Pakistan army implicated in purge of Swat Taliban

NY Times:

Two months after the Pakistani Army wrested control of the Swat Valley from Taliban militants, a new campaign of fear has taken hold, with scores, perhaps hundreds, of bodies dumped on the streets in what human rights advocates and local residents say is the work of the military.

In some cases, people may simply have been seeking revenge against the ruthless Taliban, in a society that tends to accept tit-for-tat reprisals, local politicians said.

But the scale of the retaliation, the similarities in the way that many of the victims have been tortured and the systematic nature of the deaths and disappearances in areas that the military firmly controls have led local residents, human rights workers and some Pakistani officials to conclude that the military has had a role in the campaign.

The Pakistani Army, which is supported by the United States and in the absence of effective political leadership is running much of Swat with an iron hand, has strenuously denied any involvement in the killings. The army has acknowledged that bodies have turned up, but its spokesmen assert that the killings are the result of civilians settling scores.

“There are no extrajudicial killings in our system,” said Col. Akhtar Abbas, the army spokesman in Swat. “If something happens, we have a foolproof accountability system.”

But neighbors of the victims and Swat residents say there is something more going on than revenge killings by civilians.

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Pakistan has been getting intelligence on the Taliban leadership and is closing in on what remains of it in the Swat area. They have also gotten intelligence on Taliban leadership in the Tribal areas recently. Perhaps they have been using coercive means to get this intelligence. They are dealing with religious bigots who threaten to kill anyone who cooperates with them. This obviously puts those in the middle in a difficult situation. My speculation is that if the extrajudicial killings are taking place the ISI and not the army is probably involved. But, some of their recent intelligence has been on the mark.