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Taliban kidnap 29 Pakistani police and FC

kenchabhai

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MINGORA, Pakistan, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Pakistani Taliban kidnapped 29 paramilitary soldiers and policemen on Wednesday, police said, as the militants intensified their campaign against government forces.

Security has deteriorated sharply in northwestern areas along the Afghan border as well as the Swat valley, where troops are struggling to stem spreading Taliban influence.

In the latest violence, militants attacked a police station in Shamzoi village in Swat and captured it after a siege of more than 24 hours, said senior police intelligence official Mohabat Khan.

"They apparently ran out of ammunition after a day-long siege," Khan said of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers and policemen defending the station.

"The militants have taken 29 people including 23 FC troops and six policemen," he said, adding that the militants blew up the police station before they withdrew.

The Swat valley, only 130 km (80 miles) northwest of the capital, Islamabad, was for years a main tourist destination.

Militants infiltrated the valley from al Qaeda and Taliban strongholds on the Afghan border and began battling security forces in 2007 while trying to impose strict Islamist rule.

Residents say the militants have gained control of virtually the entire valley, making it a test of the government's determination to tackle the spread of the Taliban.

Military officials said troops had been sent to Shamzoi on Tuesday to try and help those besieged at the police station, but the rescuers came under attack and four soldiers were killed.

TRUCKS ATTACKED

A Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Muslim Khan, said his men had abducted 30 police and troops in the attack and Taliban leaders would decide their fate.

Fighting in the valley has intensified since army chief General Ashfaq Kayani visited last week, vowing to reimpose government control.

The military says dozens of militants have been killed in recent days and residents say about 40 civilians have also died, many in shelling and air attacks by government forces aimed at the militants.

Caught between the military and the Taliban, tens of thousands of residents have fled from the valley.

Elsewhere in the northwest, militants attacked a trucks beside the road from the northwestern city of Peshawar through the Khyber Pass to the Afghan border, burning eight transport containers, district government officials said.

The road is the main route for supplies bound for Western forces in land-locked Afghanistan, and all traffic along it was suspended on Tuesday after militants blew up a bridge.

The containers destroyed near the town of Landi Kotal had been unloaded at the Afghan border and were empty, the officials said.

Paramilitary forces are working to restore traffic through th Kyber Pass by clearing a route across a dried-up river bed to bypass the destroyed bridge. (Writing by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Robert Birsel and David Fox)

Taliban kidnap 29 Pakistani police and soldiers | Reuters
 
this name "Muslim Khan" is contradicting of mixer of urdu + english name
 
so it shows origin of so called "Pakistani Taliban" that from where they are being export towards Pakistan and working against Pak Fauj
 
It has happened before as well and it will continue to happen, these Taliban are well trained Guerrilla fighters and they have decades of experience to back them up, on the contrary Pakistani forces are trained for conventional warfare and that also to fight only one enemy that is "INDIA".

I hope Pakistani Forces will take theses Scums out as soon as Possible, But its not an easy job it will take and more Blood.
 
29 Pakistani police and soldiers?
What? Were they eating donuts while this happened?
I don't even want to read the full article, reading the headline even makes me wonder how on earth the girls in Swat can safely go to school.
 
we need to have a better QRTs in place. these people were clearly not in contact with upper command if they were then some people should have been dispatched to rescue them because it clearly says that they ran out of ammunition.
 
29 Pakistani police and soldiers?
What? Were they eating donuts while this happened?
I don't even want to read the full article, reading the headline even makes me wonder how on earth the girls in Swat can safely go to school.

hahhaha:rofl:

Actually they were having breakfast and were enjoying "Aloo Parathas" :cheesy:

Dude this is what happens if you leave one of your Unit Less trained and less equipped as compared to other Units.

FC and Tribal area's Police Needs a Modernization Program otherwise this will continue to happen.
 
Wow... what a weird response to this article. Where is the outrage? Why are people acting like this was a little mistake or a joke, obsessing about some dude's name, or ruminating on the "true" origins of the Taliban? Pakistan just lost 30 people due to either gross incompetence or deliberate treason.

There are only 3 possibilities for what happened here.

1. The army didn't know about the situation. This means that of the 4 police, 26 FC troops, and all the resources in the police station, there was not a single radio? This means that the 26 FC troops just happened to be dropping by the police station on a social visit when the siege started, so they were completely out of contact with other troops, and there was no concern when they didn't show up for 24 hours? How many people believe this?

2. The army did know about the situation, but could not do anything about it. This is completely impossible.

3. They army did know about the situation, but chose not to do anything about it for some unknown reason (political pressure, political games, corruption in the chain of command, etc). As ugly as it is, this remains the only reasonable possibility.

I'm curious to see what everybody thinks.
 
How the **** were these men captured! Caught with their pants down?

This reeks of absolute incompetence or treason as jon as pointed out. Either way it should be a cause for major concern and not for joking.
 
Good points. The first thing that I think is you should introduce yourself to others in the Members Intro board.

Second, there's a lot to digest here. What were the possible routes into the village? How close to the station did the enemy get and how many militants?

Psychological impact to the remaining troops- nobody likes to get hung out to dry. Put me on a limb and I've GOT to know that you're coming with everything you've got if I get into trouble.

Maybe that was the case and the militant ambush of the relief force was too intense.

How many other isolated police stations are there in the valley?
 
There's an update to this story. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7868875.stm (sorry, the forum is not letting me post links until I have 15 posts)

According to the BBC, the captured troops and police were released after they vowed to resign and stop fighting. The article also sheds more light on what happened.

Apparently Shamozoi village and the police station are just south of Mingora, so this wasn't an extremely isolated location. It was on the last major road to Mingora that wasn't under Taliban control (obviously this has changed now) so I would think the army would be highly motivated to defend it.

The police station was besieged by "thousands" of militants. No idea how accurate that is. I thought I remembered reading recently that there are an estimated 1500 Taliban in all of Swat, so it seems like an exaggeration. Also, the army did try to break the siege but gave up when night fell.

The question becomes whether the army is truly incapable of defeating the Taliban or whether for some reason they are not making it a priority. How much longer can this go on before the army loses all credibility?
 
I thought I remembered reading recently that there are an estimated 1500 Taliban in all of Swat,

There are far more than 1500 Taliban in Swat. That may have been the case when Mullah FM first started out, but it isn't possible for his group to have expanded its influence over such a wide swathe of territory with a such a small amount of supporters.

'Thousands of attackers' is still an exaggeration, but a hundred or few would not be.
 
The question becomes whether the army is truly incapable of defeating the Taliban or whether for some reason they are not making it a priority. How much longer can this go on before the army loses all credibility?

This question is premature. Focusing on one incident is not an accurate means of analyzing the Army's current offensive. The lack of 'boots on the ground' is apparent, but constrained by our belligerent neighbor in the East there isn't much we can do about it. Capacity building in the FC and its expansion will take time.

The importance of a parallel political process cannot be understated either. On that count there are 'reports' that the Swat Shariah bill will be signed off on by the Presidency, and the possible support for it by Sufi Mohammed could undermine Mullah FM and his movement.
 

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