"the killers are alleged to be security forces"
Yeah, they USUALLY ARE no matter which country.
"In reclaimed Swat Valley, killings spark new worry; Some suspect Pakistani army of executions" by Elena Becatoros, Associated Press | August 25, 2009
MINGORA, Pakistan - Nearly three months after Pakistan retook the Swat Valley from the Taliban, bloodied corpses are still turning up on the streets. This time, the victims are suspected militants - and the killers are alleged to be security forces.
The army and the police deny the accusations, which the leading Pakistani human rights watchdog group says are credible.
The killings are a sign of the troubles still facing the valley, even as US officials cite the offensive - which is now winding down - as a success in Islamabad’s campaign against Al Qaeda and Taliban militants threatening both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The bloodshed comes as many of the 2 million people who fled the fighting are now returning to rebuild their lives.
I'm so sick of the repetitive garbage. It's not winding down, lying newspaper, and the refugee level is closer to 3 million -- which I feel I need to point out when it is mentioned, however rare.
Last week, two suicide blasts rocked the main town of Mingora in another deadly reminder of the threat the militants still pose. The corpses began appearing several weeks ago, residents say. Yesterday, 15 bodies were found in a town east of Mingora, local TV stations reported, although authorities would not confirm that. Another 18 were recovered from different parts of Swat Aug. 15, authorities said. The killings are a grim echo of Taliban rule over the valley....
Okay, there are CREDIBLE REPORTS it is GOVERNMENT SECURITY(?) FORCES doing the KILLING, and yet the paper leaves you with this slanted s***? As if the TALIBAN are responsible for, what, suiciding themselves?
“Previously, we were afraid of the Taliban. Now, we’re afraid of the army,’’ one man said, standing at the site where the bodies of two people, butcher Gohar Ullah, 35, and his younger brother Zahoor, 30, were found last Friday....
Four other brothers were taken at the same time, along with their father, Rahim, whose corpse turned up three weeks ago in the same area, relative Habib Ur-Rehman said, as the women of the family gathered in another courtyard nearby, wailing in grief.
I green that not because it is good, but because THIS IS WHAT I CARE ABOUT!!!
I DON'T GIVE a CRAP about POLITICS and BULLSHIT LIES in the war-promoting AmeriKan MSM!!!
I care about THOSE LOVELY PEOPLE who NEVER DESERVED THIS!!!
Oh, I suppose those women were "liberated" from their oppressive men, 'eh?
Yeah, that's why they are wailing!
Police and the army in Swat denied having had the two men in custody, or holding their other four brothers or father. “No, I don’t know about them,’’ said Swat District Police Officer Ghulam Farooq Qazi. “They are not in my custody.’’
Is there not one government in this world that doesn't lie?
But like the army, Qazi said he thought that the bodies turning up on the streets belonged to militants. “The militants, they did many crimes . . . they are fighting each other now,’’ he said. “Another [reason] is, the people who are suffering because of these criminals, they are also trying to take their revenge.’’
You know, a strange thought just occurred to me.
Like many of the corpses discovered on the streets, they were blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs, said one relative. One had been shot in the head and the other just below the eye, he said.
“My sons had nothing to do [with the Taliban]. They had no fight, they were innocent,’’ said Bakht Begum, the men’s mother, as she wiped away tears. “Even my husband had no fault. They killed my husband and my two sons....’’
Does Fatima gather tears of a non-Muslim? A Christian?
Militants began asserting their influence in Swat in 2007 - part of a wave of Al Qaeda and Taliban expanding their reach from safe havens near the Afghan border. By April, they controlled much of the onetime tourist retreat, just four hours’ drive from the capital, Islamabad.
Tourist retreat? In Talibanland? I thought those Muslims were intolerant types; that's the impression my war paper has left me.
The army launched a major operation in April that it says killed more than 1,600 militants.
--more--"
Of course, the Army's death squads didn't do this guy, right?
"Journalist critical of Taliban is executed while riding bus" by Reuters | August 25, 2009
JAMRUD, Pakistan - Gunmen shot dead an Afghan journalist known as an outspoken critic of the Taliban as he traveled by bus yesterday through Pakistan’s Khyber Pass, a Pakistani government official said....
Rehan Khattak, a government official in Jamrud, the main town in the Khyber region, declined to say who might have been responsible for the attack. Journalists in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province where Hashimzada was based, said he had been a vocal critic of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
“This was purely a targeted killing,’’ Shamim Shahid, president of the Peshawar Press Club, told the Vienna-based International Press Institute. Hashimzada “was very critical of the Taliban, and some of his reporting was unacceptable both to Pakistani and Afghan governments and intelligence agencies.
Yeah, but it was TALIBAN that killed him!!!! Come on!!!!!!!!
“He had too much information regarding the militants, the Taliban, and the intelligence agencies.’’
I don't think it was Taliban, folks -- especially with Pakistan's death squads roaming around the region!
Violence has increased in Khyber over the past year.
Yeah, that's the U.S.' main supply line for Afghanistan.
--more--"
