Supporters of Pakistan's right wing Islamic party, Jamat-e-Islami listen to the speech of their leader during an annual gathering in Lahore October 24, 2008.REUTERS/Mohsin Raza (PAKISTAN)
Pakistani Militias Outgunned By Taliban
-- International Herald Tribune
-- International Herald Tribune
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Two tribal elders lay stretched out in an orthopedic ward here last week, their plastered limbs and winces of pain grim evidence of the slaughter they survived when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of their tribal gathering.
These wounded men, and many others in the hospital, were supposed to be the backbone of a Pakistani government effort to take on the Taliban, and its backers, Al Qaeda, with armies of traditional tribesmen working in consultation with the Pakistani military.
The tribal militias, known as lashkars, have quickly become a crucial tool of Pakistan's strategy in the tribal belt, where the army has been fighting the Taliban for more than two months in what army generals acknowledge is a tougher and more protracted slog than they had anticipated. And, indeed, the lashkars' early efforts have been far from promising.
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My Comment: How can the Taliban in Pakistan be better armed than the Pakistani Government's own militias and supporters. Something is wrong with this picture.