Pakistani internal security (catch all)

[George L. Singleton]

It is amazing how different folks have different views on the subject of Swat.

My years (2) serving in Pakistan, with my higher HQ being at Badabar (suburb of Peshawar) found today's Swat under a Raj-era and style prince/family line. They (hte Prince and his then ruling family) worked well with the Pakistani Army, Frontier Corp, and local police to have and enforce the writ of law, the civil code, not the "religious" extremist Sharia Law.

Then came the 1980s and the USSR invasion, which spilled over into Paksitan. But even then Swat was isolated from most of that to the extent that the Austrians in the mid-1990s invested millions to develop ski resorts and slopes upon which to build a tourism industry in Swat.

Then came today's Taliban and al Qaida, looking for a haven (my view) away from the border areas...to start new terrorst training camps and impose their view of Sharia Law on the innocent population...which indigenous Swat folks are of different tribes than the invading Taliban...and who (natives to Swat population) had just voted in 2008 for a more secular local and national style of government by voting in locally an ANP provincial assembly and nationally having voted in the PPP and the new President Asif Ali Zardari.

To have and maintain the writ of civil law you have to have law and order. This historically was achieved by having permanent military garrisons who joined together with local police maintained, actively, every single day, not on again, off again, civil law and order and prevented "honor killings and beheadings."

See the Friday, Feb. 27 letter to editor of the Peshawar FRONTIER POST and then if interested, post what you think of the retired Pakistani Brigadier's views and opinions entitled:

Terms of surrender
Brig (R) Tariq Zubair Toor Lahore tariq.zubairtoor@yahoo.com

http://www.thefrontierpost.com/News.aspx?ncat=le&nid=1109