On Friday TV images showed Taliban militants emerging from a high walled villa that served as their headquarters in Buner. Buner is a rural area in the foothills of the Karakoram Mountains. The militants had seized a district sixty miles from Pakistan’s capital. The government warned the militants if they did not leave, force would be used to evict them. The militants, most of them masked with black scarves and carrying automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, escaped the area by using many pickup trucks and minibuses. This situation is the biggest and most immediate threat to the peace agreement of the militant held Swat Valley. This peace agreement halted nearly two years of bloody fighting between militants and Pakistani security forces. "We told them that we have a deal, we have a peace agreement. We told them not to become a tool in the hands of someone aiming at sabotaging the peace in the region," said Syed Mohammed Javed, the top government administrator in the region. Taliban commanders insisted their fighters had been preaching peacefully for Islamic law in Buner and said they were leaving "of their own accord, not under any pressure." Others say that their stronghold in Buner put them within striking distance of the capital and key roads leading to the main northwestern city of Peshawar.
I have many mixed feelings about this article. On one account I am glad peace was kept because of the peace agreement. On the other hand I am completely amazed they let such militants knowingly escape. This problem will never be solved until militant forces, such as this situation, are resolved. I am very displeased about their actions, or lack of actions on this situation. These militants could have been eliminated, which would possibly solve further problems in the future. I would hope the United States would make better decisions than what has happened here.
Randy Williams
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