Updated at: 1855 PST, Monday, May 04, 2009
According to sources, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan has claimed the responsibility today.
It may be reminded here that two security personnel were murdered in Khwazakhela area on Sunday.
Khan further said that Taliban Commander Khalil is alive.
Updated at: 2315 PST, Monday, May 04, 2009
Curfew has been imposed across the district from 7 pm to 6 am.
According to sources, militants have besieged Mingora Grid Station in Swat where 46 security personnel have become confined.
Meanwhile, a blast has been heard near Mingora Police Station after which gunshots are being heard.
Updated at: 1905 PST, Monday, May 04, 2009
SWAT: A night-time curfew from 7pm to 6am has been imposed in Swat valley, Swat Media Centre reported on Monday.
Amid some security concerns, the curfew will remain in force between 7pm to 6am.
Monday, May 04, 2009 
By Mazhar Tufail
ISLAMABAD: The Swat peace pact stands dissolved and the militants present in Swat, Matta, Kabal and Sangla as well as their commanders have asked for permission to fight everywhere, sources told The News on Sunday.
“Our peace agreement with the NWFP government practically stands dissolved,” confirmed Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the Swat chapter of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), while talking to The News via telephone. ìForces are attacking us and our fighters are also retaliating,î he said.
The TTP Swat spokesman vowed that their fighters would now attack security forces and the government figures everywhere. He said the rulers were obeying every directive of US President Barack Obama.
ìIf the Awami National Party supports us, we will not harm them. But if they sided with the government, they too will become our target. However, our main target will be security forces and the rulers of Pakistan. We will also act in other cities of Pakistan but will not target the general public,î the TTP spokesman said. To a question, the TTP spokesman ruled out the involvement of India and Afghanistan and said no outside elements were involved in the Swat unrest.
When asked about the dissolution of the Swat peace agreement, Spokesman for the Awami National Party Senator Zahid Khan said that they had signed the accord with TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad and not with the Swat Taliban. He said the Taliban had been violating the accord time and again.
When contacted, TNSM spokesman Ameer Izzat Khan said he did not know about the scrapping of the agreement but if the operation continued in the region, the situation would return to the one that prevailed before the pact. He claimed the general public in Swat was now opposed to the government.
Answering a question about the peace accordís scrapping, the TNSM spokesman said: ìWe do not know as to who is conducting the operation — the federal government or security forces — but we know that it is being launched to please the United States.î
Regarding the involvement of India and Afghanistan in the Swat imbroglio, the TNSM spokesman claimed the two countries had nothing to do with the unrest in the region. He said it was only a reaction to the government policies. He said neither they had amassed arms nor were they getting financial help from abroad. He said the people of Swat had been demanding the enforcement of the Islamic law in the area since 1989.
ìIf the prevailing situation persists, the government will lose control over the area and reaction to the government actions will also be witnessed in other cities of the country. In that situation, even the TNSM will be unable to control the situation,î Ameer Izzat Khan claimed.
By Gohar Ali Gohar and Hameedullah Khan
Monday, 04 May, 2009 | 03:45 PM PST
TNSM spokesman Ameer Izzat reiterated that the govt did not consult Sufi Mohammad on the Qazis’ appointments. — Reuters
BATKHELA: The Taliban will not lay down their arms until the military operation is halted in the region, Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Sufi Mohammad's spokesman Ameer Izzat said on Monday.
We hold the government responsible for the consequences of the ongoing military operations in the area, Izzat said.
The TNSM will only be responsible for the maintenance of peace if sharia is practically enforced in Malakand, he said, adding that it is the government's responsibility to provide conditions that will help ensure lasting peace.
The government should realise that peace cannot be restored through force and can only come through Shariat-i-Muhammadi and said no one will take up arms once the sharia is enforced.
He reiterated that the government did not consult the TNSM on the Qazis' appointments.
Meanwhile, North West Frontier Province's information minister Iftikhar Hussain said that by establishing the Darul Qaza, the government fulfilled its promise and now it's the TNSM's responsibility to honour its commitments.
