400 Taliban lay siege to Pakistani police station
posted at 7:40 am on July 10, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
Send to a Friend |
Share on Facebook | printer-friendly
Police in Kohat arrested seven Taliban extremists, and perhaps they could be forgiven for believing that 35 policemen would be enough to ensure their security. When the Taliban showed up in almost battalion strength, however, the police found themselves cut off. The army sent a battalion of its own, but not before the terrorists kidnapped three of the policemen and essentially captured Kohat (via See-Dubya):
A 400-strong force of Taliban militants laid siege to a police station in Hangu on Wednesday after the arrest of seven of their associates by security agencies.
According to officials, 35 policemen were present in the Doaba station when militants encircled it.
Heavily-armed Taliban militants were seen patrolling the Doaba bazaar and taking positions to counter any operation by security forces.
A military spokesman said that an army battalion had been sent from the Thall garrison to Doaba on the request of the provincial government.
The army will attempt to relieve the rest of the besieged policemen, but the three who tried to escape have been spirited away. Electricity got cut off in the siege as well. If the army doesn’t get there quickly, the rest of the police probably don’t stand much of a chance for survival, and the Taliban will hold this significant city, close to Peshawar.
Pakistan recently began pushing back against the Taliban, or at least some if the Taliban elements, due to a rising threat to Peshawar. This shows that Pakistan wasn’t much wrong in its assessment. The ability and desire to send a force of 400 to rescue 7 captured members demonstrates a strength that creates serious security issues for NWFP and everywhere else in Pakistan. And the Gilani government only has itself to blame for legitimizing the Taliban terrorists through negotiations.
Hopefully, the new Pakistani government has learned its lesson. Otherwise, the next city to get besieged may be Islamabad, and it will involve a lot more than 400 terrorists.
Update: The Taliban withdrew when the army arrived, and we hear more about the reason for the siege:
“The Taliban ended the siege of the police station around 3:00 am (2100 GMT) when troops started arriving,” local police station chief Jehangir Khan told AFP.
An intelligence official said the detainees were among the close circle of tribal warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who has been accused of plotting the assassination of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto. Mehsud denies the charge.
So these were high-value detainees — and apparently Pakistan still holds them. Interesting….
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
The news from Pakistan goes from bad to worse. If the Pakistani government doesn’t get a grip on their country, we are all at risk.
It is terribly sad to see their country and culture devolving rather than moving forward.
hillbillyjim on July 10, 2008 at 7:49 AM
Is everyone sufficiently convinced that Pakistan has WMDs? OK, let’s go. Remember, no take backs the first time a US soldier gets a hangnail.
Kafir on July 10, 2008 at 7:54 AM
Update: Good update. Not as bad news as I thought. But still, the lawlessness of some of the regions is jawdropping, and the fractious politics of Pakistan are not encouraging to say the least.
hillbillyjim on July 10, 2008 at 7:58 AM
Hopefully, the new Pakistani government has learned its lesson. Otherwise, the next city to get besieged may be Islamabad, and it will involve a lot more than 400 terrorists.
They’re gonna to turn Pakistan into another pre-liberation Afghanistan (Talibanistan, Alqeadastan). If they were smart, they’d put all their energy into doing just that, then the big bad brave warriors for allah would be armed with Paki nukes. Let’s pray that never happens, ’cause that would make Pakibanistan our next stop on the World War on Terror Tour.
Update: The Taliban withdrew when the army arrived …
Ugh! Their such puzzies! I thought they all WANTED to die for allah? I know I sure want them to!
Tony737 on July 10, 2008 at 8:14 AM
ooops! They’re, not their!
Tony737 on July 10, 2008 at 8:14 AM
Every one of these attacks actually increases the likelihood that we will have continued access across the border when necessary.
patrick neid on July 10, 2008 at 8:19 AM
You know your country is messed up when it starts resembling a John Carpenter movie.
BohicaTwentyTwo on July 10, 2008 at 8:22 AM
Hey, Pakistani government! Taliban News Flash for ya!
THEY’RE BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!
pilamaye on July 10, 2008 at 8:29 AM
The Wild Wild Middle East.
Only here, gunslingers with Colt-45s out to rob the train have been replaced with psychos armed with RPGs out to nuke civilization.
And guess who’s the sheriff without a posse?
fogw on July 10, 2008 at 8:31 AM
Even before reading most of the post or any of the update, I thought this could well be good news. The terrorists in and out of government have run this country for years and in the border areas even when the British were there. This time the police held out and the army was sent. A year ago one hundred of the army surrendered without firing a shot. At least some in Pakistan are finally getting serious.
burt on July 10, 2008 at 8:37 AM
A military bullied by 400 fighters.
A military that has nukes.
Why doesn’t that give me a warm and fuzzy feeling?
OT: anyone else having trouble with ABC on the net this morning?
Limerick on July 10, 2008 at 8:47 AM
Oh, they’ve learned, alright. They’ve just signed another peace agreement with the very people they’re supposed to be “on the offensive” against.
The Pakistani government and military are feckless in this situation.What evidence have they ever shown to do more than make meaningless gestures against the Taliban?
irishspy on July 10, 2008 at 8:49 AM
From IrishSpy’s link: The agreement … states Lashkar-e-Islam would recognize the writ of the Pakistani government.
Sounds like red on red “HUDNA” to me. Both sides pretending to be making peace, while gathering strength for another attack. You’d think muslims would not be fooled by their own trick by other muslims.
