Kamran Asdar Ali
29 April 2009
(Kamran Asdar Ali is acting director of the South Asia Institute and associate professor of anthropology at the University of Texas-Austin.)
| For more on the Taliban in Pakistan, see Graham Usher, “The Pakistan Taliban,” Middle East Report Online, February 13, 2007.
For more on the displacement in Balochistan, see Stephen Dedalus, “The Forgotten Refugees of Balochistan,” Middle East Report 244 (Fall 2007). Order the issue online For background on Islamist-military dealings, see Kamran Asdar Ali, “Pakistani Islamists Gamble on the General,” Middle East Report 231 (Summer 2004). Order the issue online. For background on the 2002 elections, see Shahnaz Rouse, “Elections in Pakistan: Turning Tragedy into Farce,” Middle East Report Online, October 18, 2002. |
Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in areas of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) as the army has launched ground operations and air raids to “eliminate and expel” the Islamist militant groups commonly known as the Tehreek-e Taliban or the Taliban in Pakistan (TIP). The targeted districts border Swat, a well-watered mountain vale described as “paradise on earth” in Pakistani tourist brochures, where the provincial government tried to placate the Taliban by agreeing to implement Islamic law (sharia). The February agreement, the Nizam-e Adal regulation, was approved by the lower house of the Pakistani parliament on April 12 and signed into law soon afterward by the president, Asif Zardari. But since then, fighting has continued, with both sides accusing the other of breaching the peace. As of April 27, according to a cleric close to the TIP, talks with the provincial government about Swat are suspended.