The ground reality is that the government of Pakistan has no choice but make the not-so-fine distinction to save their people getting killed as collateral damage when they fight the Taliban.
"We are troubled and confused in the sense about what happened in Swat, because it is not an encouraging trend," Richard Holbrooke, the Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan told the PBS news channel in an interview.
Congress spokesman Manish Tewari has expressed concern about the agreement between Pakistan and Taliban about the implementation of Shariat laws in the Swat region. Tewari was speaking at a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Pakistani troops on Sunday stepped up the crackdown on militants in a tribal region near Peshawar as the restive Swat valley bordering Afghanistan witnessed fresh violence that killed four people, including two soldiers who died in a bomb blast.
A furious Taliban leadership has decided to send their fighters to Islamabad as a reaction to the army operations in the Swat valley on the troubled border with Afghanistan.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command in the Al Qaeda, has urged the citizens of Pakistan to join a Jihad to thwart 'America's attempts to divide Pakistan'.Zawahiri's statement comes in the wake of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud's death in an American missile strike and an intensive operation launched by the Pakistan army to flush out Taliban militants from the Swat valley.
Nearly 200 boys, some as young as six years, were rescued by Pakistani security forces from Taliban camps in the lawless Swat valley, where they were being 'brainwashed' and trained to become suicide bombers."These children have been brainwashed in a way that now they even want to kill their own parents," he said. Bilour said some children were initially pleased when they were handed over to their parents. But the parents later said their kids were trying to kill them.
Pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Muhammad, who brokered a now-defunct peace deal between the authorities and insurgents, was arrested on Sunday in northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar for his links to militants and his role in fomenting unrest in the lawless Swat valley. Sufi, who heads the banned Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi, was arrested with his sons Ziaullah and Rizwanullah and an accomplice by a large police contingent during a raid in the City Town area of Peshawar.
India on Thursday asked Pakistan to demonstrate the same 'force' to deal with terror groups like Laskar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed like it has done against the Taliban in Swat Valley.
The Pakistan Army on Sunday launched a fresh drive against pro-Taliban militants in the northwestern Swat region amidst indications that the security forces would adopt a tougher approach against the ultras in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
The teenage girl who was filmed being flogged by the Taliban in Pakistan's restive Swat Valley has denied that the incident ever occurred in a statement made to government officials, media reports said today.
Ten people were killed on Monday when militants attacked the home of a provincial legislator's brother in Pakistan's restive north-western Swat valley even as the government banned the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. Taliban militants fired a rocket at the home of the brother of Awami National Party legislator Waqar Ahmed Khan in Kabal sub-district, killing his brother, two nephews and seven security guards.
The attacker drove the vehicle into the police station at Charbagh, located about 10 km from Mingora, the main town of Swat district, on Saturday morning. Saturday's bombing was the third suicide attack in Pakistan since Tuesday, when 78 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a hospital at Dera Ismail Khan city in the same province.
'I am leaving Swat today. I am committed to return to Swat but I cannot come back if there is no peace. I can only use my pen and camera to report the truth if there is peace. Otherwise, I will become another Musa Khankhel and my pen will be silenced.'
'The recent surrender by the Pakistani State to the Taliban in the Swat valley may well turn out to be a watershed in the history of the Indian subcontinent. In terms of long-term impact, this may even overshadow the recent Mumbai massacres. All signs point to the Talibanisation of Pakistan.'
There are 'contradictory communications' emanating from Islamabad about what it intends to achieve in the peace deal with Taliban in the restive Swat valley, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said."I want to get the whole picture of what it is they're attempting to achieve," Clinton said in Tokyo during her first official visit after taking over as the Secretary Of State.She said US will 'thoroughly study' the deal.
Tension continues to simmer in Pakistan's Swat valley with fresh troop build-up while the extremists loyal to pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah have released 48 captured soldiers.
The Pakistan government on Monday agreed to enforce Islamic law in large areas of its restive North West Frontier Province, including the Swat valley, in a concession to buy peace in the region, which has been the scene of a raging Taliban insurgency.
