Danger Lurks ahead for Indians as some parts of "Talibanistan" could be as near as 500 Km from Wagha Border (India)

The Taliban is a Sunni Islamist, predominately Pashtun movement that governed Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when its leaders were removed from power by Northern Alliance and NATO forces. While in power, the Taliban implemented the "strictest interpretation of Sharia law ever seen in the Muslim world," and became notorious internationally for their treatment of women.

The Taliban's extremely strict and "anti-modern" ideology has been described as an "innovative form of sharia combining Pashtun tribal codes," or Pashtunwali, with radical Deobandi interpretations of Islam favoured by members of the Pakistani fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) organization and its splinter groups. Also contributing to the admixture was the Wahhabism of their Saudi financial benefactors, and the jihadism and pan-Islamism of sometime comrade-in-arms Osama bin Laden.

It has regrouped and since 2004 revived as a strong insurgency movement fighting a guerrilla war against the current government of Afghanistan, allied NATO forces participating in Operation Enduring Freedom, and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). It operates in Afghanistan and the Frontier Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
The Taliban movement is headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar. Mullah Omar's original commanders were "a mixture of former small-unit military commanders and Madrasah teachers," [So now you have understood who makes terrorits] and the rank and file made up mostly of Afghan refugees who had studied at Islamic religious schools in Pakistan.

The overwhelming majority of the Taliban movement were ethnic Pashtuns from southern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, along with a smaller number of volunteers from Islamic countries or regions in North Africa, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union.

The Taliban received valuable training, supplies and arms from the Pakistani government.

Those who have interest in Politics and History could recall that in September, 2005, The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly introduced a Bill seeking to make provisions for the application of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) to people of that community in the State.

Seeking the permission of the House to move the Bill, Opposition leader Abdur Raheem Rather of the National Conference (The Party Headed by "Progressive" Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah". Now NDTV Ltd could come up with another/new version of being progressive and secularism) said that even as Shariat laws were applicable to Muslims in the State, they came into conflict with customs in many matters.

"I want that these customs should not come in the way of implementing the Shariat laws," he said.

However, earlier there were reports in a section of media that, A group of Muslim women under the banner of Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan challenged the Shariat laws and the Muslim Personal Law Board’s regulations on marriage and termed them discriminatory.

What might happen if Talibani Law is applied (Are they an archaic version of Islamic justice system??!!):

1. No education for women and they have to envelop their bodies with Burkha. Not obeying this dictat could be public humiliation, beating/flogging, and even death by stoning. Women should wear burqa in public, because, according to a Taliban spokesman, "the face of a woman is a source of corruption" for men not related to them.

2. They will not be allowed to work. They will not be allowed to be educated after the age of eight, and until then will be permitted only to study the Qur'an. Earlier when these Talibans captured Afganistan, women seeking education were forced to attend underground schools such as the Golden Needle Sewing School, where they and their teachers risked execution if caught.

3. Women will not be allowed to be treated by male doctors unless accompanied by a male chaperone. A chaperone (or occasionally chaperon) is an adult who accompanies or supervises one or more young, unmarried men or women during social occasions, usually with the specific intent of preventing inappropriate social or sexual interactions or illegal behavior (e.g., underage drinking or illegal drug use).

The chaperone is typically accountable to a third party, usually the parents of one of the accompanied young people., This might lead to to illnesses remaining untreated. They will face public flogging and execution for violations of these dictats/

4. Punishment for adultery---stoning to death in front of public.

5. Punishment for stealing---To be forced to lie on the ground while their hands, and sometimes their feet, were sliced off by men with scalpels. The penalties might follow rules of a sort: Steal a trifle and go to jail. Steal more than $50 and your right hand would be severed. Steal a bundle and, at the judge's discretion, you could lose both hands, or a hand and a foot.

