Some Taliban getting disenchanted with Baitullah’s enterprise, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Some Taliban getting disenchanted with Baitullah’s enterprise

Editorial in the Daily Times, Lahore

June 10, 2009

In Bajaur, where the Tehreek-e Nifaz-e Shariat-e Muhammadi (TNSM) of Sufi Muhammad was adopted as the guiding light of a local faction, the Taliban are treating it in a manner that differs from past practice. On Monday they took 100 members of the TNSM hostage, including the local chief, after “differences between the Taliban and the TNSM intensified”. But one must realistically assess the growth of TNSM influence in Bajaur. The TNSM movement had affected Bajaur in the 1990s but its appeal was greatly increased only after the success of warlord Fazlullah in the adjacent Malakand region. Now, with the retreat of the Taliban, however, TNSM influence is being rolled back. The linkage with the TTP is therefore coming under pressure. Inside TNSM, too, the transition from acquiescing in the savagery of the Taliban to non-acceptance of the “un-Islamic” practice of killing Muslims is being completed. Now TNSM is becoming a problem for Baitullah’s warriors as a non-military adjunct whose leader Sufi Mohammad has considerably lost his charisma as the saintly symbol of revolt against the state of Pakistan. There are reports also that factions of the Taliban are refusing to fight against the army.

http://newageislam.com/some-taliban-getting-disenchanted-with-baitullah%E2%80%99s-enterprise---/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/1456

A wave of counter-propaganda to ease people out of the stranglehold of militants needed, War on Terror , NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

A wave of counter-propaganda to ease people out of the stranglehold of militants needed

Gunship helicopters hover over the region, the boom of guns is heard once more and some reports say a cleric believed to be the mastermind behind past suicide attacks has been killed. Both sides blame the other for breaking the terms of the peace deal. From an outside perspective, it seems though the key blame for this must lie with militants who began a new campaign of attacks on schools and shops, with the leader, Maulana Fazlullah, issuing an unabashed threat of still greater violence.

Clearly, the militants care nothing for promises or for the people of the area, trapped in a conflict that has ripped the economy and social structure of the area into small shreds. One can only wonder what the Buddha, who still looks down serenely on parts of the Swat Valley from rock cliffs that stand over the area, makes of this descent into chaos in a part of the world where the Gandhara civilization once flourished. Of course, in some places, even Buddha himself has not been spared -- with his image blown up by militants bent on destruction and driven by blinding intolerance.

http://newageislam.com/back-to-square-one-in-swat/war-on-terror/d/376