Buner falls into the hands of Swat Taliban

[varun]

Source: Dawn

BUNER: Taliban militants from Swat took control of Buner on Tuesday and started patrolling bazaars, villages and towns in the district.
The militants, who had sneaked into Gokand valley of Buner on April 4, were reported to have been on a looting spree for the past five days.


They have robbed government and NGO offices of vehicles, computers, printers, generators, edible oil containers, and food and nutrition packets.



Sources said that leading political figures, businessmen, NGO officials and Khawaneen, who had played a role in setting up a Lashkar to stop the Taliban from entering Buner, had been forced to move to other areas.



The Taliban have extended their control to almost all tehsils of the district and law-enforcement personnel remained confined to police stations and camps.



Read more: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/nwfp/buner-falls-to-swat-taliban--bi

---

Taliban is now less than 60 miles from the Capital of Pakistan - Islamabad. And they are NOT going to STOP there.

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. Is the Taliban surge in Pakistan a result of the USA pushing them out of Afghanistan?

.
.
.

The thought just crossed my mind that the Pakistan instability increase may be a direct result of the USA's offensive in Afghanistan . .

Am I way off?

right on?

close?

I'll be watching and googling to try to answer my own question(s)

appreciate DU's input in the meantime . .

[EFerrari]

2. Two different groups. Related but not the same and they don't share

a command structure.

[Igel]

7. That doesn't mean they don't share fighters.

The Pakhtun tribes that straddle the border aren't terribly picky about where their men are allocated, and when the Talibs from Pakistan need to set up a base of operations they're more than willing to help secure it.

They don't share a common structure, but then again it's not like they need to in order to cooperate.

[ohio2007]

10. The Taliban spring offensive is in full gear.....

A red shift.
The growth of the Taliban control since late 2004



the current "red states" as opposed to the above situation







Islamabad needs to play the "red giant" China card

Selected Pakistani Nuclear Facilities;
pdf
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/pdfs/pakistan.pdf

The lights are going out in Pakistan.
welcome to the dark ages




jmo

[varun]

3. US drones bombing Pakistanis

is not helping. Many Pakistanis would now welcome Taliban rather than US forces.

[friendly_iconoclast]

5. It won't be US forces they'll be getting, but Indian...

There is no way New Delhi is going to sit idly and watch the Talibs take over.

[ohio2007]

6. It'll only take one more Mumbai type attack and India will finish what the Taliban have started

Fortifications are springing up across Islamabad as foreigners retreat from public view and Pakistanis worry about the possibility of a Mumbai-style attack on shops, offices or even schoolchildren. Twelve-metre (40ft) high sandbag walls, nests of gun-toting soldiers and concrete blast walls have started to appear around the once sleepy federal capital, where over the last year Taliban suicide bombers have attacked a five-star hotel, the Danish embassy and several army and police posts.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3837541&mesg_id=3837864

They are less then an hours drive by car from the capital


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3366273#3368458

[Alamuti Lotus]

9. couple responses to that -- basically 'off'

A) they're not being pushed out of Afghanistan -- they're not losing any ground at this time and are in fact strengthening in most territories occupied by the NATO invaders;
B) Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan ('Students Movement of Pakistan') is only loosely affiliated with the resistance in Afghanistan and is primarily based out of an alliance of the MMA parties that have governed the Northwest provinces, factions of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and various tribal militias that fought the deposed dictator Busharraf's assault on the tribal agencies starting several years ago. They all do share common ties of friendship with various Kashmiri and Indian mujahideen, but only loosely so at this time.

[iandhr]

4. WWDSLD

That should are new policy or let India do it for us. WWDSLD

What Would Dr. Strangelove Do


or maybe thats a bad idea

[Alamuti Lotus]

8. Yes, the puppet state is crumbling

There is a heavy price for collaboration.

[IndianaGreen]

11. This is the Pakistani Taleban. If they win, they will have nukes and missiles to use them.

This is the most nightmarish of al nightmarish scenarios.

[Alamuti Lotus]

12. the sky is falling? the sky is falling?

we do know better than this, right?

[ryanmuegge]

13. The world would be a much better place without these Arab idiots and their religious fairy tales

they use as an excuse for their inability to control uncivilized impulses.

Too bad we didn't have a quick, painless, and consequence-less way to take them all out in one shot. Idiots like this will continue to be a thorn in the side of sane people as long as they are alive.

[Alamuti Lotus]

14. speaking of idiots...

Wrong on so many levels, as can be expected from your kind.

A) Pakistanis =/= Arabs, but I realize that you see no difference in 'those people'; B) oh how your wish for mass murder is a completely sane and civilized impulse, it compares well with the qualities you imagine your foe to possess.

[EFerrari]

16. These people don't even know who they're hating.

Flabbergasting.

[Alamuti Lotus]

17. Voltaire's prayer

"O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." Done and done. Brief addendum: all well and good, but a little less numerous, please.

[EFerrari]

19. LOL! I'd never read that.

[ryanmuegge]

20. Their exact ethnic heritage is irrelevant.

There is a reason why nearly every country in the Middle East is embroiled in constant chaos. It's no conincidence. A sizable portion of the country have some completely insane beliefs and are violent as hell. We have a lot of religious idiots here too, particularly in the southern states, but why aren't they shooting women on every street corner? Why aren't they constantly killing each other? Really, who cares? The fact is that they aren't acting out violently on a large scall here here, yet they are doing so in the Middle East.

In all honesty, ethnicity is unimportant to me (unlike "your kind" who constantly obsess over it, apparently). Behavior is the only thing that matters to me.

[bemildred]

21. Stop making your hole deeper.

Just a suggestion.

[Alamuti Lotus]

22. No no, please let him dig..

he was clearly not put on the planet to become my disciple (this is difficult for me to admit:--I had high hopes); he can be my entertainment instead.

[Alamuti Lotus]

23. Ok, I pledge not to let the facts get in the way of a good kkkulture rant

After you explain to me why your mass murder fantasies are more civilized than those insane Ayrabs (the answer may be obvious, but alas:--it eludes your humble narrator), I invite you to find any major metro area of the world not in constant chaos. That may be the one thing that large masses of any people are universally good at.

[EFerrari]

15. Are you lost or something?

[tuckessee]

18. JimRob, is that you? n/t

[ohio2007]

24. Bomb kills 12 children, Taliban withdraw in NW Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – A bomb killed 12 children on Saturday in a restive part of northwest Pakistan which the government has put under Islamic law as part of a shaky peace deal with the Taliban, police said.

Officials had earlier said at least four children died in the blast which came after a warning this week by the United States that Islamist advances in northwest Pakistan pose "an existential threat" to the country.

"The children had found the bomb outside a girls' primary school in Luqman Banda village of Lower Dir town," a local police official said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090425/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanunrestnorthwest3rdlead_20090425195905