Public Unites Against Taliban in Pakistan
Mustafa Qadri | 16 Jul 2009
KARACHI, Pakistan — There has been a perceptible shift in the battle against militancy in Pakistan. The massive army operations that recently concluded in the Swat valley, the largest ever conducted by Pakistan against the Taliban, are but one facet of it. For the first time, the government is also winning the propaganda war.
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Tags: Asif Ali Zardari · IDPs · Malakand Division · Pakistan · Pakistan Army · Swat valley · Taliban · Yeh hum naheen
Lost Victims Of War
Mustafa Qadri
As Pakistan announces it has cleared 90 per cent of the country’s north west of Taliban militants, Mustafa Qadri visits the refugee camps sheltering civilians who have been forced from their homes by conflict.
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Tags: IDPs · Malakand Division · Pakistan · refugees · Swat valley · Taliban
Late last year I interviewed “Mullah Noor Allam”, a middle ranking Taliban commander from the Swat valley. The interview was published in Australia’s Canberra Times newspaper on 17 January 2009. You can view the story…
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Tags: democracy · Islam · Malakand Division · Pakistan · Sharia · Swat valley · Taliban · Tehreek-e-Taliban
Homeless in the mountains of Pakistan
19 Jun 2009 12:39:00 GMT
Written by: Mustafa Qadri
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author’s alone.
The Pakistan Army is in the middle of its largest ever operations against Taliban forces in the troubled region bordering Afghanistan. Up to 2.5 million are believed to have fled the once quiet, scenic mountain ranges. At a camp in Risalpur, 50 miles south of some of the fiercest battle zones in the Swat valley, I talked to schoolgirl Mannu.
Among the bare dwellings of Risalpur’s industrial area, buildings donated to the displaced by local businessmen that have been transformed into miniature cities, I met eleven-year-old Mannu, a fearless young student unfazed by the traumas that have, for the time being at least, destroyed her ancient village community.
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Tags: democracy · internally displaced persons · Malakand Division · Pakistan · refugees · Swat valley · Taliban