On Sunday, TNSM and Swat Taliban rejected the setting up of Darul Qaza and appointments of Qazis as a unilateral decision of the government, saying Sufi Mohammad was not consulted before the announcement.
Talking to media persons after TNSM Shura’s meeting at its headquarter in Bilal Mosque Amandara on Monday, Ameer Izzat Khan said the setting up of Darul Qaza in Malakand was a one-sided decision by the government and TNSM chief was not consulted prior to the announcement in this regard.
Izzat, reading a written statement before newsmen, said the government during its first round of talks at Timergara a few days ago had promised to take Sufi Mohammad into confidence, stop the military operation in Maidan and Buner and pave the way for a safe and speedy return of displaced people. But, he said, none of these demands were met. The TNSM therefore disowned the establishment of Darul Qaza and appointment of judges as Qazis.
There was no mention in the written statement regarding the February 16 peace accord with the government despite reservation over the formation of Darul Qaza.
Sufi Muhammad said on the occasion that ‘delegating powers of Qazis to judges is Ghair-Sharaee,’ adding: ‘we want qazis in accordance with Shariat-i-Muhammadi.’ He said TNSM wanted to transform the present judicial system into sharia system.
He said sharia and democracy are totally different systems, adding we consider democracy as Kuffar (infidelity) and believe in system of Quran and Sunnah. The constitution of Pakistan is Islamic and it was not practically implemented in the country, he said on Sunday.
He said we are still ready for talks and stand by our promise of restoring peace in Malakand if sharia was implemented in its true spirit.
Meanwhile, Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan on Sunday told media persons by phone from an undisclosed location that Darul Qaza under the shadows of jets bombing and shelling was not acceptable to them.
He said the government should stop the military operation and set up Darul Qaza after consultation with Sufi Mohmmad. He said Taliban were abiding by the peace agreement made between the government and TNSM. He said the government was violation the peace accord after launching operation in Dir and Buner districts and making preparation for strike in Swat.
He warned of befitting response if military operation was again imposed on them in Swat.
He said Darul Qaza should be so powerful that it could summon the president, prime minister, Sufi Mohammad and even Mullah Fazlullah to appear before it.
He said the government has arrested 40 Taliban, including several innocent locals, and added that about 25 security personnel were in Taliban custody, who would be freed as soon as possible.
Muslim Khan ruled out the supply of arms to the Taliban by foreign states, adding they had successfully stolen weapons from Pakistan security forces. He expressed full confidence in Sufi Mohammad, saying they would follow the directives of Sufi Mohmmad regarding Darul Qaza and Qazi courts.
Monday, May 04, 2009
Spokesman says provincial government has violated agreed formula 
By our correspondent
BATKHELA: The Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) has rejected the NWFP government’s unilateral decision of setting up the Darul Qaza and appointing two high court judges as Qazis.
“The TNSM leaders and the NWFP government delegation held talks in Timergara on May 1 wherein it was agreed that in the first phase the military operation would be halted in the Malakand Division so that the displaced persons could return to their hometowns,” Amir Izzat Khan, spokesman for the TNSM, told media persons after the Shura meeting in Amandara on Sunday.
“In the second phase, the provincial government and the TNSM chief, along with the Shura members, would announce the setting up of the Darul Qaza and the appointment of Qazis in Peshawar, but the government violated the agreed formula by announcing its decision unilaterally.”
He said the TNSM had nothing to do with the unilateral establishment of the Darul Qaza and appointment of Qazis. “We had pinned high hopes on the final round of talks and, subsequently, the establishment of the Darul Qaza and the judges’ appointment, but the government disappointed us by doing all this without taking TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad into confidence,” the spokesman regretted. He alleged that the provincial government had violated the agreed formula.
He said they had decided that after halting the military operation, establishing the Darul Qaza and appointing Qazis in the Malakand Division, the Taliban would be asked to lay down arms to pave the way for the smooth implementation of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation.
However, the provincial government established the Darul Qaza and appointed two judges of the Peshawar High Court, Justice Mohiuddin and Ziauddin Khattak, as its Qazis without taking the TNSM leaders into confidence.
