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March 27, 2006
Pakistan: Taliban Execute First Person Under Islamic Law
We reported on March 11 that for a brief period at the start of the month, Pakistan lost control of Miran Shah (Miranshah), main town of North Waziristan Agency in the North West Frontier Province to Taliban and Al-Qaeda-allied Islamists. In the adjoining South Waziristan Agency, on 10th March Friday prayers, tribal imams announced that cases of justice would no longer be settled by a jirga (tribal council) but by an Islamic judge, using Sharia Law.
Last week, on Tuesday 21 March, the Guardian announced that the Taliban had consolidated its rule in the tribal regions of Pakistan adjoining the Afghanistan border in the North West Frontier Province. The Guardian stated that Islamic militias were erecting checkpoints and collecting taxes from passing vehicles in the region.
These members of the so-called Pakistan Taliban have been gaining power for some time. They have killed more than 100 pro-government elders and politicians since summer last year. They are led, state analysts, by the radical clerics Sadiq Noor and Abdul Khaliq. These clerics established an Islamic court in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan Agency.
Today, it was announced by local residents that this Islamic Court executed its first criminal on Sunday (26 March), states Pakistan's Daily Times. The man, aged 24, was called Hayat Gul, and was accused of the killing of a taxi driver. A shopkeeper told the paper: "The accused was buried on Monday. He was a professional car-snatcher - a bad guy."
The shura (Sharia Court) had heard pleadings from the taxi-driver's family for vengeance. Bilal, the taxi-driver, had been killed in Wana in February. Gul pleaded guilty, and was granted permission to ask for clemency from Bilal's family. They refused, and he was executed.
On Friday, Pakistan's Interior Minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao had denied the presence of the Taliban in the region. On March 17th, a spokesman for the governor of North West Frontier Province had denied that the region had been taken over by the Taliban.
The situation in the region has been deteriorating for some time. Two years ago, Pakistan mobilised 70,000 troops to the region, to combat the foreign fighters, but obviously this action has not worked.
On Friday, Reuters India announced that the Pakistan government had been airdropping leaflets over Wana and Miranshah, urging locals to shun "foreign terrorists", who were said to be part of a "Hindu and Jewish plot" (!).
On December 1 last year, a blast at Haisori village near Miranshah killed Al Qaeda's third in command, Egyptian-born Abu Hamza Rabia.
Since December, atrocities against those considered to be "bandits" have increased, and now, violent DVDs of these executions are on sale in local markets and across the border in Afghanistan.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 27, 2006 10:04 PM
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