At last some good news from motherland,.. and looks like we found a “man” in Pakistan. The one and only Chief of Army: General Ashfaz Pervaiz Kiyani
Taliban Begins Pullout of Seized District in Pakistan
Source: Taliban Begins Pullout of Seized District in Pakistan - WSJ.com
The Taliban began withdrawing Friday from a district it seized this week near Pakistan’s capital after the country’s military chief warned the militants would not be allowed to “impose their way of life” on the nation.
Gen. Ashfaq Kayani’s statement was widely seen as a sign that military action against the insurgents was imminent, and the Taliban’s retreat from the Buner district appeared to head off a possible military showdown and salvage a peace deal between the government and militants.
But the fundamental challenge to Pakistan remained. The militants are firmly in control of the Swat Valley, north of Buner, and the government and military are struggling to find a cohesive strategy to halt their advance and reassert authority over areas already under insurgent control, say Pakistan officials and foreign diplomats.
**The military’s initial silence on the Taliban’s advance into Buner also reinforced U.S. and European doubts about the armed forces" commitment to battling the militants, who have deep ties to al Qaeda and the insurgents battling American soldiers in Afghanistan.
“We’re still trying to sort exactly what’s happened – or what is happening – up in Buner,” said a Western diplomat, adding that it wasn’t clear if even Pakistan’s leaders had a clear read out on the situation.**
But “I don’t think this is over. These guys aren’t going to disappear. They’ve got Swat,” the diplomat said. “I’m afraid Pakistan doesn’t recognize the threat.”
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani sought to assuage such fears Friday, saying in a speech to the National Assembly that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal was safe and urging lawmakers to show the “moral courage” to stop the Taliban.
But he didn’t call for scrapping the peace deal with the Taliban faction in Swat, the same one that invaded Buner.
The country’s military chief, meanwhile, had strong words from Taliban. In a rare public statement, Gen. Kayani said the army “will not allow the militants to dictate terms to the government or impose their way of life on the civil society of Pakistan.”
The military agreed to the peace deal “to give the reconciliatory forces a chance” and not as a concession to the militants, he said.
A security official said there was a growing sense in the military that it will sooner or later have to renew its fight with the Taliban in Swat, where the government agreed to let the militants impose Islamic law under a February peace deal.
Details of the accord remain murky, but officials said the Taliban’s push this week from Swat was a clear violation of the deal.
“I think we have very different ideas of what a peace deal is,” said the security official. Such a move would be welcomed by U.S. officials alarmed at Pakistan’s tepid initial reaction to the Taliban’s incursion into Buner.
The government dispatched a few hundred Frontier Corps paramilitary police to the district Thursday, only to see them pull out after coming under fire from Taliban fighters.
The Taliban invaded Buner on Tuesday and Wednesday from Swat. There, thousands of Islamist militants from other parts of Pakistan have poured in and set up training camps since the Taliban and government first agreed to a truce in mid-February.
On Friday, Pakistan television news stations broadcast video of dozens of militants–most of them masked with black scarves and b*****shing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades – leaving a villa that served as their headquarters in Buner.
They clambered into pickup trucks and minibuses and drove away. The men were convinced to pull back to Swat by a radical cleric who helped broker the initial peace deal, said Syed Mohammed Javed, the top government official in the region.
“We told them that we have a deal, we have a peace agreement. We told them not to become a tool in the hands of someone aiming at sabotaging the peace in the region,” Mr. Javed said according to the Associated Press.