The TNSM and the provincial government’s statements have sent a wave of fear among the people of Malakand Division as, according to them, both were not on the same page on the enforcement of Shariah in the area. They feared that differences between the government and the TNSM would ultimately lead to the eruption of violence in the troubled areas again.
Updated at: 1750 PST, Monday, May 04, 2009
Talking to Geo news here on Monday, Barrister Arshad said that under the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation (NAR-2009), only the NWFP government has the privilege to appoint Qazis. The minister said that the government would fulfill its constitutional responsibilities and soon an office of Dar-ul-Qaza would be established in Malakand. He said after the establishement of Dar-ul-Qaza, an additional and a deputy advocate general would be appointed in the division.
Monday, May 04, 2009
In an interview with the Geo News, Sufi said taking photographs is prohibited in Islam and the same is true for video footage and photographs in the light of Hadith. The system of the Quran and Shariah is known as Shariat-e-Mohammadi and “we will continue our struggle for its implementation,” he added.
It is the responsibility of each and every Muslim to struggle for the implementation of Shariah in the country, he said. The TNSM chief said there was complete Shariah in Afghanistan, but the US had attacked that country to end Shariah there. He said it is the responsibility of the Muslim Ummah to go for Jihad.
Jihad is a binding on each and every Muslim, and even women can take part in it without the permission of their husbands. He said the struggle for Kashmiri was for a piece of land and, therefore, it was not Jihad. He said there was a great difference between democracy and Shariah. “Many religious leaders, including Kashmiri was for a piece of land and, therefore, it was not Jihad. He said there was great difference between democracy and Shariah. “Many religious leaders, including Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Maulana Samiul Haq, are trying to find Shariah in democracy which is wrong,” he added.
May 01, 2009
Pictures showing four road-side bombs buried underneath a road in Sharif Abad, Mingora Swat Valley. The narrow digging which hides the detonating-wire can be clearly seen in the pictures.
The road being a busy route for army conveys connects Swat Valley with Buner where recently an offensive is initiated against Militants. It’s the second most important army course since Qambar Rd, which is already glutted by Taliban with explosives.
Witness says a number of Taliban came last night, besieged the road and started digging the road and planted the bombs.
No Army action is taken against the mines yet.
Excavation Site Pictures:
click to zoom pictures
Updated at: 1810 PST, Friday, May 01, 2009
Following the peace talks, the TSNM has called an important meeting of its Shura in Amman Darra area of Batkhela.
Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain has said that two sides have discussed all the issues in details. He said that some progress had been made about establishment of Darul Qaza and end of ongoing military offensive in Buner and Dir.
The talks aimed at restoring peace in Malakand Division were held today in Teemargarha, District Headquarter of Lower Dir. In the meeting that started soon after Friday prayer, Senator Zahid Khan and provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain represented the government.
At the end of talks, Sufi Muhammad said that he is ready to offer cooperation for the sake of peace.
The provincial minister Hussain said that meeting took place in a cordial atmosphere and both sides discussed their apprehension in details. He said: "The operation will be halted if peace is restored in the area”
TNSM spokesman Izzat Khan said that the first round of talks between two sides was positive. And said that “efforts would continue to establish peace in the troubled areas.”
Later, speaking to Geo TV, Maulana Sufi Muhammad’s son Maulana Rizwanullah described the meeting as “successful” and said that people would soon hear good news.
Updated at: 1520 PST, Friday, May 01, 2009
In the meeting that started soon after Friday prayer, Senator Zahid Khan and provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain are representing the government. Both sides will discuss law and order situation in Swat and Malakand and formation of Dar-ul-Qaza.
According to sources, Maulana Sufi Mohammad has demanded that the government should halt the military operation and appoint Qazis in the Dar-ul-Qaza. Sources said that both sides are optimistic on the outcome of the talks.
Friday, May 01, 2009 
By our correspondent
MINGORA: Awami National Party (ANP) leader Muhammad Afzal Khan was airlifted from his native city Swat to Peshawar on Thursday for medical treatment but his departure fuelled speculation that it could be a prelude to yet another military operation in the valley.