A fragile truce in the Swat valley of northwest Pakistan collapsed on Wednesday as troops targeted militant hideouts with artillery and helicopter gunships, killing at least 20 insurgents. The attacks on armed followers of pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah in and around Matta were launched after the militants carried out overnight attacks on police posts near Kabal and Saidu Sharif, officials said.
Taliban forces in Pakistan have announced a ten-day ceasefire in the restive north western Swat valley, as peace talks between a senior cleric and local authorities are believed to have struck a deal to enforce Shariah laws in some parts of the region.The announcement of the truce came a day after a Chinese engineer, abducted by the Taliban six months back, was set free in Swat as a 'goodwill gesture'.
Police and paramilitary troops set up security posts and bunkers protected by sandbags in Kabal, a small town near Maulana Fazlullah's stronghold at Imamdheri.
A pro-Taliban cleric's militant followers on Saturday clashed with security forces at several places in Swat valley of northwest Pakistan leaving up to 15 people dead, a day after troops backed by helicopter gunships attacked a seminary run by him. The skirmishes erupted after security forces attacked Maulana Fazlullah's sprawling madrassa at Imamdheri, three kilometres from Mingora, the headquarters of Swat district in North West Frontier Province.
The United States has reacted cautiously to a deal between Pakistan and Taliban in the restive Swat valley saying while there is a track record of such agreements not working, it will be supportive if it meets the benchmark of ending domestic and international terrorism. Washington is willing to see what results the deal bring in and would be supportive if it leads to end terrorist violence, brings in individuals outside the political process into political process.
A top Pakistani diplomat in the United States on Saturday said that Islamabad was aware that the peace deal with Taliban in the country's troubled Swat valley would not work but went ahead with it as a tactical move. Pakistan's ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani, in a television interview, said even President Asif Ali Zardari knew about its result from the very beginning of the deal. He also said that such strategy could be repeated in the future.
Gen Kiyani has already withdrawn regular army troops from South Waziristan as demanded by Baitullah and has lifted the economic blocade imposed against the Mehsuds.
The suicide attacker detonated his explosives when he was stopped at a check post near the army camp at Kabal town in the Swat valley. Three soldiers at the check post received minor injuries.
Police said the blast occurred near the venue of an election rally in Mingora, the headquarters of Swat district.
The blast damaged a petrol pump, several shops and some cars. A witness said the convoy was apparently hit by a suicide bomber who was in a jeep.
Pakistani security forces have retaken a strategic mountain from pro-Taliban militants in the restive Swat valley in north-west Pakistan and shut down an illegal radio station used by their radical head as a propaganda machine.
Pakistani soldiers backed by helicopter gunships fought pitched battles on Friday with pro-Taliban militants in the north-western Swat Valley, where at least 80 militants including a top rebel commander have been killed since Thursday night.
Pakistani army troops backed by helicopter gunships on Thursday kept up their offensive against armed followers of a pro-Taliban cleric in Swat valley, killing at least 20 militants across the restive region.
Observing that Islamic law is within the framework of Pakistan, the US has refrained from making any comment on the peace deal between Islamabad and a Taliban-linked group for enforcing Shariah law in the Swat Valley.
The move came hours after four security personnel were injured in a bomb attack on a military caravan in the Malakand area late on Tuesday. Seven persons were arrested in connection with the attack.
The Pakistani Taliban on Monday vowed they would again target teenage rights activist Malala Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt last year to become a frontrunner for the Nobel Peace prize.
Questioning the "silence" of Pakistani leaders on terrorism, 18-year-old Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai on Saturday said she harbours the hope of becoming the prime minister of her country.
'Sincere request to the Nobel winner, to spend some time speaking with the minorities of Pakistan'
Security forces gunned down the chief commander of Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit in north Kashmir's Lolab area of frontier Kupwara district early on Tuesday.
Men should not clip the "wings of women and let them fly", Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai said as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres designated her as the youngest-ever 'Messenger of Peace'.
With hardline commander Mullah Fazlullah at its helm, the Pakistani Taliban has vowed to launch a wave of revenge attacks and ruled out talks with the government.
Pakistan Army and United States-led forces in Afghanistan have decided to target Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah using drones rather than a ground operation in the areas where he is believed to be taking sanctuary.
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