Pakistan is falling to pieces. Terrorists have swamped Matta in Swat valley. 25 militants were freed in exchange of 213 soldiers captured in the tribal area of South Waziristan in August. The Telegraph UK reports that hardened criminals, among whom there is the dreaded Sohail Zeb, have been released. The Taliban leadership in Pakistan had demanded his release.

To sum up the situation in Pakistan we need to notice the following:

a) President Musharraf is slowly buckling under fundamentalist-militant pressure.His declarations about the Emergency being all about washing out terrorists is sounding hollower by the day.

b) Large areas of Northern Pakistan are already under the whip of fundamentalists.
Islamic seminaries or madrasas are openly against the US adoring General Musharraf.

c) Benazir Bhutto is resolutely keeping silent and has blamed everything on the President’s advisors. She does dare to criticize Musharraf. That way she will earn the ire of the dictator and also of the terrorists. The tables are slowly turning in Pakistan. The terrorists are taking over. Put another way, is Musharraf becoming the arch-aggressor?

d) National television is practicing vigorous censorship. President Bush’s speeches are being edited to prove Pakistan an ally of the US in the latter’s fight against terrorism. President Bush’s advice to the Pakistani General for holding early election is not being aired.

e) Rigorous clamp-down of all liberal voices and the purging of dissenting voices go on in Pakistan.

f) Normal life has been extinguished.

There is no light in sight. It is now that the US should act. Pakistan has passed into the hands of terrorists. Some are in the military, some outside it.

President Musharraf should be deposed and violent men hunted out by the international community. Otherwise the subcontinent will be rocked with unprecedented violence. When good men do nothing, evil arises.

Via: Telegraph UK

Image: Telegraph UK