As the US moves forward in Afghanistan and considers reconciliation with some members of the Taliban, the Swat Valley in Pakistan offers some lessons.
Attack helicopters and war planes bombarded suspected Taliban hideouts in the Swat Valley during the deadliest fighting to grip the northwest district since the government brokered a February peace agreement with hardliners.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani delivered a televised address urging the nation to unite against extremists, whom he said were threatening the country's sovereignty and who had violated the peace deal with attacks.
And Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari vowed that military operations would last until “normalcy” had returned to the troubled Swat Valley.
The deeply controversial agreement between the government and a pro-Taliban cleric to put three million people in a wide region of northwest Pakistan under sharia law had been meant to end a nearly two-year violent Taliban uprising.
In order to restore honour and dignity of our homeland, and to protect people, the armed forces have been called to eliminate the militants and terrorists,” said Gilani, dressed symbolically in traditional Pakistani dress.
“The time has come when the entire nation should side with the government and the armed forces against those who want to make the entire country hostage and darken our future at gunpoint,” the premier added.
Thousands of civilians streamed out of the Taliban stronghold and former tourist resort of Swat on foot or crammed into cars in the face of the fighting, as the Red Cross warned that the humanitarian crisis was escalating.
Pakistan is under heavy US pressure to crush militants, whom Washington have called the biggest terror threat to the West. US President Barack Obama has put the nuclear-armed Muslim country at the heart of the fight against al-Qa’ida.
“(The operation) is going to carry on until life in Swat comes back to normalcy,” Zardari told reporters at the US Capitol after meeting key senators.
“It's a regional problem, it's a worldwide problem,” Zardari said. “I think the world is coming to that realisation,” he added.
Following talks with Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Senator John Kerry said the US Congress would urgently complete an aid bill to stabilise Pakistan.
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, speaking in Kabul, praised Pakistan's action against the Taliban. Read more....
Source: The Australian
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