[DAWN] DEH SAQI: The release of a Taliban leader accused of orchestrating industrial-scale carnage in Afghanistan's pristine Shomali plains in 1999, torching homes and carrying out summary executions, has horrified villagers for whom memories of the slaughter are still raw.Mullah Mohammad Fazl was released from Guantanamo Bay along with four other senior Taliban bully boyz -- also accused of a litany of abuses -- last Saturday in exchange for US army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the only American prisoner of war who was held hostage for five years.
The swap has sparked anger and resentment in Shomali villages such as Deh Saqi, which still bear the scars of that cataclysm -- charred, ruined and bombed out houses and an anguished generation with a thirst for vengeance.