TALIBAN POSITIONS close to Islamabad were attacked by Pakistani fighter jets and helicopter gunships yesterday as the army stepped up an operation to prevent extremist fighters spilling out of the Taliban-controlled Swat valley.
The army sealed off mountain passes leading to Buner, a highland area 100km northwest of the capital, as locals reported tank and troop movements into the valley.
Taliban fighters swept across the strategically important Buner district last week, ransacking aid agency offices and occupying government buildings.
Although Islamabad was never under direct threat, the proximity of the militant advance stoked American worries of a “mortal threat” to world security, as Hillary Clinton put it.
Yesterday’s assault on Buner was the second phase of an operation that started in the nearby Lower Dir district on Sunday, killing 85 people, mostly militants, and displacing an estimated 30,000 villagers.
Army spokesman Gen Athar Abbas said the objective was to expel 500 fighters who entered Buner last week in breach of a recent peace deal between the government and the Taliban. “We’ll move forward with the help of our firepower and clear the valley of the militants,” he said.
The assault appeared to send the controversial peace deal – under which the government agreed to introduce sharia law – veering towards collapse.
Speaking from his Swat stronghold, militant spokesman Muslim Khan reacted angrily. “This is all a plot of Obama and Zardari and Kayani,” he said, referring to the US and Pakistani presidents and Pakistan’s army chief. Khan said he considered that the peace deal had collapsed in every district of Malakand, in the North-West Frontier province – except for Swat.
A spokesman for Sufi Muhammad, an ageing jihadi fighter who helped negotiate the accord, said all talks were suspended. But the peace deal was not entirely dead. A senior official with the Awami National party, which governs the province, said their new strategy was to expel the Taliban from adjoining districts through force but to preserve the peace in Swat.
In Buner, residents cowered in their homes as they braced for clashes between the Frontier Corps force and militants.
There were no estimates of people displaced or casualties from early fighting in Buner, a district of about one million people that occupies a pivotal geographic location close to a reservoir, a motorway and the Margalla hills.
Gen Abbas accused the militants of forcible recruitment, stealing property, and punishing locals for playing music in cars.
The army has come under criticism in the past week for focusing on India, while failing to face up to the homegrown enemy. Gen Abbas said current operations were proof that the army had the capacity to “eliminate” militants.
The main question was whether fighting would spread to Swat, triggering an all-out war with the Taliban. Amid rising tensions, the local media have already come into the firing line.
Yesterday, tracts appeared in the valley, signed by the leader of a suicide bomb squad, warning reporters to write “positive” stories or face the consequences.
Khan confirmed the new edict. “Under sharia law, if you tell a lie you must be punished,” he said.– (Guardian service)