The worst thing Pakistan could have done was give in to the Taliban in Swat. Thinking they would be happy with that region of Pakistan was monumental folly. You can’t trust a group of religious fanatics intent on spreading their fundamentalism across the globe, particularly when al-Taqiya (deception) is perfectly acceptable. Yes, they promised to stop the violence once they were allowed to establish Shariah in Swat, and no, it did not stop (and will not stop) until the whole of Pakistan is ruled by the Taliban. And now, it looks like they are slowly creeping towards Islamabad. The Taliban claim it is in retaliation for the joint Pakistani/U.S. drone attacks- but it’s nothing more than their desire for religious domination.

Apparently, fighting has now begun in the Buner district of northern Pakistan, a mere 100 kilometers from Islamabad, where Mullah Nazeer Ahmed, commander of the Pakistani Taliban, has said

‘The day is not far when Islamabad will be in the hands of the mujahideen.’

The locals have been battling the militants, who arrived there Monday, and both insurgents, locals and police have been killed. But will they too eventually cave in, after prolonged fighting, like those in Swat? And if they do, it makes them a stone’s throw away from Islamabad.

And how complicit is Pakistan in the Taliban insurgency? One has to wonder why nothing has been done to curb the problem, when one would think the Pakistani military would be far more powerful than some ragtag militants living on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. There are reports that Pakistan’s intelligence service has been aiding, in various ways, the Taliban, which makes it perfectly obvious why no gains have been made in destroying the Taliban stronghold.

Reports in the Wall Street Journal and the N.Y. Times

once again highlight the potential risks from Pakistan’s ties to the Taliban [snip]

Asserting that both Pakistan’s civilian government and military leaders lack the capability and desire to cut the ties with militants, anonymous US officials said the ISI was providing arms, money and support to Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, where US and British troops are stationed.

It has long been alleged that some within Pakistan’s main spy agency have retained links to the Taliban, which they helped to establish in the 1990s. Last year, the head of the CIA flew to Islamabad to present evidence that he claimed showed ISI elements were involved in a deadly bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.

But officials in Washington now say that, according to human intelligence and electronic intercepts, the ISI, through its “S Wing” which conducts deals with operations in Afghanistan, is supporting more militant networks than was previously thought, including Lashkar-e-Toiba, which was blamed for last year’s attacks in Mumbai.

If this is indeed true, then what hope is there of ever defeating the Taliban, and by extension al Qaida.

The Pakistani government needs to make a concerted effort to break any ties they have with the Taliban, and start fighting them for real, rather than appeasing them; or the whole of Pakistan will eventually become Taliban territory.