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| India-Pakistan |
| Taliban armed themselves after Nizam-e-Adl: General Ijaz |
| 2009-06-10 |
| The Taliban started to arm themselves against the army, and gathered a large cache of explosives and ammunition after parliament decided to enforce the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in Malakand Division, Major General Ijaz Awan has said. In an interview with a private TV channel, one of the commanders of the Swat operation said the Taliban had made Mingora their base and then advanced towards Buner and other adjoining areas. He said the Taliban in Swat and Mingora had planned to fight the military in Mingora city and use the local population as a human shield. He said the two areas became increasingly important to the Taliban due to their heavy populations. To questions, he said the Taliban were scared to face the army, and felt that the only way they could win was by using the civilian population as shields. This had restrained the security forces from using heavy weapons to avoid collateral damage, he added. He said the Taliban had set up fortified positions on mountains, and had dug tunnels for their residence and for storing arms and ammunitions. He said the Taliban had very sophisticated weaponry, including some high velocity weapons belonging to the US Army. He said the army had captured 100 Taliban from the area under his control during Operation Rah-e-Rast, adding interrogation had revealed the positions of several caches of arms and explosives and important hideouts. He said the fighters were generally between 18 and 20 years old, but the suicide bombers ranged from 13 to 17 years old. |
| Posted by:Fred |