Anti-Taliban militia raised in Swat to fight Taliban

The militancy-hit people of the Kalagai area of Swat have raised a private militia and eliminated three suspected militants.

The militia was raised after the people of Kalagai, situated some 30kms northwest of here, decided to use force to counter the threat posed by the Taliban.

The leaders of the militia have called upon the government and the security forces to provide them with arms and ammunition so that they may ward off the threat effectively.

A group of journalists, who were taken to the area in Kabal tehsil on Thursday by the security forces, attended a jirga of the militia.

Members of the militia told journalists that they had seized six militants and handed them over to security personnel. The journalists were also shown three bodies, apparently that of militants.

Militiamen claimed that an encounter had taken place early on in the morning in which three militants had died.The militia, having between 250 and 300 volunteers, is headed by Syed Bacha, an elder of Kalagai.

Syed Bacha said the Taliban had misguided the people of Swat in the name of Islam. Initially the people believed, he said, that the Taliban were serious in propagating Islam. That’s why many people supported the militants.However, later on when they realised that the Taliban had made their lives miserable, the people turned against them, he said.

Syed Bacha was of the view that the militants committed atrocities against the people of Swat and also humiliated them. Ultimately the residents were compelled to raise a volunteer force against the militants.He expressed the hope that members of his militia would not have to face the kind of situation faced by Pir Samiullah, who had raised a voice against the Taliban and was killed.

Pir Samiullah was killed in December in a clash with militants, after which his body was dug out from his grave and desecrated.Some of Samiullah’s followers had claimed then that they waited for help from security personnel which never arrived.‘We need arms and ammunition from the government. Once we receive these, we will fight with the militants alongside the security forces,’ said Syed Bacha.

AFP adds: ‘This is the first Lashkar that people have formed in Swat on a self-help basis,’ said Major Suleman Akbar, army commander in Kabal, vowing full cooperation with the militia.

‘We will provide them arms, ammunition, rations and other logistic support,’ he said. ‘Taliban know only the language of guns. We will speak to them in their language now,’ 19-year-old Salman Ahmed, a member of the militia, said.

Commanders say more than 1,800 militants and 166 security personnel have died in the military operation but there is no independent confirmation of the death tolls, and skirmishes in and around Swat have continued