Muhammad Daoud was just 14 years old in 1995, when he became the first person in Kandahar whose hand was amputated by the Taliban. Now a mild-mannered man of 29, unemployed and with two small children, he vigorously denied that he stole money when he worked as a cashier in the money-changing bazaar, the crime of which he was accused. He said that his bosses, two men with close ties to the Taliban, took money and blamed him for it, and that he had no chance to defend himself.

This punishment was carried out in a LARGE MOSQUE that is normally used for public celebrations after Ramadan.
Two men hauled him in front of the buzzing crowd and restrained him as he struggled, shouting that he was innocent, Mr. Daoud said. They wound a tourniquet around his arm and jabbed his wrist with local anesthetic. Then a former combat medic who called himself Dr. Baloch leaned over with a surgical knife.

''He cut through the skin and I saw blood, and then I passed out,'' Mr. Daoud said. What certainly happened next, people who witnessed several such events said, is that the men snapped his wrist violently and Dr. Baloch cut through the broken joint with his scalpel.

He said in the usual routine, the surgeon would hold up the severed hand by the thumb, for the crowd to see as a lesson against malfeasance, then fling it to the ground for later burial.
Mr. Daoud says he awoke at the local branch of the International Committee for the Red Cross, which evacuated him to nearby Quetta, Pakistan. There, Red Cross doctors had to redo the botched amputation, trimming the bones and skin and fighting infections, and he was hospitalized for more than three weeks.
6. Murder cases might follow ancient laws: shoot a man and be shot by his brother, unless the relatives choose to forgive. Kill with a knife and your own throat would be slit.

7. Punishment for Prostitution for women: They would be made to kneel against a goalpost on another and then shot in the back of the head at close range.

8. Those deemed to be spies or traitors might be hanged, their bodies put out for public display. Career robbers might be hanged or shot or their throats slit.

9. Punishment for adulterous couple: Stonning to death. Men caught in homosexual acts might be propped against any convenient old wall, which will then be toppled onto them by a tank.

10. Stop co-education in schools or ask school owners and teachers to close down all institutes offering co-education even at the pre-school level. The Taliban, led by Maulana Fazlullah-led militants, had in Dec 24 asked all government and private schools to close down girls’ classes by Jan 15, 2009, in picturesque but restive Swat Valley in Pakistan’s northwest province.

Bowing to a Taliban diktat, some 400 private schools in the Swat Valley in Pakistan’s northwest have discontinued girls’ classes, depriving more than 40,000 students of their basic right to education. Additionally, 84,248 girl students of state-run institutions are unlikely to attend school due to the fear of Taliban militants, who now control the entire area, despite the resolve of the local administration to reopen the schools March 1,2009. Managements of private schools also appealed to the militants to take back their decision in the interest of thousands of girl students and hundreds of female teachers, many of them the lone breadwinners of their families.
“The Swat TTP reviewed the decision a couple of weeks ago with Maulana Fazlullah in the chair. They did not withdraw their threat, but softened their stance and allowed girls to attain education up to the fourth grade. However, the chief of the terrorists renewed the threat of bombing educational institutions if any school continued higher education for girls,” The News said.

Taliban militants have already destroyed 172 schools - 122 for girls and 50 for boys -depriving 40,646 students of education. These include 23,308 girls and 17,338 boys. This apart, 18 schools have been occupied by the armed forces engaged in operations against the militants. This has impacted 7,039 students.

11. Stop issuing identity cards to women with or without pictures.

12. We might again hear this echo: "The Sharia does not allow politics or political parties. That is why we give no salaries to officials or soldiers, just food, clothes, shoes and weapons. We want to live a life like the Prophet lived 1400 years ago and Jihad is our right. We want to recreate the time of the Prophet and we are only carrying out what the Afghan people have wanted for the past 14 years".

Islamic law to be imposed in parts of Pakistan
By RIAZ KHAN

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – The government agreed to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive across much of northwest Pakistan on Monday in concessions aimed at pacifying the Taliban insurgency spreading from the border region to the country's interior.
The announcement came as three missiles believed fired from a U.S. drone aircraft destroyed a house used by a local Taliban commander elsewhere in the northwest, killing 30 people, witnesses said.

