Word: swats
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Aziz's release (the Supreme Court ruled that it had insufficient evidence against him) comes on the heels of another Taliban victory: On April 13 Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari signed an ordinance imposing Shari'a in the Swat Valley and its surrounding district, effectively ceding administrative and judicial control to the Taliban insurgents who have turned the one-time vacation destination into a war zone. The Nizam-e-Adl regulations, as they are known, were part of a controversial peace deal negotiated in February between the provincial government and an influential religious leader affiliated with the Taliban movement...
...bring peace in the valley. "Islam is our religion and we are Muslims," he told reporters in Peshawar, the provincial capital. "The state is responding to the aspirations of the people." Yet more than 80,000 of the 1.5 million residents have fled the region. "The Taliban are taking Swat back to the Dark Ages and the Pakistani government is now complicit in their horrific abuses," said Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Tossing out the rights of the people in the tribal areas reflects abysmally on both the government and the Pakistani military...
...This is not just the flogging of the girl; it is an indication of what is in store for us.' ASMA JAHANGIR, head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, on the beating of a teenage girl for "immoral behavior" in the Taliban-controlled Swat Valley...
...Supreme Court and its Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, are not keeping silent, however. While Chaudhry says the authenticity of the video must be established (noting that it could be part of a scheme against those in Swat "demanding the application of Shari'a law"), he voiced outrage at what the footage appeared to portray. "[This] certainly constitutes a serious violation of law and fundamental rights of the citizens of the country," he declared on Monday during a hearing on the incident. Chaudhry reprimanded several senior officials, including Pakistan Attorney General Sardar Latif Khosa, for failing to take immediate action: "Before...
Khan, the women's-rights activist, however, is pessimistic that even Chaudhry can get anything done. She says the Supreme Court inquiry is merely smoke and mirrors and that it will take a "miracle" to bring justice to Swat. "Until now, nobody knows who murdered Benazir Bhutto," she says. "Where is that committee? Where are those results? Do you think anyone will investigate or help the poor people of Swat...