TIMESONLINE: The Taleban seized towns less than 65 miles from Pakistan’s capital yesterday, renewing fears that Islamabad’s recent peace deal with the radicals would only accelerate their advance across the country.
The peace accord had already drawn harsh criticism from Pakistan’s Western allies. “I think that the Pakistani Government is basically abdicating to the Taleban and to the extremists,” Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of States, said yesterday. She added that the situation in Pakistan “poses a mortal threat to the security of our country and the world”.
Mrs Clinton gave her gloomy assessment to the US Congress shortly after hundreds of Taleban fighters occupied government buildings in the district of Buner, ransacking the offices of international aid agencies and taking away vehicles, computers and other equipment. Some employees were also taken hostage briefly.
The militants, carrying rocket launchers and machineguns, also set up checkpoints to search vehicles as many residents fled the area. Local security forces remained confined to police stations and camps.
The fundamentalist movement struck a peace deal with Islamabad recently after a terror campaign in the neighbouring Swat Valley. Under the agreement the militants were allowed to establish an Islamist administration and Sharia courts. In return it was supposed to disarm but has failed to do so. >>> Zahid Hussain in Mingora | Thursday, April 23, 2009
