Pakistan takes on the Taliban On the charge in Malakand: Economist

Pakistan’s army claims a rare success in its campaign against the Taliban

SULTANWAS, a once-prosperous village in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), is now a bomb site. Its white concrete houses, gaudily decorated thanks to migrant wages sent back from Dubai, lie in heaps. Debris that had billowed in great clouds after army jets bombed the village in early May litters the surrounding fields. The Taliban, who had occupied Sultanwas a few weeks before, had no chance; 80 allegedly died in the rubble.

If, as the army claims, the Taliban are now in retreat in north-western Pakistan, Sultanwas was their Waterloo. It was destroyed in the biggest battle of an offensive to take back Buner, a district of NWFP that was briefly world-famous for being in Taliban hands and only 100km (62 miles) from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. This was part of a bigger operation, inspired by the outcry over Buner’s capture, to restore the government’s writ across NWFP’s Malakand region, which also includes Swat, a Taliban stronghold that the army had twice tried and failed to secure.

Involving some 40,000 troops, the army’s action has been devastating. Over 2m have been displaced, in what may be the biggest unplanned movement of people since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Hundreds are reported to have been killed. Yet the army, which has received unprecedented public support for its attack on the Taliban, is claiming a great success.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Pakistan takes on the Taliban On the charge in Malakand: Economist