A helicopter of the Pakistan Army lifted the 82-year old former federal minister, commonly known as Afzal Khan Lala, and some of his family members from his village Bara Darushkhela and flew them to Peshawar.
Afzal Khan Lala has survived several assassination attempts and his house in Bara Darushkhela was attacked by militants. Some of his relatives have been killed and injured and his property has been bombed. But he refused to submit to the Taliban or leave Swat. Unlike other politicians and landlords, he chose to stay in Swat instead of abandoning his people.
However, rumours were in the air in Swat that the shifting of Afzal Khan Lala to Peshawar was due to a looming operation in the valley.
When contacted for his comments, the spokesperson for the ISPR in Swat, Major Nasir, dispelled the impression. Upon contact, Afzal Khan Lala’s relatives told The News that he had come to Peshawar fo treatment of his prostrate problem. “He will return to Swat after undergoing treatment. He is not going to leave Swat after having endured so much sufferings,” Afzal Khan Lala’s nephew Salahuddin said.
Separately, four police officials were kidnapped and three persons, a policeman among them, were killed in separate incidents of violence at different areas of Swat valley. The police officials were identified as Asmat Ali, Bakht Rum, Saeed and Sameeullah. The kidnapping of the police officials has become a routine matter and over a dozen police officials have been kidnapped from different areas in the last couple of days.
Unidentified gunmen shot dead two motorcyclists in Tettani area of Matta tehsil. The identities of the victims could not be ascertained. Meanwhile, armed militants occupied a police station in Kalam after the staff abandoned the building. There were reports about the death of a police constable Ataullah but the cause of his death could not be known. One report said he died after falling from a hill.
Unidentified gunmen ambushed a police mobile van in Panar area. The policemen returned the fire, forcing the attackers to escape. In another incident unidentified gunmen stormed the offices of the Social Welfare department in Saidu Sharif, seizing and taking away medicines and other equipment. It was the second incident of its nature during the last two days.
Residents said armed militants resumed patrolling in Saidu Sharif Colony, creating fear among the people. They had abandoned patrolling after being ordered by the Taliban leadership to stop the practice.
The jet fighters of the Pakistan Air Force and predators planes continued flying over various parts of the Swat valley. The flights panicked and scared the local population. Security forces carried out a flag march and patrolled different roads in Mingora city. The troops arrested a suspected militant during a roadside search of vehicles. Security forces were on high alert to ward off any unpleasant incident.
The participants of a procession organized by the Aman Tehreek of Swat demanded the government implement the Nizam-e-Adl regulation and establish Darul Qaza in the Malakand division. Shops and business centres in Mingora were closed when the procession was marching through the bazaars.
By Abdur Rehman Abid and Haleem Asad
Friday, 01 May, 2009 | 03:45 AM PST |
People collect remains of furniture from the rubble of a police station, allegedly destroyed by Taliban forces in Buner.—AP/File
BUNER: Militants blew up a camp of the Frontier Constabulary and took away weapons, while jets and helicopters continued heavy bombing on their suspected positions in different parts of Buner district on Thursday.
According to sources, two FC platoons which had been besieged at the Jawar Camp on Wednesday night were allowed to leave after surrendering to the militants.
The militants took away an APC and a large haul of weapons before destroying the camp and a checkpoint, the sources said.
A police vehicle was also taken away and a police station was set on fire in Pir Baba town. Local people said militants had control of Ambela Chowk, Pacha, Nawagai, Jungai, Swarai, Gagera, Dewana Baba, Pir Baba and Sultanwas.
Security forces stepped up air strikes and ground forces, backed by tanks and heavy artillery positioned in Rustam area of the Mardan district, attacked targets in Buner.
Helicopters attacked militants in Sultanwas town where they had set up makeshift headquarters at the house of a tribal elder after forcing his family to leave.
Planes bombed Karaker, Dermai pass, Darazai pass and Ambela. Militants have blown up two bridges near Ambela in a bid to block the movement of ground forces. Militants are reported to have planted explosive devices along the area’s main road and at other places.
