Pakistan Militants Attack Cops Amid Flood Chaos

[Turborama]

Source: CBS

Islamist militants attacked police posts in Pakistan's northwest and killed two civilians active in an anti-Taliban militia, challenging a security establishment straining under a national flooding disaster, police said Wednesday.

A group of militants first killed two members of a militia in the Adezai area of Peshawar as they headed to pray at a mosque late Tuesday, said Liaqat Ali Khan, Peshawar police chief.

In the hours after, dozens of militants from the Khyber tribal region, which lies near Peshawar and along the Afghan border, attacked police posts in the Sarband area of Peshawar. The two sides exchanged fire for about an hour before the militants retreated to Khyber, Khan said.

=snip=

The clashes suggest Islamist insurgents are not abandoning their campaign against the state despite the flooding that has affected some 20 million people - or one in nine Pakistanis. "As the police force is busy in rescue and relief work for flood affectees, militants tried to take advantage of the situation to attack Peshawar, but the police force was fully alert and vigilant," Khan said

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/18/world/main6782840.shtml

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. this is why its important for people to donate, so the government can stabilize

else, this is really the greatest opportunity for militants to take over pakistan completetly

[activa8tr]

2. I agree with the need to donate, but I doubt very much that

there will be stability of a government in Pakistan for several years to come.

People interviewed by western news sources in the last few days are not too happy with the response of their government. They are happier with the military, to a great degree. I think we will see some sort of military control of that state for a good long while, and the current government will not stand. I hate to say it, but I'm just reading the tea leaves I am getting from the news.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. yes but military vs. militia are seperate issues. there may again be military control

but not necessarily islamic militia control

[Igel]

4. No, they're not, really.

In 2009 the central government encouraged the formation of local tribe-based militias to supplement the Frontier Guards and provide some local "buy in". Locals disliked having outsiders--the military, mostly Punjabi--impose order.

Two were formed in Peshawar by local maliks. They took on the Taliban and LI, started talks with them when things didn't go well, but eventually the talks fell through. Since then the tribal militias have done an okay job in some areas. In others, the Taliban and Lashkar-i-Islam crushed the tribal militias.

Lashkars are a time-honored tradition and are tribe based. "Lashkar-i-Islam" isn't just a name: It's also an counter assertion that the people's true allegiance isn't to their tribe and tribal traditions/leaders, but to the "true tribe," the ummah as headed by right-thinking mullahs. It's an assertion that the true enemy is those outside the ummah.

These are "Islamic militias" only in the sense that the members are Muslim. They're in support of local police and government, and encourage voting for local MPs. They are, from time to time, at odds with other authorities, but they're certainly not Islamic militias.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

5. ahh i see. thank you for explaining this to me.