Pakistani Villagers In The NW Tribal Areas Organize Lashkars

What the heck's a "lashkar" right? Well, the Pakistani villagers in the Taliban-infested NW tribal areas are organizing their own militias or armies and they call those "lashkars" - I think most of us are familiar with the Iraqi version, called the "Awakenings." This is pretty fascinating in that we have really not seen this happen yet in Afghanistan but now, in Pakistan, where the Taliban have decided to put down more roots, the tribal people are rising up against the Taliban. Good for them! Here's some of the details here from the article at the Globe and Mail:

Villagers in parts of the North West Frontier Province and the tribal territory, faced with the violent advance of the Pakistani Taliban, have started to organize an armed indigenous resistance. They have decided that the state can't - or won't - come to their aid so they must defend themselves against a radical, and alien, form of Islam that is seeking to impose itself on them down the barrel of an AK-47.
The resistance relies on fierce tribal customs and widespread ownership of guns in the area to raise traditional private armies, or lashkars, each with the strength of hundreds, or several thousands, of volunteers.

"There's going to be a civil war. These lashkars are spreading," said Asfandyar Wali Khan, leader of the Awami National Party, which runs the provincial government in the NWFP. "It will be the people versus the Taliban."
Recently, in Dir - a long narrow valley in the NWFP sandwiched between Taliban strongholds in Bajaur and Afghanistan on its west side, and more militants in the valley of Swat to its east - about 200 elders from the Payandakhel tribe met in Wari, a small northern town. Using the dusty front yard of a high school to hold a traditional tribal meeting, or jirga, rousing speeches were given that resulted in a resolve to assemble their own lashkar. Anyone sheltering Taliban in the area would be severely punished, the elders also decided.

I think the article nailed one thing on the head and that is this is going to be bloody. Don't get me wrong, it's a great thing but I fear that if you throw the Pakistani military into the middle of this you are going to see a lot of mistaken targets. But the price is worth it when you consider what the Taliban have put these people through.

Also, the timing of this couldn't be any better because the Taliban might just decide that they don't want the hassle and potential danger of dealing with these lashkars and simply move on and the hope is that enough of these lashkars will develop that the Taliban will find it hard to find a calm and quiet place for wintering. It would be even better if the Taliban found that they had to cross back into Afghanistan - that would unleash a lot of NATO firepower on them. The Taliban apparently didn't learn anything from the al Qaeda failures in Iraq and now they have earned the wrath of the people they have abused.

Pakistani villagers start armed anti-Taliban push

WARI, PAKISTAN — Amid the brutal march of Islamic extremism in Pakistan, the beginnings of a popular resistance movement is emerging that could challenge the stranglehold of militants in the country's burning northwest.
Villagers in parts of the North West Frontier Province and the tribal territory, faced with the violent advance of the Pakistani Taliban, have started to organize an armed indigenous resistance. They have decided that the state can't - or won't - come to their aid so they must defend themselves against a radical, and alien, form of Islam that is seeking to impose itself on them down the barrel of an AK-47.

"The government forces cannot even save themselves; what good will they be to us? They are just silent spectators," Malik Zarene, a tribal elder, told the crowd. "We will rise for our own defence."
Many of the men at the jirga came with machine guns, some dating back to the 1980s Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The meeting was a reaction to a scare a few days earlier, when a group of Taliban tried to seize a local school and take 300 children hostage. Without waiting for the authorities to act, tribesmen successfully tackled the assailants.
Those at the jirga said they have watched with horror in recent years as extremists pounced on neighbouring Swat, which used to be known as a tourist destination. A full-scale army operation in Swat since last November has not quelled the insurgency.
In Dir, local tribes have demanded that the army not be deployed, which has been agreed. "Once the army comes in, these Taliban fire at the army, and the whole thing escalates," explained a senior security official in Dir. "It is best this is tackled in the traditional way."
In southern Dir, the Sulthankheil tribe raised their anti-Taliban lashkar a month ago in villages around the town of Khall. There, 10,000 residents registered to serve. Every night now, 20 armed men patrol each village, with orders to shoot any intruders.
"If we had not formed this lashkar, we could soon be like Swat or Waziristan," said Akhunzada Sikandar Hazrat, a Sulthankheil tribal chief. "The police only exist inside their stations. If the people show they are against the Taliban, how can they come here?"