After Half a Year of War, Swat Valley Taliban Chief Slips Away
Militant Leader Threatens Retaliatory Strikes Against Swat
Two months ago the Pakistani Interior Ministry announced that, following the summer-long military offensive against the Swat Valley faction of the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the group’s leader Maulana Fazlullah was “surrounded” and would be in custody soon.
Today, Fazlullah contacted the international media via cell phone. Not only is he not in Pakistani military custody, he isn’t even in Pakistan, having safely moved into Afghanistan.
Not content to remain in exile, however, Fazlullah says that he is reorganizing his forces and intends to “launch fully fledged punitive raids against the army in Swat” very soon.
Though the TTP was never very large in the Swat Valley, with most religiously conservative tribesmen choosing the less violent Tehreek-e Nifaz-e Shariat-e Muhammadi (TNSM), but even with what amounted to no more than a few hundred dedicated members, Fazlullah was seen as such a threat that the Pakistani military invaded, chasing millions of civilians into refugee camps. Now it seems, that fighting still isn’t over, just on hiatus.
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MvGuy
November 18th, 2009 at 6:16 am
Attention…Attention… Is William S Lind in the house…..urgent…urgent…paging Mr. Lind……
masmanz
November 18th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
TTP was never strong in Swat. Everyone knows that the Pakistan Army attacked Swat and displaced million just to please our Sec of State who gave ultimatum.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/22/clinton.pa…
masmanz
November 18th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
TTP was never strong in Swat. Everyone knows that the Pakistan Army attacked Swat and displaced million just to please our Sec of State who gave ultimatum.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/22/clinton.pa…
Guest
November 18th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Escaped? Hello! He was transported, along with his men. And not only from Swat. These are now the "new" Taliban, doing the business with Pakistan. While they are sending out the noises of who they are fighting for, soon his men will figure out that their job is to support NATO. Then, it will be another story. They will have to accept the nice monthly income, or go to the mountains. Depending on what happened to their families, money may not be enough to determine loyalty.