Civilians fleeing Pakistani town held by religious weirdo

Reuters:

Thousands of Pakistanis are fleeing a northwestern town and outlying villages because they fear a showdown between the security forces and an Islamist militant Taliban-style movement, residents said.

The Swat valley in the North West Frontier Province has been the scene of fierce fighting between security forces and followers of a radical Muslim cleric on Friday after authorities sent more than 2,000 soldiers to counter growing militancy.

Ten militants were killed in clashes on Sunday by troops backed by helicopter gunships, army spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said.

At least 17 paramilitary soldiers and four civilians were killed in a suspected suicide attack near the valley's main town of Mingora on Thursday.

The militants killed seven civilians and decapitated three soldiers and three policemen they had taken hostage in the nearby town of Matta on Friday.

"Troops have their own mortars and have been firing at those militants," Arshad said. "These are the same people who beheaded those civilians and dragged their bodies in the bazaar."

"Until such time as these people are evicted from the area and peace is restored and innocent people are given full security, I think this is going to continue."

...
Judging from the casualties, it appears the people fear the religious weirdos more than the army. It is good to know that the Pakistani troops have their won mortars and are shooting back. Otherwise, this might look like a weirdo rout.

Seriously, Pakistan needs to exert sovereignty over this area and protect the people from the weirdos. Eventually they may find bin Laden, if they get after it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more