The cease-fire, in Pakistan's Swat Valley hundreds of miles from the missile strike in Kurram, will likely concern the United States, which has warned Pakistan that such peace agreements allow al-Qaida and Taliban militants operating near the Afghan border time to rearm and regroup.

The truce announcement came after talks with local Islamists, including one closely linked to the Taliban.

Speaking in India, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said the unrest in Swat was a reminder that the United States, Pakistan and India face an "an enemy which poses direct threats to our leadership, our capitals and our people."

Amir Haider Khan Hoti, the chief minister for the North West Frontier Province, said authorities would impose Islamic law in Malakand region, which includes the Swat Valley. Swat is a one-time tourist haven in the northwest where extremists have gained sway through brutal tactics including beheading residents, burning girls schools and attacking security forces.

He said the laws would only be implemented when the valley was peaceful.

The Swat Taliban said Sunday they would observe a 10-day cease-fire in support of the peace process. They welcomed Monday's announcement, which did not mention any need for the militants to give up arms.

"Our whole struggle is for the enforcement of Shariah (Islamic) law," Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said. "If this really brings us the implementation of Shariah, we will fully cooperate with it."

Hoti gave few details, but said the main changes were included in existing laws stipulating Islamic justice that have never been enforced. They allow for Muslim clerics to advise judges when hearing cases, but do not ban female education or mention other strict interpretations of Shariah espoused by the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"This was the people's demand ... for speedy justice." he said. "There was a (legal) vacuum and we will be filling that vacuum in the near future," he told a news conference.

Hoti also said that troops in Swat, which had been conducting an offensive there against the militants, would now go on "reactive mode" and retaliate only if attacked.

Pakistani military officials were not immediately available for comment.

The missile attack Monday was the first known such strike in Kurram. Most of the strikes have occurred in South and North Waziristan, other tribal regions considered major Taliban and al-Qaida strongholds.

Rehman Ullah, a resident of the targeted village of Baggan, said drones were seen in the sky before the attack and that he saw 30 bodies dug up. An intelligence official said field informants reported that militants showed up at the village bazaar and ordered 30 caskets. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

The U.S. has stepped up missile strikes in the border region since August, killing some suspected top militants. Pakistan routinely protest the strikes, saying it undercuts its fight against terror.

Regaining the Swat Valley from militants is a major test for the Pakistani government. Unlike the semiautonomous tribal regions where al-Qaida and Taliban have long thrived, the former tourist haven is supposed to be under full government control and lies less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the provincial capital, Islamabad.

Among those Islamists taking part in talks with the government in the provincial capital Peshawar was Sufi Muhammad, who Pakistan freed last year after he agreed to renounce violence. Muhammad is father-in-law to Maulana Fazlullah, leader of the Taliban in Swat.

Hoti said Muhammad had agreed to travel to Swat and urge the militants to give up their arms.

"Seeing the trend we can hope peace will soon be restored in Swat," he said.

President Asif Ali Zardari has been indirectly involved in the dialogue after growing increasingly concerned about civilian casualties in Swat, said an official in the president's office who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Overall security is deteriorating in Pakistan, and several foreigners have been attacked or abducted in recent months.

Also Monday, a spokesman for kidnappers holding American John Solecki captive in Pakistan said the deadline to negotiate for his release was extended for a "few days" after appeals from "some international organizations." On Friday, the captors said they would kill Solecki, a United Nations official, in 72 hours if their demands were not met.

Solecki was abducted on Feb. 2 in Quetta, a major city in the southwest near the Afghan border. On Friday, his kidnappers threatened to kill him within 72 hours and issued a 20-second video of the blindfolded hostage.

Shahak Baluch, who claims to speak for the little-known Baluch United Liberation Front, announced the extended deadline in a call to the Quetta Press Club.

The group's name indicates a link to separatists rather than Islamic extremists. Its demands include the release of 141 women allegedly held by Pakistani authorities, but Pakistan has denied it is holding the women.