Afghan Taliban Cross Into Pakistan To Teach Pakistani Tribal Elder and Son a Lesson, Both Killed In Surprise Attack

Police official Fazal Rabbi said Afsar Khan had been among volunteers who had burned the homes of a militant faction some two months ago. - File Photo

We must remember that the biggest weapon in the Taliban arsenal is intimidation and the latest flaunting of that weapon happened as a group of Afghan Taliban snuck into a Pakistani village area and surprised an anti-Taliban tribal leader and his son who were standing guard at a checkpoint - both the father and son were ambushed and killed dead in their tracks by the Taliban assassins.

And the key here is.....and this is the fact that will resonate across the hilltops and through the valleys of Pakistan is that this father and son had actively engaged in fighting the Taliban and their deaths, while sweet to the Taliban, are meant as a warning to all others in the northwest tribal areas of Pakistan.

Unfortunately, this level of intimidation has worked well for the Taliban inside of Pakistan where we saw the same attempts at this type of intimidation in Iraq by al Qaeda not succeed to any extent. The "awakenings" in Iraq saw their members slaughtered by al Qaeda but they kept up the fight, the Pakistanis, at least in the past year or so, have pretty much shut down their "lashkars" when the going gets tough.

Here's the story from DAWN.

Militants kill anti-Taliban tribal elder, son in Bajaur



KHAR: Militants crossed over from Afghanistan and shot dead an anti-Taliban tribal elder and his son in the Bajaur tribal region on Wednesday, a Pakistani official said.

Tariq Khan said Afsar Khan and his son Sher Alam were standing guard at a border post manned by members of a citizens’ militia in the tribal region when around 15 insurgents attacked them.

Police official Fazal Rabbi said Afsar Khan had been among volunteers who had burned the homes of a militant faction some two months ago.

The Pakistani army has fought militants in the tribal belt for years, but militants still mount attacks there.

In recent months, several of the attacks have originated from across the porous border in Afghanistan.