib or no Talib, Al Qaida or no Al Qaida.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Army should send in more man power and stop using artillery.There is too much colletreal damage because of this.A lot of innocent swatis are being killed by Army.

That does not match up with most of the data from the field.

I even posted a report quoting the ANP a few posts ago:

ANP denies any large-scale collateral damage in Buner​

Saturday, June 06, 2009
By our correspondent

PESHAWAR: The Buner chapter of the Awami National Party (ANP) has dispelled the impression being created by certain quarters that large-scale civilian casualties and serious harm to public and private property has been reported in the district in the ongoing military operation.

However, elected representatives from Buner and members of ANP said the civilian population did not suffer huge losses as claimed by some quarters.

They said the party representatives recently conducted a survey in the district and it was found that the operation was targeted and precise, which resulted in less damage to non-combatants.

The revelation came during a meeting of the party office-bearers and legislators from the troubled district at the party’s central headquarters of Bacha Khan Markaz. Expressing satisfaction over the progress of the swoop, the office-bearers of the ANP demanded of the security forces to achieve the targets in the shortest possible period and clear the area of terrorists so that the uprooted families return home.

ANP denies any large-scale collateral damage in Buner

Both the Army and the Air Force have categorically stated that artillery and Air Strikes are not being employed in populated areas - that was borne out by the reports from journalists taken on multiple tours into Swat, including the city of Mingora.

Now if you are expecting ZERO civilian casualties and ZERO damage to infrastructure then that is not going to happen - not in the environment in which the Pakistani Military is conducting operations.

You also have to keep in mind that the militants also have rockets and mortars, and unlike the PA, they are not hesitant to use them anywhere. The average individual whose house gets hit by a mortar or rocket can't really tell which side was responsible, but I think the evidence so far vindicates the Army on this count.

 

[Screaming Skull]

Angry Pakistani villagers fight, surround Taliban​

Mon, Jun 8

Pakistani villagers enraged with the Taliban after the bombing of a mosque battled the militants on Monday, underscoring a shift in public opinion away from the hardline Islamists.

The military has been fighting the Taliban in the Swat valley, northwest of the capital, for more than a month after the militants took advantage of a peace pact to conquer new areas.

In retaliation for the offensive, the Taliban have stepped up bomb attacks and are suspected of being behind a suicide blast at a mosque in the Upper Dir region, near Swat, that killed about 40 people on Friday.

Outraged by the attack, villagers formed a militia, known as a lashkar, of about 500 men and began fighting the militants on Saturday in an bid to force them out of their area.

A top government official in Upper Dir, Atif-ur-Rehman, said the militia fighters had pushed the Taliban out of three villages and surrounded them in another two.

"About 150 militants are believed to be there putting up resistance. But the villagers are doing well, they're squeezing the militants," Rehman told Reuters by telephone.

The United States, which needs sustained Pakistani action to help defeat al Qaeda and to cut off militant support for the Afghan Taliban, has been heartened by the resolve the government and military are showing in the Swat offensive.

Alarmed by the prospect of nuclear-armed Pakistan drifting into chaos, the United States had criticised a February pact with the Taliban in the former tourist valley of Swat.

The Swat offensive also has broad public support in a country where many people have long been suspicious of the United States and government critics have decried fighting "America's war".

CLOSE QUARTERS

The February pact aimed at placating the Taliban in Swat by introducing Islamic sharia law sailed through parliament with only one or two voices of dissent.

But much has changed since then.

A Taliban push into a district 100 km (60 miles) from Islamabad, a widely circulated video of Taliban flogging a teenaged girl and the Islamists' denunciation of the constitution as "unIslamic" have sharply shifted public opinion.

The villagers' action in Upper Dir is the latest in a series of instances of people turning on the Taliban. Rehman said security forces could help the militia if necessary.

"We don't want to step in right now as they're fighting at close quarters and there is a chance of losses on the villagers' side if we use artillery," he said.