OT: anyone else having trouble with ABC on the net this morning? - Limey
No sir, ABC comes in loud and clear.
Tony737 on July 10, 2008 at 9:00 AM
Tony737 on July 10, 2008 at 9:00 AM
Weird. Been trying over an hour. Only site that won’t load.
Limerick on July 10, 2008 at 9:05 AM
There’s a highway running from Kabul to Islamabad. Hopefully that will help Nato troops to quickly enter Pakistan if necessary.
JiangxiDad on July 10, 2008 at 9:13 AM
I assume that somewhere in the Koran there is a rule about nuking one’s brothers. No virgins for you on the Afterlife. You get Maddie Albright clones.
What’s the formula for Predators + Hellfires needed to reduce 400 Talibs to 20?
GeneSmith on July 10, 2008 at 9:25 AM
What’s the difference? Hussein Obama will not take any action, claiming that part of the world needs to deal with its own problems.
Coming soon… a new map sans Israel, courtesy of the DNC.
madmonkphotog on July 10, 2008 at 9:37 AM
The Taliban being an ISI/Pak madrassas creation, these attacks suggest serious problems with national loyalty in Pakistan. So it’s fair to say a substantial percentage of higly-placed individuals would love to hand over a nuke for jihadi use.
I heard the US has something to do with securing their nukes. We’d better.
Beagle on July 10, 2008 at 9:46 AM
I’ll bet 50 cents that the three who tried to ‘escape’ were instead taliban sympathizers.
Kevin M on July 10, 2008 at 9:59 AM
Pakistan is one screwed up place AND they’re nuclear. It’s a good thing the Pakistan has everything under control.
Mojave Mark on July 10, 2008 at 10:00 AM
A good site to follow military events in Pakistan/Afghanistan is:
longwarjournal.com
They are a consortium of military imbeds. They have been predicting this situation in Pakistan for a long time.
KW64 on July 10, 2008 at 10:11 AM
The half hearted ‘push back’ according to most sources is just an international show so that they can get US money. The problem is that the new government isn’t as adept as Musharraf in making it look real. The longer we consider Pakistan an ally, and the longer we give them credit for participating in war games masquerading as actual war, the longer it will be before we begin to address the real problem. Pakistan is THE enemy. The US should be fighting against PAKISTAN, not Afghanistan or Iraq.
The region will never be stable as long as we expect Pakistan to fight our wars for us. If we went in from India and attacked Pakistan and Afghanistan at the same time, we would have been able to pull up the weed from the root. Instead by going into Afghanistan, we were able to pluck off the leaves of the weed, but it is growing back as we could not get the roots in Pakistan.
We should cut off military aid to that country now.
ThackerAgency on July 10, 2008 at 10:12 AM
Lie down with fleas, wake up with dogs!
wepeople on July 10, 2008 at 10:32 AM
HMMMM, feed the kids or buy a stinger missile. Looks like they pick stinger missile every time. Taliban society can’t last. Can it?
Hummer53 on July 10, 2008 at 11:35 AM
To the Pakistan military, TAKE NO PRISONERS!
byteshredder on July 10, 2008 at 12:11 PM
Hussein Obama will not take any action
madmonkphotog on July 10, 2008 at 9:37 AM
Funny, I thought Hussein promised to send troops into Pakistan (in fact, an invasion)?
Sir Napsalot on July 10, 2008 at 12:58 PM
What Pakistan needs is some well placed lead slugs to rectify the situation.
.
GT on July 10, 2008 at 1:09 PM
We certainly all wish Pakistan success in her fight against the Heretic Al Queda and the fascist Taliban.
However, our experience with ignoring a series of attacks on the US in the US in 1993, Saudi Arabia two years later, Two National embassies in Africa in 1998 and on a warship in Yemen in 2000 was that failure to take strong action just led to even more atrocious attacks like the one in New York on 9/11/01. Restraint is not perceived to be kindness or being of a peaceful nature. It is seen as weakness that can be exploited.
If the democratically elected government wants to resolve the conflict by recruiting locals in the tribal areas to free themselves by doing the fighting, they need to give them better protection until they have the numbers, training, weapons and experience to be successful. Then they will have to convince the citizenry that they can and will protect them if they turn on the Taliban and foreign fighters that oppress them and recruit their children to go to useless deaths.
Intelligence is essential to winning such a fight and the best intellegence comes from a sympathetic population that feels safe enough to rat out the bad guys. That means you must have enough force to protect areas once you clear them of Taliban control. That means the Pakistani army must help do the clearing and provide air support for the local forces that hold the areas as well as quick reinforcement capability when Taliban forces threaten.
If the Pakistani army and frontier forces cannot do this throughout the frontier, then it will have to do in in small areas first and expand the areas as their capabilities grow. But attacking, then leaving and allowing those people who sided with the government to get their heads cut off when the Taliban come back, will not work. We proved that in 2004,2005 and 2006 in Iraq. In 2007 we changed tactics and won.
KW64 on July 10, 2008 at 3:03 PM
He will tell you he needs more intelligence and you’ll never hear it mentioned until the situation gets much worse. Then he will probably blame Bush and raise taxes.
snaggletoothie on July 10, 2008 at 3:17 PM
I guess the troops called ahead or didn’t form up correctly or showed up in groups of two.
Some army.
dogsoldier on July 10, 2008 at 3:30 PM
I guess the Taliban figured out they ain’t getting Afghansitan back and are looking to take over a new home.
Hog Wild on July 10, 2008 at 10:19 PM