Peace Deal Crumbling, Pakistan Warns: Flee

[sabra]

Source: CBS News/AP

500,000 Expected To Leave Swat Valley As Taliban, Gov't Forces Draw Closer To Conflict; Zardari Heads To D.C.

(CBS/AP) A senior Pakistani official said authorities have urged residents to flee a Taliban-held valley in the northwest where a peace deal appears to be crumbling.

Witnesses and officials said fighting between Pakistani troops and militants broke out in the Swat Valley on Tuesday, and that hundreds of civilians were fleeing.

The region had been covered by a much criticized cease-fire that has broken down in recent weeks.

Khushal Khan, the top government official in Swat, said authorities were lifting a curfew on Tuesday so that people could leave Swat Valley's main town of Mingora.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/05/world/main4991348.shtml?tag=topHome;topStories

[InfiniteThoughts]

1. request to civilians ...

just leave ...

there is no point in staying back when your town is likely to become a bloody battleground soon. When there is war, you leave & make sacrifices for your country. Pakistan is at war, for it's existence. This is not the day for petty & narrow religious behaviour. This is not the day to be emotional. This is the day when you become patriotic & help your country win this war against Taliban.

hence, request all civilians in SWAT valley to learn the lesson from Sri Lanka (where Tamilians didn't flee to the safety of relief camps) and flee to Islamabad or even Punjab. Praying for a Pakistan victory, as the World will see a bleak future if Pakistan losses this battle.

[ohio2007]

2. And just which direction is the human stampede exodus headed ?

[Wednesdays]

3. K&R

:kick:

[lonestarnot]

4. MO WO.

:(

[Xithras]

5. This is about to get very, very ugly.

A government with a long history of atrocious behavior towards human rights is about to go to war with a religious rebellion with a long history of atrocious behavior towards human rights, and the press will be shut out.

[ohio2007]

6. A nation that will not save itself cannot be saved.

When neither a society nor its military can muster the will to identify and fight, as a nation, a lethal enemy among them, it's over. Such is the condition in Pakistan. Pakistan, as a nation-state, is on a rapid path to implosion.
Doesn't matter at this point what we do with them, what we do for them, what we give them, or what kinds of support we lend Islamabad. Unless and until the fragmented Pakistani society can uniformly identify the Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists, no matter their heritage, as mortal enemies; and unless and until the Pakistani military can acknowledge this and muster the will to fight them and fight for the diverse society as a Pakistani nation, neither will survive.