Word: swats
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...local police precinct in the village of Matta has a new sign: Taliban Station. The same thing in the village of Kabal - in fact, nine of the twelve districts in the picturesque Swat Valley, 100 miles from Pakistan's capital, have been taken over by militants, who have torched music shops, barred girls from going to school, forced women to wear burqas and decreed that men must grow beards. As if to complete the flashback to Taliban-era Afghanistan, the new overlords have even attempted to blow up centuries-old Buddhist monuments...
...this is not Afghanistan, of course, or even the tribal lands of the frontier provinces. The Swat valley is Pakistan's premier tourist destination, home to its only ski slope and a haven for trout fishing. But it has become increasingly embattled in the face of an anti-government campaign, over the past five months, by the charismatic radio preacher Maulana Fazlullah, known as the FM mullah, who has spawned a wave of fundamentalist militancy that has swept from the Afghan frontier through the lawless tribal areas of Waziristan and into the settled areas far from the border. The government...
...When Musharraf declared emergency rule three weeks ago, he cited the mounting insurgency in Swat as justification. But so far, the only threats he has been able to curb are those of a free press and an independent judiciary. "It's not that the military is unwilling," says a Western military official based in Islamabad, "but is it capable?" Security analysts fear that Pakistan's security forces lack the training, equipment and expertise to tackle the burgeoning domestic extremist insurgency. The West's most important ally in the war on terror is faltering, distracted by the political crisis...
...essential for ensuring peaceful, democratic elections, and for combating extremist militancy. And, perhaps mindful of criticism that Musharraf's emergency rule has distracted security forces from the war against Islamist extremists, the military mounted an offensive this week to reverse recent gains made by Taliban-aligned militants in the Swat Valley. Critics, however, warn that by banning rallies, muzzling the press and keeping the threat of detention hanging over every political organizer, the emergency prevents the staging of a credible election campaign...
...automated packaging machine is due to be installed this year. The number of people needed to staff the round-the-clock operation has been cut to 28 from 60. Jobson patrols the factory floor in his white coat and hairnet, soliciting ways to improve production. Nestle sent a manufacturing SWAT team to help last year. That resulted in a raft of small production-line improvements, including redesigning the levers that dab glue on the wrappers and reprocessing wasted sugar rather than feeding it to York's pigs--tiny changes but ones that add up and are far cheaper than...