ISLAMABAD: The Taleban pulled out of Buner yesterday in the face of a Pakistani government threat to use force against the militia. Witnesses reported seeing Taleban fighters withdrawing from the district, some 60 km north of the federal capital, to the safety of their stronghold of Swat Valley, further north.
TV images showed dozens of militants emerging from a high-walled villa that served as their headquarters in Buner, a rural area in the foothills of the Karakoram mountains. The men, most of them masked with black scarves and carrying automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, clambered onto pickup trucks and minibuses before driving away.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told the National Assembly (Parliament) that the government would rescind a peace pact with the Taleban in Swat if the militia did not maintain peace. “We will not allow the Taleban and their foreign financiers to spread their influence in other parts of the country.”
Gilani also made it clear that the government will not allow Sufi Muhammad, the man who brokered the Swat deal, to create supra-courts. “All courts function under the Supreme Court of Pakistan. We have agreed to set up a bench of the Peshawar High Court in Swat.”
He warned extremists against trying the government’s patience and said they should not take the authorities’ tolerance for weakness. “We want to avoid collateral damage, but if we find that the Taleban intend to spread their rule district by district through force, we will halt them.”
Addressing foreign concern over the danger of the country’s nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of the extremists, the prime minister said they were in safe hands and well guarded by the Pakistan Army. “We are a responsible nation and have adopted sufficient safeguards against any mishandling of the nuclear assets. I assure you no one can go anywhere near our nuclear installations,” Gilani assured the world community.
Pakistan’s army chief also insisted the military was ready for the threat posed by Taleban, saying its decision not to deploy in a militant-infested area was tactical.
