Taliban Seize Vital Pakistan Area Closer to the Capital

Taliban militants have established control of a strategically important area only 70 miles from the capital, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. The move is part of an unrelenting push by the Taliban toward the heart of Pakistan.


PakistanHeavily armed militants were patrolling villages and local police had retreated to their station houses in much of the city of Buner, a rural area adjacent to Swat, where the Taliban seized control from the Pakistani army in February, they said. Buner is a gateway to a major Pakistani city, Mardan.

“They take over Buner, then they roll into Mardan and that’s the end of the game,” a senior law enforcement official in the North West Frontier Province said.

The expansion of the Taliban into Buner comes 10 days after the government of President Asif Ali Zardari agreed to the introduction of Sharia law in Swat, a move that the Obama administration has criticized as too much of a concession to the Taliban.

On Wednesday Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was concerned that Pakistan was allowing the Taliban to spread and emboldening the militants by giving into their demands.

In testimony on Capitol Hill, Mrs. Clinton criticized Pakistan for being too lenient toward the Taliban. “I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists,” she said.

Adding to the sense of alarm in the Obama administration, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, arrived in Islamabad Wednesday for the second time in two weeks. He was scheduled to meet with Pakistan’s top military and intelligence commanders.

The takeover of Buner is particularly significant because the people there have tried in the past year to stand up to the Taliban by establishing small private armies to fight the militants. Last year when the militants encroached into Buner, killing policemen, the local people fought back and forced the militants out.

But with a beachhead in neighboring Swat, and a number of training camps for fresh recruits, the Taliban were able to carry out what amounted to an invasion of Buner.

“The training camps will provide waves of men coming into Buner,” the senior law enforcement official said.

The Pakistani army, which called for a truce with the Taliban in mid-February, remains in barracks in Swat. There was little expectation that the army would take on the militants in Buner, the official said.