ANOTHER day, another attack from across the Pak-Afghan border inside Pakistain. On Wednesday night, the attack in Upper Dir was not as damaging as the one launched Sunday -- security officials claimed that the only deaths were of cut-throats involved -- but it underscored the deteriorating security conditions in the area. The savagery of the Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
Taliban led by Maulana Fazlullah is well-known. At the height of their power in the Malakand region they committed atrocities that made them stand out even in the world of myrmidon violence. Having lost their fiefdom in 2009 but with their leadership on the run, there was always the likelihood they would creep back in and use tactics like beheadings and overrunning security check posts to sow fear in the region again. That is precisely what seems to be happening, notwithstanding the fact that the military does physically dominate the area in which Fazlullah and his band of violent Islamists ruled for several years.
Two points need to be made. One, pushing out cut-throats from one area -- whether into an adjoining tribal area or across the Pak-Afghan border -- is not a long-term solution. Only a concerted effort on both sides of the border to clamp down on militancy will stabilise the region. However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach...
that process cannot be selective. There is a suspicion in Pak security circles that Afghan and foreign forces in Afghanistan are, at the very least, looking the other way while Pakistain-centric cut-throats pour across the border -- a tit-for-tat response to the Pak security establishment which refuses to squeeze the Haqqanis in particular on this side of the border. But that is a dangerous game in which only so-called non-state actors win. Better, then, for the Afghan, Pak and American governments to cooperate instead of engaging in what amounts to proxy warfare that could spiral out of control. The other point is that the Malakand operation was a success story that gave the inhabitants of the area a chance to rebuild their lives without the Taliban menace. Unless security is strengthened there, the perception that the Taliban are returning will only grow and may well prove a reality.