Posted by Tina
When the people have finally had enough they act, they take a stand.
* SHALBANDI, Pakistan: On a rainy Friday evening in early August, six Taliban fighters attacked a police post in a village in Buner, a quiet farming valley just outside the lawless tribal region of Pakistan. *** The militants tied up
eight police officers and forced them to lie on the floor, and, according to local accounts, the youngest member of the gang, a 14-year-old, shot the captives on orders from his boss. The fighters stole uniforms and weapons and fled into the mountains. *** Almost instantly, the people of Buner, armed with rifles, daggers and pistols, formed a posse. After five days, they cornered and killed their quarry. A video made on a cellphone showed the six militants lying in the dirt, blood oozing from their wounds. *** The stand at Buner has entered the lore of Pakistan’s war against the militants as a dramatic example of ordinary citizens’ determination to draw a line against the militants. *** Since the events in Buner, the inspector general of the police in North-West Frontier Province, Malik Naveed Khan, has encouraged citizens in other towns and villages in his realm to form posses of their own. The hope is that determination itself will deter Taliban encroachment, building on the August victory with one phalanx after another of committed citizens. But the strategy is also a sign of his desperation. *
“Committed citizens”…imagine that!