Taliban from Swat who overran Buner have left the area but not before creating a local Taliban force to keep control. Wow. That sure was quick. Took 'em less than a week to raise an army, train it, and equip it.
This represents a new tactic for the surging militancy in Pakistan, ABC News warned on Saturday. A core group of Taliban can thus travel and spread their influence while placing areas they have already 'conquered' under the command of local recruits. The Taliban did not stay long in Buner, but they left behind enough recruiters to train a homegrown corps of new fighters, the report said.
In less than a week.
"I do not know the exact number of my men who left the area but they all boarded in 15 vehicles to return to Swat," Muslim Khan, the Taliban spokesman, told AFP, presenting the 'withdrawal' as a goodwill gesture.
Leaving an army in your wake was a goodwill gesture, too?
"We have withdrawn from Buner to show our commitment to make the peace deal a success," Khan said referring to an agreement to enforce Islamic law in exchange for an end to fighting in Swat. He did not disclose how many local Taliban remained in Buner.
The Pakistani government had hoped the Swat deal would placate the Taliban, but the Taliban ignored the stipulation that they disarm.
Which means it's not a deal, it's a capitulation. Called that one pretty early in the game, didn't we?
"They won't lay down their arms so quickly," said Syed Javed Shah, the Malakand commissioner. "They have developed enmities with residents whose relatives were killed," he told Reuters. Javed, told AP that all the Taliban had crossed the mountain passes into Swat. "They have all gone back. No one is left in Buner."