Pakistani Forces Lie Low in Talistan

In theory, Pakistan's security forces are in opposition to the Taliban, who are linked to al-Qaeda and now firmly entrenched across the country's tribal belt and encroaching on "settled" areas of the northwest. In reality, large swathes of territory have simply been ceded to them.

We should've ended this charade that Pakistan is our ally yesterday! Globe & Mail

DARRA ADAM KHEL, PAKISTAN -- The Taliban fighters were in a pickup truck, brazenly parked right outside the army fort in Darra Adam Khel, militants and the state in an uneasy co-existence.

For months, Darra, a Pakistani town infamous for its arms bazaar in the troubled North West, has been under the control of the country's fierce Taliban movement, whose cadres patrol the streets and enforce their own austere rules. The security forces, when they do emerge from their fort, do not challenge the hot-blooded young militants. Wrapped in head scarves, with only their eyes showing, and bristling with weaponry, the Taliban are now such a normal sight in the town that no one pays them any attention.

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In theory, Pakistan's security forces are in opposition to the Taliban, who are linked to al-Qaeda and now firmly entrenched across the country's tribal belt and encroaching on "settled" areas of the northwest. In reality, large swathes of territory have simply been ceded to them. Many in Darra and across the tribal territory, known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), appear to believe that life under the Taliban may be harsh but at least the militants have brought law and order, something the state could not deliver.

Last week, the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force, launched an operation against Islamist warlords based on the outskirts of Peshawar in the Khyber Agency, a part of FATA. Darra, just a 40-minute drive from Peshawar, is a Frontier Region, which means it should not be as wild as FATA. Yet the Taliban, far more extreme than Khyber Agency's militants, operate there with impunity. The rubble of a paramilitary check post they bombed marks the edge of town.

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"People say that these Taliban here are Tajiks or Chechens or whatever, but that is a lie. They are our own people," Mr. Illyas said. "When there was government rule here, the police took money, the army took money. The Taliban don't. ... We say George Bush is the terrorist, not the Taliban."

Of course, it would be a brave person to speak out against the Taliban. Girls and women in particular suffer under their rule. But locals, not only in Darra but across the tribal belt, voiced support for them. While not popular, the Taliban get credit from locals for their emphasis on strict law and order, so exasperated were residents with the anarchy that prevailed under the Pakistani state.

"I would say that 70 per cent of people support the Taliban," said Abdul Qadir Khan, a student in Peshawar from South Waziristan, the epicentre of Pakistan's Taliban. "That's because people don't have education, they don't have jobs. The Taliban say they are fighting a holy war."