The Taliban militants recently established a complain center in Dehri Shabqadar, 25 km away in the North West from Peshawar, thus increasing their hostile operations close to Peshawar, the biggest city and the capital of Pakhtunkhwa, formerly known as the North Western Frontier Province of Pakistan.
The militants, prowling with sophisticated arms in broad day light, have forced all music centers, barber shops and internet cafes to close in the town, have warned the girls’ schools and have told the people to follow their orders without any objection.
“They are now on the periphery” admitted Malik Naveed Khan, the inspector general of Peshawar police, in an interview with the New York Times. If nothing is done, it could be “a matter of months” before Peshawar falls (into the hands of the militants), he warned in the interview with the NYT.
To know the background of his warning, I should remind the readers that the Pakhunkhwa government has signed peace deals with the militants and, according to the officials, the militants are bound not to challenge the writ of the government, but their vicious activities are clearly visible in all the areas they were active in before the agreements.
The international community as well as secular think-tanks of Pakistan had opposed these so-called agreements saying the agreements will provide more power and eligibility to the militants and their crimes and will able them to have more ground in the big cities like Peshawar.
This opinion was proved true as the militants not only kept their operations openly continued but also violated the agreements in the form of the suicide attack in Mardan and more recently on Danish embassy in Islamabad.
For a true analysis of the so-called agreements, we should keep in mind that the militant groups of Pakistan are not under one command. They are many groups linked to different foreign affiliates and, in some cases, opponent to each other.
Besides this, leader of a group of the militants, Baitullah Mehsud, in his first press conference, a show of his advantage of the agreements, in Waziristan made clear that his fighters will not cease cross-border attacks in Afghanistan.
The world must understand the clear message of the militants in this statement that they have weakened the government and getting stronger and united. And when they will have sufficient power, they will not remain in the mountains of Waziristan and the Mohmand Agency but will seize Peshawar and then will demand for new agreements on their own conditions.