The rise of the obscurantist:
One of the battle zones is the northern Bajaur area, separated from the eastern Afghan province Kunar. Bordering this region is the Malakand area, the crown of which is Swat valley – with ski resorts, hilly retreats, glacial water lakes at Mahudand, and hot water springs. It once attracted tens of thousands of local and foreign tourists every year, until the first signs of the Islamist reaction to the questionable War on Terror began emerging in the valley. At first Mehsud’s deputy Maulana Fazlullah got his vigilantes to scare shopkeepers into burning music CDs and videos. They warned women not to appear in public without a veil and also instructed hotels not to allow “un-Islamic activities” in other words, the drinking of alcohol. The situation became increasingly frightening when Fazlullah’s men began physically checking out hotels in June that year. Two couples, with their children, had travelled to Malam Jabba – the scenic ski resort – and then settled down in a hotel at Mingora, the administrative headquarters of Swat, for a peaceful weekend. At around 2am a band of about a dozen Taliban knocked at their doors and ordered them to leave. ‘Don’t spread obscenity here, just leave the place,’ one of them thundered while swinging his gun. The two frightened women took refuge in one of the bathrooms. But the Taliban shot twice at the door to force them out. Both horrified women were wounded and came out limping. Bleeding profusely, and with children crying, the families packed up and fled from the hotel. From then on, Taliban militants never looked back; one after the other they seized 12 police stations, enforcing their brand of Sharia, eventually prompting the Pakistan army to launch Operation Rahe Haq – the right path – to wrest control of the valley from the rag-tag army in November; but ever since, Swat never settled down. The ensuing hostilities in the areas around Swat led to two peace deals, one in May 2008 and the other in February 2009, spearheaded by the 80-year-old Maulana Sufi Mohammad, Ameer of Tehrike Nifaze Shariate Muhammadi (TNSM), the father-in-law of Fazlullah. But both deals fell flat – because the al Qaeda-led Tehrike Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants did not put down their arms, and instead used the cover of the agreement to extend their influence in neighboring districts such as Dir and Buner.

Swat ´ where terrorism replaced tourism:
Scores of Pakistanis are immensely agonized by what the home-grown Islamist radicals, ideologically driven by al Qaeda, have done to their own country. Misery has piled on misery, forcing hundreds of thousands of people from a region where terrorism has replaced tourism, particularly since the summer of 2007. Close to 200 girls– schools have been destroyed and some 600 hotels rendered useless. As the exodus continues, camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are springing up all over; tent cities for IDPs are now commonplace. Swat is on fire for nearly four years now where militants connected with TTP and Al-qaeda are challenging the writ of Pakistani State and battling Pakistan army. ‘I lost my hotel, my property and my brother lost three of his jewelry shops. They would have been looted and destroyed by the Taliban,’ Malik Munir, a Swat resident said. Who will make up for our loss and where was Pakistani government when all this was happening? Malik asks.[1] To his complaints, no one has any answer. Once called the Switzerland of Asia, Swat is in the global focus and the British Prime Minister recently called the Taliban strongholds in Pakistan as ‘the crucible of global terrorism.’ ‘Swat once attracted scores of tourists, now it attracts scores of terrorists and this all happened during MMA government,’ an army officer commented on conditions of anonymity.

Taliban ´ friends then, foes now:
Back in 1983, when Islamist mujahideen were still battling Soviet forces and their Afghan surrogates, tens of thousands of refugees from eastern Afghanistan descended on Pakistan villages, Jalala being one of them, seeking refuge. This village once again hosts tens of thousands of Pakistani families who have fled from fighting between the Pakistani security forces and, once favored, home-grown religious radicals – hardened zealots of the TTP, led by their maverick leader Baitullah Mehsud. These families left Swat, Buner, Dir and many other areas when, army past ‘strategic assets,’ Islamist militants began seizing government buildings and patrolling roads and streets in the entire valley, triggering fears of another battle between extremists and the military. The Jalala camp is nearly 25 kilometers from the mountains of Swat, once again echoing with the artillery thunder and the roar of gunship helicopters after a lull when Nizam-e-Adl Regulation was agreed with Mullah Sufi Muhammad TNSM. The battle rages on and thousands of families are on the move and this poses a serious challenge to both people and the government of Pakistan. Arif Zaib, a local journalist, said that once his family took care of the Afghan refugees and ‘we never thought that one day we ourselves will be refugees within our own country.’ Anyone who responsible for that must be hanged, Zaib vented his anger

International concerns pressed Pakistan to end its ‘Ostrich act:’
This unleashed a deluge of speculation about the future of Pakistan as a nation, as advancing Taliban came within 160km of Islamabad. From President Barack Obama to Hillary Clinton and Gordon Brown, the floodgates of fear opened up. Never before had the world watched Pakistan with such an awe and helplessness. ‘I think we cannot underscore the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan by the continuing advances,’ Clinton said. The US secretary of state said the government in Islamabad was ceding territory and ‘basically abdicating to the Taliban and the extremists’ adding that the nuclear-armed nation, under the sway of extremists, could also pose a ‘mortal threat’ to the United States and other countries.

