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Pakistan Khyber region locals signal support for rebel leader
Black flags with a sword emblazoned across them were flying above many of the mud-walled homes in the Pakistani town of Bara on Sunday in a show of support for a militant who government forces are out to get.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:41 June 29, 2008
Bara Akakheil: Black flags with a sword emblazoned across them were flying above many of the mud-walled homes in the Pakistani town of Bara on Sunday in a show of support for a militant who government forces are out to get.
The flags were those of the Lashkar-i-Islami, or Army of Islam in northwest Pakistan's Khyber region, a wedge of mountains speckled with small trees sandwiched between the city of Peshawar and the Afghan border.
Security forces launched an offensive on Saturday to push members of the militant group, led by a commander called Mangal Bagh, from the approaches of Peshawar after Bagh's men began making forages into the city to impose their Taliban-style ways.
Though he and his men are feared by many in Peshawar, in Bara town, a Bagh stronghold about ten kilometres southwest of Peshawar, the thin commander with a bushy beard is well regarded.
"He's nice man. He's being painted as a bad man because he talks about Islam," said resident Fazal-e-Mehboob standing by the debris of Bagh's house that security forces blew up on Saturday.
A former bus driver with little education, Bagh, who is in his mid-40s, appears to have won support the same way the Afghan Taliban did when they emerged in the early 1990s and sorted out warlords and criminals preying on the people.
"He brought peace and got rid of the criminals in our area. He's good for us," Mehboob said.
Bara was peaceful on Sunday with a surprisingly light security presence. There was no evidence of any militants and no one was seen carrying a gun in a region where most men own a rifle.
Some soldiers drove around in pick-up trucks and a few armoured personnel carriers patrolled the dusty streets but security forces made no effort to stop curious residents going out to see the ruins of Bagh's office and a four-room mud house that soldiers blew up on Saturday.
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