Hundreds of families, among them Afghan refugees, left their homes and headed towards Swabi and Mardan. People in Daggar, the district headquarters, were facing shortage of food and other essentials items because of curfew. Troops had arrived in the town by helicopters on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, two children were injured in shelling by helicopters in Gul Abad as security forces continued their operation in parts of Lower Dir district. According to sources, militants were still holding positions in Gul Abad.
No casualty among militants was reported in the attacks by helicopter gunships. Militants took away two vehicles from the hujra of MNA Malik Azmat Khan of the Pakistan People’s Party at Ouch.
A vehicle was taken away from the Chakdara timber market, owned by the Forest Development Corporation (FDC). Militants moved in two vehicles on the Chakdara-Timergara road near Gul Abad.
Friday, 01 May, 2009 | 12:20 PM PST
Pakistani troops stand beside their artillery before firing towards the hideouts of the Taliban near the Buner district. Earlier this week, militants captured police stations in three villages and have been holding hostage 52 police officers and paramilitary soldiers in the district. –AFP Photo/Tariq Mahmood
PESHAWAR: Taliban militants Friday kidnapped 10 paramilitary soldiers from their local headquarters in a northwest Pakistan town bordering the troubled Swat valley, police said.
The abduction took place in the town of Dir, in the Upper Dir district of Malakand — where the military this week launched an offensive against Taliban in Lower Dir and Buner districts.
Up to 60 Taliban militants stormed the local paramilitary headquarters and snatched 10 personnel around 1:00 am, Dir police chief Ijaz Ahmed told AFP.
There were only a few personnel at the headquarters because most were deployed in the field, Ahmed said.
Atiq-ur-Rehman, head of the district administration in Upper Dir, confirmed that more than 50 armed militants attacked the local Dir Levies paramilitary headquarters and abducted 10 personnel.
In Buner, militants earlier this week captured police stations in three villages and have been holding hostage 52 police officers and paramilitary soldiers in the district, the military has said.
By Ravi Khanna
Washington
30 April 2009
With Pakistan's Swat Valley under Taliban control, worldwide interest about how life has changed in the region has grown. Prominent Pakistani journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy recently went to investigate, spending two days in the valley to produce a documentary for the PBS television program Frontline, which is being streamlined online.
Film-maker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
"How war is killing children in Pakistan but also turning children into killers," is the theme of film-maker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's PBS documentary, Children of the Taliban. She says her film is about what happens to the residents of Swat Valley when the Taliban militants move in.
"I think their whole policy is to create chaos. And the first way they do it is by banning women from leaving their homes, by making sure there is very little freedom, she says, "Then they go house to house knocking on doors asking families to donate their children to the Army of Islam, as they like to call themselves."
Her journey begins at a rehabilitation center in Peshawar, where she talks with some of the young victims caught in the crossfire of this war.
Later she walks through the rubble of a school destroyed by the Taliban that once taught 400 girls, and comes across two nine-year old girls who used to study there. The militants have a policy of destroying schools for girls.
At the schools the Taliban runs for boys known as madrasas, poor families are often attracted by the food and shelter provided.
One Swat teenager explains how he joined the Taliban a year ago, when he was 13. First, he says, he was attracted by the sermons at the mosque, then he was recruited at a madrassa, and finally spent months in military training.
The revealing images portrayed in the documentary raise the question of why did the Taliban allow Sharmeen to film a documentary inside their stronghold?
"They think that by getting their message out, people will start subscribing to their ideology. What they don't realize is that they are espousing such a violent ideology that people are bound to get turned off by it," she said.
Fighting in the Swat valley has displaced thousands of people, many of whom now live in refugee camps.
In the documentary, two young men are featured among the hundreds of displaced children. Wasifullah and Abdurrahman are best friends.
Wasifullah says his 12 year old cousin was killed by an American missile strike on his village near the Afghan border. So he wants to join the Taliban.
But his best friend Abdurrahman blames al-Qaida for the destruction of their village. He would prefer to become a captain in the Pakistan Army.
