New Dark Age Alert! Summary Justice Taliban-style (Sharia Law)
Watch Sky News video: The Taliban are fighting to impose Sharia law throughout Pakistan. Alex Crawford has exclusive footage from the Khyber Agency, a region where the Taliban are in control. Her report contains scenes the moment before a death sentence is carried out. >>> | Wednesday, March 25, 2009

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New Dark Age Alert! Sharia Law Threat to UK Women’s Rights
Watch Sky News video: The imposition of strict Sharia law in some areas of Pakistan has raised concerns about women's rights. But as Victoria Gatenby reports, some in the UK believe its impact will be felt in Britain as well. >>> | Wednesday, March 25, 2009

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JUI-S for Enforcement of Sharia across Country
GEO.tv: SARGODHA: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-S chief Maulana Sami-ul-Haq said on Sunday that he was ready to fight a war for the enforcement of Sharia across the country after Swat.

Addressing a news conference here, he said that alliance of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Ammal (MMA) had fell apart because its leadership went after the power politics.

JUI-S chief said that the future of democracy and present government looks bleak and disappointing, while crime rate in Swat went down to one percent following after promulgation of Sharia Law.

He lamented that the stable of horse-trading had been opened after imposing governor rule in Punjab. [Source: Geo.tv] Sunday, March 22, 2009

Rageh Omaar on Why the West Should Fear the Taliban and al-Qaeda's Hold on Pakistan
THE TELEGRAPH: Stronghold of both the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the wild and lawless tribal border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan forms the crucial battleground in the war on terror. Rageh Omaar reports from the front line.

Supporters of Pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Muhammad march in Swat's main city of Mingora, Photo (AP) courtesy of The Telegraph
”Over the past two years, I have noticed that there is such a hatred of anything to do with the West throughout much of the tribal areas that the region has changed dramatically…

…Pakistan represents the first realistic prospect for a jihadist movement to capture a nation-state, or at the very least to control large parts of it. It would, in effect, mean that militants would have something approaching a mini-state within the country where the central government's power and influence would be non-existent, and from which they could plan and launch attacks beyond its borders. And Pakistan is not just any nation-state at threat from militant groups, but one that has nuclear weapons, a large population and economic resources; one that borders a vulnerable failed state in Afghanistan where tens of thousands of Nato forces are stationed; and one that also has as its neighbours two emerging economic superpowers, China and India. What is more, Pakistan has a long coastline open to the most economically important stretch of waterway in the world, the Gulf, from which hundreds of tankers supply oil-hungry economies. It is a nightmare scenario from which no country is immune. None of us will escape the consequences of a situation where large parts of Pakistan are politically, militarily and economically controlled by jihadists." – Rageh Omaar

The stark mountainous northern regions of Pakistan's tribal areas are among the most beautiful landscapes in the world. Yet as Barack Obama's newly appointed special envoy to the region, the famously tough and straight-talking diplomat Richard Holbrooke, has said, Pakistan is the country that scares President Obama and keeps him awake at night more than any other.

On my assignments to Pakistan in the past two years, it has been hard to believe the country's nightmare could get any worse. It has been heartbreaking to see this nation of more than 170 million people convulsed by political violence that its government seems increasingly incapable of halting. From the assassination of Benazir Bhutto to the almost weekly suicide bomb attacks that go unnoticed by the outside world, every strike by the militants is more audacious than the previous one.

The ambush of the Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore at the beginning of this month came at the same time that the four main Taliban groups in Pakistan announced their decision to unite their forces in a concerted military campaign against Nato and government forces in neighbouring Afghanistan. Cricket, as many have observed, is one of the few cultural and sporting pastimes in which all Pakistanis, regardless of class, regional, ethnic or sectarian traditions, can unite around. It is a sport that both the religiously conservative and the Westernised elite enjoy. The aim of the militant attack on Lahore was to undermine this; to make the point that nothing is immune from political violence and that the Taliban's vision for Pakistan is an absolutist one with no room for anything Western, or anything that isn't derived from their literal interpretation of Islam.

More and more of Pakistan is slipping beyond the control of the government. As the Lahore attack showed, even the centres of major cities are vulnerable. Nowhere is the absence of the rule of law more evident than the north-west of Pakistan. The region is officially known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a clunky but accurate description of this vast expanse of nearly 11,000 square miles, home to an estimated seven million people whose first loyalty is not to Pakistan but to their tribal community. As its name indicates, this region is nominally administered by the Pakistani government but it has been autonomous and unconquered for centuries. >>> By Rageh Omaar | Thursday, March 19, 2009

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Pakistan Christians Worried over Sharia Law Plans
RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE: Christians in Pakistan have expressed concern over plans to implement Sharia law in the Malakand region.

