Sharia does not permit us to lay down arms…
Excerpts from an eye-opening report in The Dawn (emphasis mine)Â
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban will not lay down their arms in a northwestern valley as part of a deal that included the introduction of sharia law but will take their ‘struggle’ to new areas, a militant spokesman said on Wednesday.
President Asif Ali Zardari, under pressure from conservatives, signed a regulation on Monday imposing sharia law in the Swat valley to end Taliban violence.
The strategy of appeasement has alarmed US officials, while critics say the government has demonstrated a lack of capacity and will to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda. Details of the deal have not been made public but government officials backing the pact have said part of it was that militants would give up their arms.
But a Pakistani Taliban spokesman in the scenic valley, a one-time tourist destination 125 km northwest of Islamabad, said they would be keeping their guns.
‘Sharia doesn’t permit us to lay down arms,’ Muslim Khan said by telephone. ‘If a government, either in Pakistan or Afghanistan, continues anti-Muslim policies, it’s out of the question that Taliban lay down their arms.’
Some Taliban fighters last week moved out of Swat and into Buner district, only 100 km from Islamabad, and Khan said his men would push into new areas.
‘When we achieve our goal at one place, there are other areas where we need to struggle for it,’ he said.
Wonder where exactly these “other areas” are? East of the border perhaps?
Related Posts:
The “Talibanisation†of Pakistan… (written more than two years ago).
I had concluded the post with this sentence:
Connect the dots – and be really worried.
Seems like nothing has changed.
Is India prepared for an imploding Pakistan?Â
P.S. Stumbled on this quote by Hon EAM Sh Pranab Mukherjee:Â Â
Taliban is a very powerful terrorist organisation.
Amen.
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This too from the dawn. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/ardeshir-cowasjee-the-price-of-moral-cowardice
Meanwhile, you have others suggesting that:
🙁
Why are we so worried about this?
The Pakistani Army sowed the wind, and now they are set to reap the whirlwind. Very difficult to see how they are going to avoid a civil war, which will tear the army into two parts and in turn, balkanise the country.
On our side, we should keep up the vigil on our western border and maybe buy a drone or two soon. It has been a fallacy (I have also been guilty of holding on to this myth) that a united and stable Pakistan is better for India. Over the past 3-4 years, I have come to the conclusion, that an unstable, inward looking, disintegrating Pakistan is so much better.
Cheers
Holbrooke on Pakistan:
Obama Administration’s point man on Afghanistan and Pakistan, Holbrooke…has expressed his “concern and confusion” about what has happened in Swat valley
There may actually be no civil war in Pakistan. It might just become a Taliban country . Aren’t we assuming that the military and people actually want a western style democracy. Maybe that assumption on the part of
Obama’s government is unwarranted. While for most of us, the idea of living with Talibani laws are incomprehensible, I believe that Pakistan is fulfilling its true destiny. They always wanted to be an example for the Muslim world and now they will be. A 15th century society with a 21st century bomb.
India had better get a leader with some balls. Maybe we should all gather in the streets and demand Modi be PM.
Shantanu you might be interested in this as its happening in close backyard. Scary stuff!
http://is.gd/2BgOc
http://is.gd/2Bibu
Do you know of any reasons why is UK appeasing to such lunatics?
US ain’t behind either: http://is.gd/2Bdac
Satyabhashanam: Thanks. Scary indeed…but not surprising at all…
Pl. read my latest post.