Sharmeen says the two friends sadly represent the fault lines in the unstable country that Pakistan has become.
She says she also met with a 14 year old boy who was trained to be a suicide bomber. "He had gone through a formal six-week training course with the Taliban," she says, "and he was recruited from a local mosque in the Swat valley"
She is told by a Taliban recruiter that there is nothing wrong in using children because they are tools to achieve God's will. If you are figting, he says, then God provides you with the means.
She says there are 80 million children in Pakistan, many of them living in poverty. If the militants continue to expand their war and to recruit children freely, as they do now she says, then Pakistan may soon belong to them.
Updated at: 2315 PST, Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Talking to Geo TV, he denied that Taliban were not present in Dir. And said whatever being said in this regard was false.
Khan said that the government should have kept its promise about Darul Qaza and appointment of Qazis.
He said that “Our children rendered sacrifices for the enforcement of Nizam-e-Adl Regulation.”
“If government took one step towards implementation of Sharia laws. We will take 10 steps?” he said.
By Shahid Javed Burki Tuesday, 28 Apr, 2009 | 09:32 AM PST |
Extremist have not met residence from less radical and saner elements. —AFP/File Photo
The Washington Post headlined a recent story on the latest developments in Pakistan ‘Extremist tide rises in Pakistan’.
The story ran on the front page; its subtitle was even more revealing about the worry that is now consuming many in America and the West about Pakistan’s future. ‘After reaching deal in north, Islamists aim to install religious law nationwide’ read the story’s subhead. The story was built around the statement of Sufi Mohammad, the Swat cleric who had campaigned for decades to bring the Sharia to his part of the world. The newspaper reported that he was now determined to extend his campaign beyond Swat.
The threat was carried out a few days later. On April 22, the western press reported that the Taliban had walked into the district of Buner, south of Swat and nearer Islamabad than the Swat valley. Alarm bells began to ring loudly in Washington. On the same day that the Taliban were reported to have advanced into Buner, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared before the House Foreign Relations Committee whose chairman, Howard L. Berman, had prepared a bill that would allow highly conditional economic and military aid to Pakistan.
Ms Clinton called the Taliban advances an existential threat to Pakistan and called upon its people to put pressure on the government not to continue to cede territory to the insurgents. The government’s lack of resolve was hurting not only Pakistan but could have dire consequences for the rest of the world. She said that Pakistan was becoming a ‘mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world’.
Earlier in the week, The New York Times put on its front page a picture showing a large crowd gathered to hear Maulana Abdul Aziz who was chief cleric at the Lal Masjid in Islamabad before the military action in July 2007. The commando attack killed the cleric’s brother and scores of others. The cleric managed to escape by wearing a burka. The picture showed a bullet- riddled car parked in the middle of the congregation as a symbol for those who had come to listen to the cleric.
His attendance at the mosque was made possible by the Supreme Court’s decision to grant him bail. The car was meant to remind the prayer congregation that the struggle to bring Islam to Pakistan would not be easy and that it would be resisted by the state that still had a near-monopoly on power to impose its will. But the state’s will to resist seems to be weakening.
Western newspapers are not the only ones worrying about Pakistan’s future. Policymakers in most western capitals have reached three conclusions. One, that even judged by the standards set by a very violent world that is shaping up in the early years of the 21st century, Pakistan is the most dangerous place on earth.
Two, several influential policymakers are worried that Pakistan’s defences have been lowered to the point where the rest of the country may be overcome by radical Islam. A few days ago Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, told a TV audience that Pakistanis need to worry about the government’s decision to compromise with the clerics in Swat. ‘That ought to be a wake-up call to everybody in Pakistan that you can’t deal with these people by giving away territory as they creep closer and closer to the populated centres of the Punjab and Islamabad.’
Three, that if Pakistan crumbles it will create a tsunami that will hit many distant shores. It is in this context that the statement by President Asif Ali Zardari at Tokyo where he led the Pakistani side at the Friends of Pakistan meeting resonated well in western capitals. The president told his audience that if Pakistan fails the world fails. All this is a preamble to a simple question: why have the people of Pakistan allowed this to happen? ‘This’ refers to the allowance that has been given to some clerics to openly defy the state, to reject the rule of established law, to show great contempt for most social norms accepted by the vast majority in society.
