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| India-Pakistan |
| In Buner, Taliban driven from road but still in hills |
| 2009-05-24 |
| Army trucks rumbled through a destroyed market a few miles down the road, passing a charred gas station where a Taliban suicide bomber killed four soldiers a few weeks ago when the government hit back at an incursion by Taliban. Most of the fighting is now in the Swat valley to the west, with the military claiming it has the upper hand here in the Buner region, but civilians and even some police officers expressed fears on Friday about venturing into some areas said to be cleared of Taliban. Army leaders say they have the Taliban reeling, but there was scant evidence of government control being restored in parts of Buner, including Dagar. Policeman Shamsur Rahman kept to the relative safety of the ruins in Ambela Chowk, a village about 20 kilometres from Dagar. He readily gave directions to Dagar, but wasn't willing to go himself. "You can go there, but the security isn't good enough for us to go," he told The Associated Press. A heavy military presence in the area was visible at an outpost on the Kandow mountain pass that overlooks Dagar. "But Dagar is still a problem. There are still fighters there, but in the mountains," Rahman said. Elsewhere, another police officer, Sawar Khan, said Taliban fighters were moving toward Pir Baba, barely 12 kilometres from Dagar. A resident in Pir Baba reached by phone said Taliban had been seen in the area as well as 2 kilometres away in Sultanwas, an area the military earlier said had been cleared of the Taliban. The few people now in Dagar described themselves as reluctant returnees, and most had kept their families away. Several worried Taliban fighters were not far away. "We have been destroyed by the Taliban," said a white-bearded Ayub Khan, who returned alone from an IDP camp elsewhere in the frontier region where he took his family to escape the fighting. |
| Posted by:Fred |