CiF blogger Basim Usmani notes in a post today that the Taliban have consolidated their control over an entire region of Pakistan.
In Swat, this has included the murder of local people who objected, and secular politicians and civil leaders, the setting up of a parallel government under Sharia law and the banning of female education. To drive that final point home, they have now blown up more than 170 schools.
They have threatened to kill lawyers and judges and any practitioners of civil law, which they describe as “infidel” law. There has already been a series of public executions. In one case, the Taliban exhumed a body so the corpse could be put on public display.
Has anyone even noticed?
Does anyone think they will stop there? Islamabad is only 100 miles away.
Pakistan is a country with a nuclear arsenal. Perhaps it isn’t relevant to this story, but I just felt like I should mention it.
