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Taliban Surge Pakistan

By John Batchelor on April 23, 2009 at 10:45 PM in AfPak Border, Asia, Current Affairs, John Batchelor, Pakistan, Taliban

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NWFP_redmap_04142008.jpgTaliban on the march in the fine Spring weather in the Northwest Frontier.  The spotty reports from Pakistan point to a surge of Taliban aggression ever since the failed state leadership at Islamabad ceded control of the Swat Valley to the jihadists.  The surge is not headed to Kabul and the American legions but rather toward Islamabad and the nuke armed Pakistani legions at Rawalpindi.  Sunday 26 I will speak to a roundtable of Ann Marlowe, Bill Roggio, Tunku Varadarajan and Larry Johnson on the AFPAK border region turmoil and the Obama administration war-fighting plans. There is no contingency that I have heard for a Taliban takeover of Pakistan. The reports are grim:

“If the Taliban continue their advances at the current pace they will soon be knocking at the doors of Islamabad,” said Fazl-ur-Rehman, who leads the Jamiat-e-ulema-e-Islam, the country’s largest Islamic party, in remarks to parliament on Wednesday.”



Washington hears the fire alarms:  StateSec HRC said Thursday: “this insurgency coming closer and closer to major cities does pose… a threat.”

Bill Roggio reports in his comprehensive Long War Journal:  ”Pakistan has reportedly rushed paramilitary forces into Buner today, but some units were attacked by the Taliban stationed there…. The Taliban advance on Mansehra and Haripur takes place at the same time they are moving on the districts of Swabi, Mardan, and Malakand. The takeover of these five districts would essentially cement the Taliban’s control of the province”