While the government retains public support for the offensive, it could lose it if the 2.5 million people displaced by fighting in the northwest languish in misery.

The government is organising relief with the help of the United Nations and other agencies but aid officials say Pakistan faces a long-term humanitarian crisis.

The military says it has snuffed out organised resistance in Swat and it hopes people can begin returning home after the middle of this month. On Monday, the military relaxed a curfew in areas near Swat to allow people to flee or shop for supplies.

Meanwhile, cities are on alert for bomb attacks.

Police in Karachi said on Sunday they had arrested an associate of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Meshud and seized "jackets" to be used in suicide attacks. Police said the suspect had confessed to planning attacks.

(Additional reporting by Junaid Khan)

Angry Pakistani villagers fight, surround Taliban - Yahoo! India News

Pakistanis rise against Taliban after mosque blast - Yahoo! News

 

[Screaming Skull]

^^ Way to go people!!!! This is what we expect from every Pakistani

 

[ajpirzada]

COAS, Air Chief visit Swat, lauded morale of troops


ISLAMABAD (updated on: June 08, 2009, 20:13 PST): Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman on Monday visited Mangora, Swat.

The COAS and CAS met field commanders and held informal discussion with them on operational matters, a news release of ISPR issued here said.

They were also briefed in detail by the General Officer Commanding on the current operations and the future consolidation/hold strategy.

The Commissioner Malakand also briefed them on the emerging civil plan for Malakand Division.

The COAS directed the General Officer Commanding to focus on return of IDP’s in peace and security, preparing contingency plan for this crucial part of post operational stage.

Later COAS and CAS met with troops and freely exchanged views with them.

They appreciated their high morale. The COAS thanked CAS for effective Air support during all phases of the operation. The CAS announced establishment of a water purification plant in Mangora.

Earlier, on arrival in the area, they were received by the Corps Commander.
COAS, Air Chief visit Swat, lauded morale of troops : Business Recorder | LATEST NEWS

 

[ajpirzada]

21 more terrorists killed in last 24 hours: DG ISPR


RAWALPINDI (updated on: June 08, 2009, 16:29 PST): 21 terrorists were killed in various areas of Malakand during last twenty four hours, DG ISPR Major General Ather Abbas said on Monday.

According to ISPR press release, during cordon and search operation, three terrorists were killed in Charbagh by the security forces.

Security forces carried out search operation in Bara Banda, Shahdhand Banda and successfully established link up at Damber Sar. During exchange of fire, 1 terrorist was killed. Security forces also established link up at Shakardara.

Local Lashkar set ablaze 13 houses of terrorists and killed 3 terrorists at village Dhok Darra in retaliation to suicide attack in mosque last Friday. Local Lashkar also encircled terrorists villages of Shatkas and Mena in Upper Dir and killed 11 terrorists including Commander Chamto Afghani.

During exchange of fire between Security Forces and terrorists at Ambela, terrorists Commander Ghulam Khaliq an IED expert Salim and Sherzada were killed
21 more terrorists killed in last 24 hours: DG ISPR : Business Recorder | LATEST NEWS

 

[ejaz007]

Taliban faction parts ways with Mehsud

PESHAWAR: The leader of a Taliban faction at odds with Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud denounced Mehsud for staging attacks inside the country.

“Whatever Baitullah Mehsud and his associates are doing in the name of Islam is not a jihad, and in fact it is rioting and terrorism,” Qari Zainuddin said in a face-to-face interview with the AP. ap

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[niaz]

An article published in th Dawn of Today and my reply by e-mail.

Quote

On war and its justifications By Haider Nizamani
Tuesday, 09 Jun, 2009 | 08:31 AM PST | The Taliban cannot be singled out for not abiding by the constitutional rules of the game. —

These people deserve to have war waged on them because they reject our constitution, because they reject the values which Pakistan was founded upon, and because they are trying to stuff a different legal system down the throats of unwilling citizens.’

