After Samiullah’s death and desecration, the Swat tribal resistance collapsed. Samiullah’s tribe had been the showcase for Pakistan’s “awakening,” the indigenous tribal uprising against the Taliban modeled after Iraq’s Sunni resistance to al Qaeda and allied jihadi groups. The villagers were warned not to remove his body or they would face the same fate. Last December, the Swat Taliban executed a local tribal leader named Pir Samiullah, then returned to the village to dig up his body and hang it in the town square. The Taliban have made very public examples of local leaders who have dared to resist. The bodies are often mutilated and beheaded. The Taliban would execute the leaders and dump their bodies on the roadside with notes pinned to their chests branding them as “US spies” and traitors. Tribal leaders who opposed the Taliban were brutally liquidated. The Taliban perfected this strategy in North and South Waziristan. Suicide bombers have struck at tribal meetings held at mosques, schools, hotels, and homes. Tribal opposition has been violently attacked and defeated in Peshawar, Dir, Arakzai, Khyber, and Swat. The Taliban have viciously responded to efforts by tribal leaders to oppose the spread of extremism in the tribal areas. The assassination of Shangla’s anti-Taliban tribal leader is part of the Taliban’s strategy to destroy any tribal resistance. Taliban continues to systematically annihilate tribal opposition In June, the military and locals in Shangla claimed the Taliban retreated into Mansehra after the military launched an operation and ejected the Taliban form the emerald mine. “We made it clear that the people of Chakesar don’t want security forces in their area and would have to deal with the militants on their own.” “We told the Taliban that the local people would have to fight them if they intruded into the Chakesar area,” a tribal leader told The News in May. But the tribes said they did not want the assistance of the government. The Shangla tribes threatened to oust the Taliban and raised a lashkar. In May, the Taliban established checkpoints in Chakesar, a vital region that links Shangla to districts to the east. More than 70 Taliban fighters occupied a hospital while others fanned out and took over control of government buildings and an emerald mine. The Taliban moved into Shangla in April after cementing control in Swat and Buner. Taliban units ranging from 50 to 150 fighters fanned out through the districts with no resistance from the military, which claimed it established blocking positions to prevent the Taliban from retreating from the battlefield and bleeding into bordering districts.
The Taliban has established bases in Shangla, Mansehra, Haripur, Battagram, Mardan, Malakand, and Swabi after the military launched operations to clear the Taliban in neighboring Swat, Buner, and Dir. Two Taliban fighters were killed after police and other security forces responded to the attack, Daily Times reported. Rehman’s son and two others were also wounded in the assault. Yesterday, more than 50 Taliban fighters assaulted the home of Khalil Rehman, a tribal leader who raised a Lashkar, or local militia, to battle the Taliban in the isolated district that borders Swat and Buner. The Taliban assassinated a tribal leader who organized resistance to the Taliban in the northwestern district of Shangla.
Map created by Bill Raymond for The Long War Journal. Information on Taliban presence obtained from open source and derived by The Long War Journal based on the presence of Taliban shadow governments, levels of fighting, and reports from the region.
Taliban presence, in the Islamabad region.