They are doing this in an attempt to establish a social and political order that conforms only to their liking. Why is it that a small group of people believe that they have the licence to impose their will on the country when it has been shown in election after election that a vast majority of the citizenry does not support the point of view these people hold and want to force down millions of reluctant throats? The answer is as simple as the question. This has happened because the extremists have not met resistance from less radical and saner elements in the country — elements who believe in democracy, the rule of law and personal rights, in particular the rights of women.
Pakistani society can be divided into three parts: the top five per cent or so in terms of income distribution, the middle 50 per cent and the bottom 45 per cent. What has happened in the last couple of decades, as the state failed to provide appropriate services to the citizenry, is that the first class of people have bought insurance for themselves by essentially sealing themselves off from the rest of society. They have their own system of security, their own power supply, their own educational system and their own health services.
The Middle East offers them escape from the country; they go to Dubai to shop and take a vacation. A significant proportion of the middle class, numbering about 85 million, has placed its faith in a democratic system of government. Almost 70 per cent of them voted for the mainstream parties. It was this class that provided the lawyers’ movement the support it needed to battle the state.
There was a moment of extraordinary euphoria after March 16 when this class of citizenry won the restoration of the judiciary. Why is it now showing ambivalence towards the spread of extremism that challenges the social norms to which it subscribes? There are two answers to this question. This class is waiting for leadership to emerge that will mobilise and organise them. But there is also a section in this class that has swung in the direction of extremism.
Those who have done so have taken the plunge either because of conviction or because of the failure of the state to provide them with their basic needs. They need to be brought back to the fold.
Then there are the poor, 75 million in all. For them life is a struggle and the state an indifferent and increasingly irrelevant presence. The battle for Pakistan will be fought with the aim to keep the middle class convinced that their best option is to continue to put their faith in the Pakistani state. How can they be persuaded to stay on board is the question for next week.
Updated at: 1258 PST, Tuesday, April 28, 2009 
ISLAMABAD: The top leaders of the Tableeghi Jamaat have denounced enforcement of Sharia at gunpoint, religious extremism, militancy and terrorism.
Leaders of the Jamaat also called for promoting inter-faith harmony, tolerance, human rights, social justice and peace.
They were speaking at the conclusion of a three-day congregation near here. ‘Shariah cannot be enforced at gunpoint,’ declared Haji Abdul Wahab, Amir of the Tableeghi Jamaat, Pakistan.
Had that been the case, Allah Almighty would have sent fierce angels to protect prophets and enforce their faiths, he said.
The scholar cited the example of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), said the Holy Prophet never used force. Instead he spread the word of God only by peaceful means.
Haji Abdul Wahab also condemned extremism and militancy in the name of Islam. The congregation of tens of thousands of people was also addressed by Maulana Jamshaid, Maulana Mohammad Ahmed and Mualana Fahim.
Updated at: 1528 PST, Tuesday, April 28, 2009 
SWAT: Gunmen kidnapped two police personnel as a house of local lawyer has been seized in Mingora.
Sources said unknown armed men opened fire on a police mobile patrolling near Bahrain chowk and kidnapped two policemen. One personnel injured during firing was shifted to hospital.
Unknown persons in Nawan Kali, a remote area of Mingora, abducted a policeman whereas Taliban seized the house of a local lawyer Ali Haider in Kokri area. He was threatened yesterday on FM radio for opposing Taliban.
Updated at: 1937 PST, Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Commander ‘Fidain’ section has dispatched pamphlets to the offices of newspapers and TV channels, which said that media should examine its role and avoid an anti-Taliban agenda.
According to the pamphlets, media has adopted a new approach for the past one week which indicates that everybody is following a pro-Western policy under any pressure or greed.
“It is the duty of media to give space and time to such statements that leave a positive impact on the society,” it said.
Taliban further warned that they would move to Sharia courts if instructions were not followed.