This argument put forth by a columnist in a Lahore-based daily, and no doubt espoused by many, sounds convincing and straightforward; however, it also gives us a chance to take a closer look at these three reasons for waging war against the militants. Even though that may be tantamount to breaking a taboo under the present circumstances, let’s start with the first reason.

‘These people deserve to have war waged on them because they reject our constitution.’ The 1956 constitution was arbitrarily scrapped within two years of its promulgation. The party having won a majority in the 1970 elections in what was supposed to be the constituent assembly of Pakistan was considered a den of traitors and subjected to mass killings within months of the electoral victory. The 1973 constitution was put in cold storage at the age of four and the person who created enough support in the National Assembly of the truncated Pakistan for its adoption was hanged.

Later days saw a prime minister with a two-third majority packed to Saudi Arabia and the chief justice of the Supreme Court at the Army House in Rawalpindi where he was harassed by the then army chief, who more or less warned him of dire consequences if he continued to stay on the constitutional path.

‘These people deserve to have war waged on them because they reject the values which Pakistan was founded upon.’ Almost 63 years down the road there remains confusion regarding the founding values of Pakistan. Historians, political scientists and politicians of various stripes for over half a century have unsuccessfully attempted to identify those values. These days the preferred term seems to be ‘Jinnah’s Pakistan’ which is used as a byword for those founding values.

At the risk of oversimplifying the idea of ‘Jinnah’s Pakistan’, at the very least it was suppose to be a genuine federation, a constitutional republic and a polity with a multiparty political system. The country was to be run, at the minimum, as a federation with constituting units having genuine powers. The spirit of federation was hit within months of independence when Bengalis, the majority of Pakistanis, were told that Urdu would be the national language of Pakistan.

The government of Dr Khan Sahib in the NWFP was unceremoniously replaced because Dr Sahib didn’t belong to the ruling party. As if that was not bad enough for the future of the federation, Ayub Khuhro, chief minister of the Muslim League-led government of Sindh, was removed because he had differences with the centre on a number of issues that affected the province. That made three unhappy federating units within a year of the country’s independence.

The tradition of sponsoring the king’s party almost became an institutionalised way to sniff the oxygen out of a party-based polity, a tradition started by Ayub Khan and loyally carried out by generals Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf. Popular parties were sidelined with a mixture of coercion and a creation of a network of the local elite in the shape of Basic Democrats during the Ayub era — a textbook model followed by Messrs Zia and Musharraf decades later.

And finally ‘these people deserve to have war waged on them because they are trying to stuff a different legal system down the throats of unwilling citizens’. A quick glance at just one prominent lawyer’s career and the story of stuffing legal systems down the throats of unwilling citizens sounds all too common to most Pakistanis. Gen Ziaul Haq took the trend to commanding heights when a blind woman who was gang-raped was required to produce four witnesses or else languish in prison, as she did, on charges of adultery.

Pervez Musharraf did more than his share of deluging unwilling citizens with his version of the legal system. Provisional constitutional orders (PCOs) and legal framework orders (LFOs) have played havoc with the country’s legal system and have few parallels in South Asia.

The military in the past 60 years has been involved in three declared interstate wars resulting in two draws and one humiliating defeat. The military budget surpasses the health and education budgets combined. Our army heads have staged more coups than the armies of other South Asian countries. We should not kid ourselves into believing that the current military operation is under the strict control of the civilian administration. The military as the ultimate arbiter of what constitutes a threat to national security and how to deal with such threats is fraught with dangers. Supporting the military action against the Taliban is not the same as the military deciding when and how to deal with domestic dissent.

The ongoing operation in Swat has, understandably, caused heated debate in Pakistan as it raises issues of political morality and military strategy. This is not the first time that the armed forces have taken upon themselves the task of weeding out ‘anti-state elements’. Pakistan’s historical context suggests that the meddling of the armed forces in politics and policing of the country hasn’t served the country well.

