A Severely Injured Girl Rescued by a Doctor in America

A doctor found a little girl in a trash bin in the Swat Valley. Her face and arms were severely burned. Her caretaker named her Shakira, which means thankful. Shakira arrived inTexasrecently for reconstructive surgery. She has eyelashes but no eyebrows. She has all her fingers but is missing four nails. Her skin is so [...]

Taliban Have Left Swat & the Music Has Started Playing

By Manzoor Ali of Express Tribune/ Feb 16, 2011 On a chilly February evening, my friend and I knock on doors in localities in eastern part of Mingora, searching for Swat’s age-long culture, but there is no answer from any house. There is no electricity in the area and the narrow alleys are dark. Occasional visitors [...]

NYT Calls Pakistan’s Government Incompetent and Corrupt

By Adam B. Ellick  People in Swat felt a surge of optimism in 2009 when the military declared the Swat Valley cleared of Taliban insurgents, who had bullied their way to power by publicly whipping and beheading opponents.  But more than a year after millions of residents returned home, the absence of virtually any government [...]

Pakistani Troops Linked to Abuses Will Lose Aid

By Eric Schmitt and David E. Sanger  The Obama administration will refuse to train or equip about a half-dozen Pakistani Army units that are believed to have killed unarmed prisoners and civilians during recent offensives against the Taliban.  The cutoff of funds is an unusual rebuke to a wartime ally, and it illustrates the growing [...]

Kalam Remains Cut-off from the Rest of the Country

Never before in my 70 years have I seen the river water flow at such a ferocious speed. It hissed like a black cobra,” said a resident of Kalam. It was such a terrifying experience that people now stay away from the river bank, although the Swat river is now flowing normally. Local people have [...]

Human Rights Watch Accuse Army of Extrajudicial Killings in Swat

The Pakistani government should immediately investigate reports of summary executions, torture, and mistreatment perpetrated during counterterrorism operations in the Swat valley, Human Rights Watch has said. Since September 2009, when the Pakistani military re-established control over the valley, Human Rights Watch has received numerous credible reports of extrajudicial executions allegedly committed by soldiers operating in [...]

When Will Things Change for the People of the Tribal Areas?

Amnesty International (AI) has criticized the Pakistani government and the militants it is fighting in parts of Khyber-Pukhtoonkhwa Province and the FATA on the border with Afghanistan for violating international humanitarian law and human rights, even though conditions in other areas, such as Swat, are improving.    Nearly four million people are effectively living under the [...]

Taliban Butcher Thrown on the Road-side

Mysterious death of high-profile terrorist in army custody requires immediate investigation The body of a high-profile Taliban commander, Sher Muhammad Qassab, was found on the roadside at his hometown, Charbagh, Swat valley on September 20, 2009, four days after his widely publicized arrest on September 16. The government had previously announced a head money of [...]

Maulana Fazlullah

Amir, Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi Popularly known as ‘Mullah Radio’, he’s the son-in-law of Maulana Sufi Mohammed, the TNSM founder whose ultimate goal is to enforce Shariat or Islamic law in all of Pakistan. Born on March 1, 1975, Maulana Fazlullah earned the sobriquet Mullah Radio for using illegal FM channels to broadcast vituperative speeches, threatening people with [...]

FAQs About Swat

1. Where is Swat?  The mountain valley of Swat, covering 10,360 sqkm, is in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, about 170km north-east of the provincial capital, Peshawar, and about 160km north-west of Islamabad. With its clean river, open fields and forests, tourism has traditionally been the main source of revenue for many [...]