Despite the Doomsday scenarios, Pakistan’s leaders claim they are fighting the Taliban relentlessly. ‘These militants have no religion, they are not bothered about boundaries, and they are opposing the state and its institutions, we cannot take it,’ Yousuf Reza Gilani, the prime minister said, following an urgent Cabinet meeting that ratified military action in Swat. Gilani also summoned an all-party conference, with participation of religious scholars to elicit what he called a ‘consensus on the acts of people who justify their acts in the name of Islam.’ President Asif Ali Zardari assured his US counterpart and Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, of an ‘all out war against terrorists.’ Zardari also laid to rest worldwide speculation about the safety of his country’s nuclear arsenal by saying they were beyond the reach of the obscurantist elements. Obama perhaps needed these assurances. ‘We want to respect their sovereignty, but we also recognize that we have huge strategic interests, huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you don’t end up having a nuclear-armed militant state,’ he said.

Aid to and performance of Pakistan against Taliban:
The American president followed up his concerns for Pakistan by urging Congress to approve additional funds so the ‘fragile” Islamabad government could go on delivering basic services like education, health care and a justice system to its people. A Congressional Appropriations’ Committee approved an unprecedented $1.9bn aid package for the current year to help Pakistan ride out the economic crisis. The amount also includes more than $400m counter-insurgency funds for equipping and training the security forces, perhaps underscoring the sense of urgency in Washington on the need to prevent a Muslim country of 170 million people buckling under militant pressure. The Washington meetings, some of them also attended by General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head of the Inter-Services’ Intelligence (ISI) agency, Pakistan’s equivalent of the CIA, suggested both countries were closer than ever as far as taking on the common enemy, the al-Qaeda-led militants, is concerned. As of mid May 2009, the government claimed to having killed nearly 1,500 militants and ‘we will fight these anti-state elements tooth and nail,’ army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said.

The international community must ‘do more’ for IDPs:
The fighting has resulted in a humanitarian crisis. Most IDPs from Buner and Dir are complaining of neglect and shortage of food and shelter. ‘Displacement from one’s home is a big psychological trauma and these people need to be handled carefully,’ said Sitara Jabin, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Islamabad. UNHCR officials are also warning of complications if government and non-government organizations did not coordinate the aid effort. ‘Frustrations at camps can easily deliver some people into the hands of the Taliban,’ said a worker of Al-Khidmat Foundation at the Jalala camp, who was surprised that some of the IDPs were still supportive of militants such as Maulana Fazlullah ‘In the current scenario, it is all the more crucial not only for the military but also for the political leadership to establish the state writ in the embattled areas. The credibility of the state’s ability to fix rogue elements is also at stake,’ said Talat Masood, defence analyst. ‘Pakistani state institutions have to deliver as an increasingly skeptical and cynical public looks to its government not only for safety but also for a radical improvement in governance,’ Masood added.

Pakistan circular motion into failure:
Pakistan once hosted 3.5 million Afghan refugees; Pakistan now is hosting nearly the same number of its IDPs in the same camps where once Afghans were kept as ‘guests’ Mot of these guests never went back. The State and Society of Pakistan have paid a heavy and bitter price because of the ill-conceived, misplaced and nonsensical policies of the security establishment that once honed and supported a certain sect in Islam to fight an unholy war in the name off Jihad. ISI, with the help of American and Saudi intelligence and administrative/logistical support, created countless ‘ideological goblins’ that grew to a life of their own; got intertwined with countless regional and international vested interests and are now threatening the very basis of Pakistani Nation and State. In thirty years of Jihad from 1979, Pakistan spirit has waned and weakened with a failure that stares at the face of the nation and nation returns the look with empty eyes. Priorities of the Pakistani State have failed the people. A people, otherwise hardworking, studious and intelligent, are now reduced to be thinking about their way of life and personal safety that at the moment is at stake. It is hoped that Pakistan armed forces understand the responsibility that they shoulder today to save the Pakistani way of life, Pakistan herself and correcting numerous historical wrongs in the name of national security.

Pakistan army must not fail the nation.