Just because I don’t like the Taliban and, thereby, should let the military be in the saddle of the country’s affairs can put me on shaky ground regarding how the country has been ruled for the past 60 years and the future of governance. If we condone the military’s sorting out dissidents in Swat then on what grounds can we condemn what happened in East Pakistan in 1971, in Balochistan in the 1970s and in Sindh during the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) in the 1980s?

Robert Bates writing about the process of state-formation in Europe argues that monarchs in early modern Europe ‘had to govern with greater wisdom than they themselves had intended’. What we call liberal democracy in the modern world is a product of that greater wisdom whereby monarchs, who were specialists in violence, evolved genuine power-sharing arrangements with other segments of society. As we condemn the Pakistani Taliban we should not absolve the ideologues and strategists in Pakistan’s armed forces who aided and abetted religiously informed political forces and used them with impunity at home and abroad.

Opponents of the Taliban cannot single them out for not abiding by the constitutional rules of the game. The Taliban are the new kids on the block when it comes to the rejection of the constitution and the founding values of Pakistan. Those of us who want to see Pakistan function as a constitutional federation will have to rein in more than just the Taliban.

hnizamani@hotmail.com

Unquote.

My reply:


Hon Mr. Nizamani,

I don’t deny the right of people to differ, no other way one can understand other people’s point of view, but your article quoted above shows sheer maliciousness cloaked in innocuous words. You must be an expert on the journalistic ‘Spin’



You only talk of one reason, not abiding by the Pakistan Constitution. Pray tell me, did any other time, girls school were blown up, mosques and gov't offices bombed, innocent people targeted by suicide bombers or even barber shops forcibly shut down?

No mention of kidnapping of school children or of openly declaring other Muslims as kafirs because they believe in democracy and refusing to acknowledge jurisdiction of courts or Qazis because they were not appointed with their agreement. In addition, you don’t consider the heinous crimes of digging up graves and hanging of the corpses long dead, butchering captive Pak Army soldiers and Braelvi ulemas worth the bother?

No sir, all is ignored and you consider the Swat action solely a reaction to local people trying to want a different legal system and thus unacceptable; totally ignoring to mention that their actions tantamount to a state within a state. If war is not justified for keeping the country together, then what is the army for?

While I do agree with Voltaire, who said that “I don’t agree with what you say but I will defend till death your right to say it’. To you my comment would be; we need intellectuals such as your good self as we need a hole in the head.

Unquote:

It is a pity that at a time when PA jawans are dying to keep the country together, we have people who are questioning the action for their agenda, whatever that may be.

 

[Owais]

Army destroys militants headquarter

SWAT (updated on: June 09, 2009, 13:27 PST): Security forces have destroyed the militants headquarter in Imam Dare on Tuesday, Aaj TV reported.

According to the channel, Security forces have destroyed the militants headquarter which was the epicentre of the militants activities controlled by Fazl Ullah in the area but security force have not yet confirmed this report.
Business Recorder [Pakistan's First Financial Daily]

 

[Owais]

Army sends gunships to support militia

PESHAWAR ( 2009-06-09 15:02:15 ) :Military sent helicopter gunships to a northwest region Tuesday to support armed villagers who have risen up against Taliban to avenge a deadly mosque blast, an official said.

The militia -- known locally as a lashkar -- were on Tuesday surrounding Shatkas and Ghazigai villages, where militants are believed to be hiding.

Upper Dir borders Swat valley, the centre of a fierce six-week military offensive aimed at crushing a Taliban insurgency.

"Lashkar men are positioned on surrounding mountains and keeping a vigil on the movement of Taliban militants," said a military official who did not want to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

He said army helicopter gunships and artillery pounded suspected militant hideouts in Upper Dir, adding: "The shelling was in support of the lashkar."

Government has in the past encouraged the formation of lashkar militias to help the official armed forces in their fight against militants, and say they want to build up and arm such community forces in the northwest.

Up to 1,200 villagers carrying firearms are reported to have taken on about 200 Taliban in a handful of remote Upper Dir hamlets.

AAJ TV : Pakistan Ki Awaz