Portrait of a Vicious Fanatic
'We have killed all the children, now what do we do?'
"Many of our family members went to convince him but he did not listen to anyone. He was so blinded by his passion for Islam as he saw it that he even killed two of our uncles in 2007."
Unnamed cousin of Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah
Hunted: The order for the raid was
given by the overall leader of the Pakistani Taliban Maulana Fazlullah,
(pictured) whose previous crimes include ordered the failed murder of
teenage education campaigner Malala
"His communications have been intercepted as well which helped security agencies in tracing his location and whereabouts which was urgently shared not only with the Afghan army but also with NATO forces."Pakistan security source
In the wake of seven Taliban terrorists storming into the military-run school in Peshawar, the hunt is on by the Pakistani military, looking for collaboration with Afghanistan and the United States, to track down and kill Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah. The shooting and bombing of 132 children in their classrooms and the school auditorium, the burning alive of teachers before their pupils, the horrific death of the school headmistress, blown up with a hand grenade as she looked for shelter, has transfixed a grieving country.
A national consensus finally appears to be emerging. Some of the popular support among Pakistani Islamists for their Taliban seems to be wavering. The man known as "Mullah Radio" in recognition of the pirate radio station he operated out of the Swat Valley from 2004, preaching violence against all vestiges of the West, its pernicious education of girls, its creeping popular culture, and its presence in Muslim lands, motivated his followers to support him until the military finally routed him in 2009 to find haven in Afghanistan.
He had grown up in a small village in the Swat Valley, known as an intelligent and respectful youth, a perfectly normal boy. When he began attendance at a Salafist madrassa operated by a radical cleric, he changed from that perfectly normal boy to a radicalized Islamist who pursued moderate mullahs in mosques for their inadequately stern worship of Islam. He married his mentor, Sufi Mohammad's daughter, and built a mosque of his very own, broadcasting sermons to locals to surrender themselves to Islamic law.
Politicians began to notice him, complaining he was inciting the populace to violence in opposition against the Pakistan military. In 2008, he transformed his religious extremism into a military mission, seizing control of the Swat Valley and imposing "Islamic justice". Schools teaching girls were attacked and destroyed, students killed along with policemen and political/religious opponents. He turned his attention to obliterating any vestiges of Western influence, of traditional music and dance.
When the Tehreek-e-Taliban (Pakistan Taliban) lost its leader, Baitullah Mehsud along the Afghan border, Fazlullah stepped into the breach when his replacement, Hakimullah Mehsud too was killed. His men killed hundreds of police, hanging them from pylons, destroying 400 schools and refused to allow health workers to inoculate children against poliomyelitis, claiming it was a Western plot to sterilize of Pakistani children. The brutality he and his men became famous for was reflected in the military's response.
His reign of terror may be short-lived sooner better than later, should the Pakistan military discover his whereabouts. But it seems that conflicts within the Taliban may also play a part in his removal if the military continue to search for him without success: "Fazlullah is indecisive and is not really convincing as a leader or warrior. Since he succeeded Hakimullah, the TTP has been riven with factional conflicts and splits", advised Michael Semple, former deputy European Union envoy to Afghanistan, reputedly one of the world's most respected experts on the Taliban.
Labels: Atrocities, Pakistan, Taliban
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, December 23, 2014
<< Home