Pakistan Opens New Fight Against Surging Taliban

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, April 26, 2009 — -- After weeks in which Pakistanis watched Taliban fighters parading just a few hours drive from the capital, Islamabad, the government and military decided to strike back today, sending paramilitary soldiers, tanks and Cobra helicopters into Northwest Pakistan.

The Frontier Corps began fighting the Taliban this morning in Lower Dir, part of the Northwest Frontier district where the government imposed Islamic Law two weeks ago in the hope the Taliban would holster their weapons.

A provincial government official said the Pakistani troops would continue on into Buner, a district just 70 miles from Islamabad where the Taliban recently created a local militant force to enforce their brand of justice.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed that the provincial government wanted to launch the operation months ago but waited so it could engage militants in areas better suited for air power and for paramilitary forces.

The alternative, the official said, was engaging them with the conventional military in the Swat Valley, but he said the provincial government does not trust the military leadership as much as it does the paramilitary forces.

The operation will be led by the Frontier Corps as well as a new, elite group of 2,500 police officers recently trained to take on the Taliban, the government official said.

Dir, unlike Swat, borders Afghanistan and is one of the most violent areas for United States troops. Government officials denied that any external pressure led them to begin the operation.

The imposition of Islamic law, or sharia, after almost two years of military campaigns that failed to dislodge the Taliban from Swat created a cascade of criticism from the United States and from within Pakistan. Critics accused the government and military of being incapable and even unwilling to confront a spreading Taliban threat.

Following the agreement, the Taliban did not disarm, despite promising to do so, and have instead moved out of their base in the Swat Valley into the areas closer to the capital, showing off expensive vehicles and weapons not readily available in the markets.