Communicating Arts - Main Web Site"MINGORA: Seven people, including a nephew of a Pakistan People's Party-Sherpao (PPP-S) leader, were killed and three more schools were torched by militants in restive Swat Valley on Tuesday." The International News, September 10, 2008: http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=17154
"MINGORA: The residents have started shifting to other places from Kabal tehsil of the restive Swat valley due to the shortfall of edibles, as the curfew remained imposed for the seventh consecutive day on Tuesday." The International News, September 10, 2008: http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=17164
Excerpted from Hameedullah Khan, "Militants kill 5 in Swat." Dawn, October 9, 2008: http://www.dawn.com/2008/09/10/top5.htm:
"In another incident, militants shot dead Sayed Rahat Ali, a close relative of Advocate Sayed Zahir Shah. Rahat was going to Mingora with a friend when militants intercepted them near Khwazakhela Chowk.
"Sources said that it was an incident of target killing because the people of Shakardarra, led by Zahir Shah, had declared war against local Taliban. They had imposed a ban on the entry of the Taliban into their areas."
One may expect significant conflict news out of Mingora and the Swat Valley just about every day now as militants sweep through to burn schools, carry out assassination and vendetta, and call forward occasional resistance.
Given the complex chemistry of family, religion, rivalry, and revenge, one also may expect to see Swat become the once beautiful place turned nightmare stained with blood, wracked by continuous fighting and its attendant miseries, and marked by death, fear, and flight.
As Somalia has learned, whether it knows it or not, where violence has for too long ruled the landscape, the notion of reconciliation has a childish sweetness to it.
# # #
Comments