The move was part of a package to secure a cease-fire with pro-Taliban groups in the region that includes the Swat Valley, but it has caused unease among the region’s Christian groups. Their concerns have been echoed by human rights groups. The concession by the federal government was agreed last week in an attempt to broker a truce with pro-Taliban groups in the region, but Christians say that the introduction of the Islamic legal system renders constitutional and juridical law redundant. [Source: Religious Intelligence] Nick Mackenzie | Wednesday, February 25, 2009

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Pakistan: la charia impose sa loi dans la vallée du Swat
LIBÉRATION.fr: Le gouvernement local et un leader religieux proche des talibans ont signé un accord en ce sens ce lundi. Un accord qui doit permettre de prolonger le cessez-le-feu actuel.

La charia sera la loi dans la vallée du Swat, dans le nord-ouest du Pakistan. C’est le résultat des négociations entre le gouvernement local et des leaders islamistes, en conflit depuis plusieurs mois. Ce dimanche, les talibans pakistanais de la zone avaient annoncé un cessez-le-feu unilatéral de dix jours… qui pouvait être prolongé en cas d’application de la loi islamique.

«Un accord a été signé entre le gouvernement de la province de la Frontière du Nord-Ouest (NWFP) et le maulana Soofi Mohammed», un leader religieux proche des talibans, a déclaré à la presse à Peshawar le ministre provincial de l’Information, Mian Iftikhar Hussain. «Toutes les lois contraires à la charia seront abolies et la justice sera appliquée en vertu de la charia.»

Cet accord est applicable au district de Malakand, dans lequel est située la vallée de Swat, autrefois le site touristique le plus prisé du Pakistan, avant de tomber aux mains des talibans pakistanais, que l’armée tente de repousser depuis l’été. La vallée de Swat est tombée sous le contrôle des talibans du maulana Fazlullah, le gendre de Soofi Mohammed, à l’automne 2007. >>> AFP | Lundi 16 Février 2009

TIMES ONLINE: Sharia Imposed on Northwest Pakistan in Deal with Taleban

Public flogging is an everyday occurrence when ruled by Shar’ah law. The photo of this public flogging courtesy of The Times
The Pakistan Government has agreed to impose Islamic law across much of northwest Pakistan in an attempt to pacify a spreading Taleban insurgency.

The decision was announced after talks with a banned pro-Taleban group from the Swat Valley, a former tourist haven in the northwest where extremists have gained sway through beheadings and burning girls' schools.

Government officials said that laws that do not comply with Islamic texts have been suspended in Malakand region, which includes Swat, effective from today. >>> Jenny Booth | Monday, February 16, 2009

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Radio Spreads Taliban’s Terror in Pakistani Region
THE NEW YORK TIMES: PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Every night around 8 o’clock, the terrified residents of Swat, a lush and picturesque valley a hundred miles from three of Pakistan’s most important cities, crowd around their radios. They know that failure to listen and learn might lead to a lashing — or a beheading.

Using a portable radio transmitter, a local Taliban leader, Shah Doran, on most nights outlines newly proscribed “un-Islamic” activities in Swat, like selling DVDs, watching cable television, singing and dancing, criticizing the Taliban, shaving beards and allowing girls to attend school. He also reveals names of people the Taliban have recently killed for violating their decrees — and those they plan to kill.

“They control everything through the radio,” said one Swat resident, who declined to give his name for fear the Taliban might kill him. “Everyone waits for the broadcast.” >>> By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Pir Zubair Shah | Saturday, January 24, 2009

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In the Realm of Mullah Fazlullah
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Once Pakistan's favorite tourist destination, Swat Valley is now ruled by a brutal Taliban group. The infamous commander Mullah Fazlullah has installed a Sharia emirate here, and President Musharraf has stood by and allowed it to happen.

The huge billboard on the pass high in the mountains may be yellow and faded but it's still legible. "Welcome to Swat Valley," is written in huge letters with a picture of a jeep surrounded by tourists underneath.

They are all smilling, enjoying the view from the mountains, that range 2,000 meters high into the clear blue skies. The advertisement harks back to a time when the Swat Valley was considered the Switzerland of Pakistan. Islamabad's middle classes would tramp up the mountains in the summer and in winter they would whiz down the country's only ski slopes. "A paradise on earth," was Swat's motto.

That was before the Swat Valley came to epitomize the current crisis in Pakistan, before President Pervez Musharraf used the region as an excuse for his state of emergency. The military ruler claimed to want to come down hard on the religious extremists by imposing emergency rule. And he repeats this claim at every opportunity. But it has since become clear that the general was most concerned with holding on to power. In the Realm of Mullah Fazlullah (more) By Matthias Gebauer in the Swat Valley, Pakistan

Mark Alexander