Summons from Swat

Maulana Fazal-ullah has served summons to 47 prominent persons of the province including serving and ex-ministers, MNAs & MPAs, Nazims & Councillors  to appear in his court failing which they should be prepared to face the consequences. Consequences in Taliban parlance could mean  bombing, killing, kidnapping and even beheading. Nothing could be more outrageous than this in challenging the writ of the government. The masses are not only losing faith and confidence in the government for failing in its prime most duty of protecting the life and property of the citizens, but also getting scared of the open threats and challenges being given by the Taliban and the Maulana. The provincial and the federal governments must act and act fast to wrest the drastic situation which otherwise could spill over to the settled areas of the province in not too distant a future. I think apart from clamping down  curfews and taking other counter measures, the first thing that the govt. should do is to render the Maulana and its 'egime' incommunicado from the peaceful citizens of Swat. Their all edicts and warnings are communicated to the people through FM broadcasts. The location of each FM station could be pin pointed by DFing it (Direction Finding) and be bombed out. The transmissions could also be easily jammed. Same could be done for the distribution of written material for which it should not be difficult to track down the printing presses printing them and action taken against them. The Maulana and his followers must be isolated in the first instance and then dealt with. Extreme care must be taken in not offending the locals in any way who are already under great stress and duress. Most of them are not at all Taliban friendly and a few  siding with them do it more out of fear than sympathy. Masses must be kept befriended to gain their support and sympathies for eliminating the bane of the Taliban from Swat, which they earnestly want.

Truly

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)