Even as Pakistan struggles to put in place peace deals with the Taliban militants in the restive border areas with Afghanistan, fears of insurgents taking control of Peshawar in North West Frontier Province is haunting the government, a news report said on Wednesday. “Peshawar is in a state of siege and if Peshawar falls, the rest of the districts in the NWFP would fall like ninepins,” a worried senior government official was quoted as saying by the Dawn daily of Pakistan.
| Notice that the Talibunnies can take Peshawar but can't take Kandahar. |
The report said the security situation in Peshawar is grim. “So grim has the situation become that a committee that includes Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani, and the Corps Commander Masood Aslam met on May 31 to discuss possible options for defending Peshawar,” the daily said.
It noted that officials in Pakistan’s Home Department, who evaluate the situation on an almost daily basis, believe declaring a state of red alert is now only a matter of time. “The military, the paramilitary, the constabulary and the police are unable or unwilling to muster enough force to defend the city,” the report said.
| Or consider the Taliban to be their bestest cousins ... |
According to the daily, with militants knocking at the gates of the capital of the NWFP, “even the more circumspect government and police officials now grudgingly concede that Peshawar, too, could fall in a few months.” “It would be a shame if Peshawar were to fall. It is not Swat. It is home to the headquarters of the 11th Corps, the paramilitary Frontier Corps, the Frontier Constabulary and the police,” the daily said.
Police stations in Pakistan’s rural Peshawar have long given up patrolling at night. “No less a person than Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of JUI, saw it urgent to ring alarm bells, saying in a statement on Tuesday that the government must act to stop the Taliban march before it was too late,” the daily reported.
The Pakistan government assured the National Assembly yesterday that an anti-militancy operation will be carried out in NWFP within a week. However, the spurt in militant activity, especially in Peshwar, has become a major concern in security circles. |