MINGORA, Feb 20,2014 (Fazal Khaliq / UPI Next) — Despite restoration of peace in northwestern Pakistan’s Swat Valley following a 2009 military operation against the Taliban, anti-Taliban militias established to prevent the insurgents’s return are being targeted by the militants, police records show. There is disagreement, however, on whether the ongoing attacks are a sign of terrorism.
Swat district police data show 21 members of the so-called peace committees, village elders armed with weapons and protected by local police, have been shot dead since 2010, including nine last year alone. In the same wave of targeted attacks, Taliban assailants attempted to kill Malala Yousafzai, the well-known teenage education activist, in 2012.
Read more Taliban target local militias called peace committees in Pakistan’s Swat Valley – UPI.com.
