Word: swatting
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...Western" clothes his new bride Cayyada wore as she bundled up in Pakistan's frigid mountain temperatures. For more than a week, the young newlyweds escaped their hectic city lives for a quiet getaway at Malam Jabba, a ski resort located in the heart of the Swat Valley. They shopped for local craftwork, skied at the resort's modest but picturesque slopes and ate various traditional Swati dishes, at times holding hands bashfully. Road closures and blockades were routine - but always due to snowfall...
...Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan is now the domain of Taliban militants. Bombings have become commonplace in many towns, as have hostage-takings and public hangings. The craftwork is gone. Local music stations have been replaced with extremist radio propaganda. Women have been banned from walking the streets in many locations, and at least a dozen of the valley's once bustling resorts have been forced to close, including Malam Jabba, which militants torched last year. "I have many nice memories there, so I am very sad about it," says Nisar, a photographer from Lahore. Even as cross-border tensions...
...that once held so many pleasant memories. On Tuesday, the Taliban indefinitely extended a fragile 10-day cease-fire with the Pakistani military, granting more time for peace talks to end more than a year of fighting. Last week's agreement to impose a form of Islamic law in Swat has many feeling encouraged that this turbulent region will finally see a return to calm. "The fighting with the military is what made it dangerous," Nisar says. "The tribal people used to have Shari'a law in this part of Pakistan and it was so peaceful, so I think this...
...locals grandees had reason to be worried. The Taliban won support from a section of the poor, residents say, by targeting the wealthy and the powerful, attacking families and driving them out, then looting their abandoned homes. As Swat's notables and lawmakers fled, young, unemployed men suddenly found status as local commanders with large salaries from Fazlullah's mysteriously deep pockets. (Conspiracy theories abound as to the source of his largesse.) But the key to his success, say local observers, was Fazlullah's ability to exploit local resentment at the failings of Pakistan's venal judicial system, in which...
...fate of the Swat deal clear in Islamabad, where it has yet to be ratified by President Asif Ali Zardari, whose government is under pressure from Western allies to take a tougher line against the Taliban. Many in his own party privately express misgivings. "What will stop them from going further?" says one member of parliament who asked not to be named. "I don't want my wife or daughter to wear a burqa. What if they don't lay down their weapons? They could be in Peshawar next, or even Islamabad...