Posted on 04/25/2009 12:33:09 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BUNER, Pakistan (Reuters) – Taliban fighters remained in a Pakistani valley near the capital on Saturday, but many had pulled out after quitting their main base, officials said.
"They have gone, but left their germs here," Abdul Rasheed Khan, the district's top police officer, told Reuters. "Now we have about 200 local Taliban who can be seen on roadsides."
The Taliban's entry into the northwest district of Buner, some 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad, alarmed Washington during the past week, as fears mounted over the nuclear-armed Muslim state's stability.
On Friday, guerrilla commander Fazlullah, ordered his men to pull back to the neighboring Swat valley, and his spokesman said around 100 fighters were being withdrawn.
Residents saw Taliban fighters abandoning their main base at Sultan Was village in the Buner valley.
A senior security official said the Taliban should lay down arms, allow the police to carry out their duties and allow new courts, known as qazi courts, to deliver justice according to sharia law.
"If they do not do any of this, the state will decide to go for an operation, and this time the operation will be on a larger scale," he said.
While militants from Swat had returned home, armed fighters who hailed from Buner were seen moving around as usual, despite hundreds of police militia being sent to the district.
"They won't lay down their arms so quickly," Syed Javed Shah, a senior government official in Buner, said. "They know they have made enemies of people living here whose relatives were killed."
Fazlullah, the Taliban leader in Swat, had forced the government to submit to demands for the imposition of Islamic sharia law across the Malakand Division of North West Frontier Province, which includes Swat and Buner.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani issued a strongly worded statement on Friday to dispel doubts about the military’s capacity and will to fight the militants.
Overall insecurity has worsened with high profile attacks in Islamabad and Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, and the Taliban has extended its reach across the northwest.
But the army has contained militant activity in the Waziristan tribal region and defeated them last month in Bajaur, the other tribal region regarded as a militant hotspot.
Tactical withdrawal- the non-local Taliban are retreating to strongholds, while the Buner local Taliban still remain.
Alarmed Washington? Hardly. Perhaps, this is alarming to Americans. And to patriots. And to conservatives, and even many democrats.
But, not Washington.
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