Islamists overrunning Pakistan’s Swat Valley
Islamist militants are taking control of the Swat Valley, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan. Some 200,000 of the region’s 1.8 million residents have reportedly fled for safety.
From an IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:
“We see terrible events here every day. The central square in Mingora [the largest city in Swat] is now known as ‘khooni chowk’ [the bloody square] because someone is beheaded or executed in some other manner here virtually every day,” Shahzad, a resident of Mingora, told IRIN on the phone.
He preferred anonymity, fearing reprisals by the militants, who have ordered women not to leave their homes and men to grow beards and wear prayer caps. A few days ago a man was reportedly killed for failing to raise his `shalwar’ (baggy trousers) above the ankle – a requirement that militants deem necessary at prayer time.
According to a local newspaper, the government controls only 36 square kilometres of Swat, compared to about 5300 sq. km. in the hands of Sunni Muslim militants.
Islamists have threatened and attacked Swat Valley schools in an effort to prevent girls from being educated. Parents are keeping their daughters at home in compliance with Taliban demands, despite government assurances that girls and schools will be protected.
“We can’t risk sending our daughters to school. We will comply with the demand made by the [Taliban] militants,” said Ahmed Ali, 52, a father of three girls. “The Taliban do what they say,” he said.
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According to Associated Press of Pakistan, Information Minister Sherry Rehman said on 17 January she would get the girls’ schools reopened, and reiterated that damaged and destroyed schools would be rebuilt.But Ali was sceptical: “I have seen dead bodies… beheaded bodies with my own eyes… I don’t want to be made an example of! I am petrified of even talking to you for fear they may overhear me!”
Five more schools have been bombed in the past ten days. In total, the Taliban has destroyed about 200 schools in Swat Valley since 2007.
Informed observers believe that NWFP and neighbouring FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) are now almost completely under Taliban control.
Assyrian International News Agency asks why the West is silent while Sunni Muslim fanatics spread their reign of terror against women, girls, teachers, and converts from Islam.
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