Killings Rattle Pakistan’s Swat Valley
Source: NYTIMES
Unknown gunmen shot and killed at least five pro-government leaders in three separate cases starting on April 13, residents of the valley said in telephone interviews on Thursday. It was not clear who the killers were, but all the victims had been central to peace talks in the valley, the residents said, raising suspicions that the Taliban may had been involved.
The Swat Valley was the site of a major military operation against Taliban militants last spring and has been relatively peaceful since then. Now, a year later, the killings, first reported in The Daily Times, a Pakistani newspaper, are raising fresh fears that the Taliban, whose top leader is still at large, are trying to reassert themselves.
“The target killing of the notables has created a great scare in the area,” said Ziauddin Yousafzai, who runs a school in Mingora, the valley’s biggest city.
In what appeared to be an acknowledgment of this concern, Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Parvez Ashfaq Kayani, traveled to Swat this week and reassured leaders there that the military would not abandon them and would continue to fight against militants.
Swat had gradually fallen under Taliban control, with the government and military making multiple peace deals with the militants. Then, in May 2009, the military began a large-scale campaign there, capturing several prominent leaders and killing hundreds of militants in what residents now say was a largely successful enterprise.
When the campaign ended in July, life returned to normal in most parts of the valley. However, it has not been entirely peaceful. Four suicide bombers struck in the intervening months. The killings have been more frightening, though, Mr. Yousafzai said, because they are deeply personal and appear to have a pattern of careful selection of victims.
“The bombings were the aftershocks of terrorism — people take it for granted,” he said. “This is something different.”
The first victim, Sajjad Ali Khan, a member of the Awami National Party and a former village mayor, was sitting in a clothing shop in Mingora talking with the shop owner, his friend, when gunmen wielding pistols fired at them, killing both, according to a friend of Mr. Khan who asked not to be identified out of safety fears. The shooting took place on April 13, around 6 p.m., Mr. Khan’s friend said.
Mr. Khan was very active in his work against the Taliban, his friend said, organizing a village defense team, or lashkar, for his village, Alabad.
In a clue that the Taliban might have been behind it, Mr. Khan had received text messages on his cellphone, warning him that “we are not finished,”
Unknown gunmen shot and killed at least five pro-government leaders in three separate cases starting on April 13, residents of the valley said in telephone interviews on Thursday. It was not clear who the killers were, but all the victims had been central to peace talks in the valley, the residents said, raising suspicions that the Taliban may had been involved.
The Swat Valley was the site of a major military operation against Taliban militants last spring and has been relatively peaceful since then. Now, a year later, the killings, first reported in The Daily Times, a Pakistani newspaper, are raising fresh fears that the Taliban, whose top leader is still at large, are trying to reassert themselves.
“The target killing of the notables has created a great scare in the area,” said Ziauddin Yousafzai, who runs a school in Mingora, the valley’s biggest city.
In what appeared to be an acknowledgment of this concern, Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Parvez Ashfaq Kayani, traveled to Swat this week and reassured leaders there that the military would not abandon them and would continue to fight against militants.
Swat had gradually fallen under Taliban control, with the government and military making multiple peace deals with the militants. Then, in May 2009, the military began a large-scale campaign there, capturing several prominent leaders and killing hundreds of militants in what residents now say was a largely successful enterprise.
When the campaign ended in July, life returned to normal in most parts of the valley. However, it has not been entirely peaceful. Four suicide bombers struck in the intervening months. The killings have been more frightening, though, Mr. Yousafzai said, because they are deeply personal and appear to have a pattern of careful selection of victims.
“The bombings were the aftershocks of terrorism — people take it for granted,” he said. “This is something different.”
The first victim, Sajjad Ali Khan, a member of the Awami National Party and a former village mayor, was sitting in a clothing shop in Mingora talking with the shop owner, his friend, when gunmen wielding pistols fired at them, killing both, according to a friend of Mr. Khan who asked not to be identified out of safety fears. The shooting took place on April 13, around 6 p.m., Mr. Khan’s friend said.
Mr. Khan was very active in his work against the Taliban, his friend said, organizing a village defense team, or lashkar, for his village, Alabad.
In a clue that the Taliban might have been behind it, Mr. Khan had received text messages on his cellphone, warning him that “we are not finished,”
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