Pakistan: inside Taliban-controlled Swat
They worry this is the tip of the iceberg. Swat used to be called the Switzerland of Pakistan. A tidy, idyllic valley where the elite used to ski, the surroundings themselves so beautiful as to make you feel rested.
But today, that’s all changed. About two years of intense clashes between the army and militants there have led to a peace deal being signed in February.
The jist: the army go back to barracks and only fight if they’re attacked, and the militants get the introduction of Islamic law they seek. But here’s the rub: the militants are called the Taliban. And we know what happened in Afghanistan when they got control.
We’ve sent a cameraman there who’s filmed some remarkable pictures that seem to show the Taliban’s writ there is pretty much unchallenged (more on tonight’s show).
Suspected homosexuals (yes, that is apparently a crime) are flogged, as are adulterous women. The police aren’t in the police station any more (the Taliban are instead). Barbers don’t shave men any more. It’s “haram” (forbidden under Islamic law).
For the best dissection of what this really spells, read the consistently excellent Jane Perlez in The New York Times.
Swat is only about three hours’ drive from the capital Islamabad, and you can understand why policy wonks in Washington get the hives when they see masked men called Taliban in control of a large swathe of Pakistan. It has nuclear arms, and control of it is key to the success of the Nato operation in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani government spun their peace deal with the Taliban in Swat as a wise moment of pragmatism.
Locals get the Islamic law that they often genuinely believe is fairer than the corrupt courts of the Pakistani judiciary. The army get a respite from the fighting and there’s peace, for a while. The Taliban think they’ve got a foothold into the machinations of Pakistani government.
Even if this is an exaggeration, the scale of this concession has itself got more people questioning Pakistan’s integrity as a state than is healthy.
– Update: the video report from Swat
This report begins with violent scenes of public floggings.
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