Taking Advantage of the Emergency
With Benazir Bhutto threatening a mass rally and even George Bush issuing a couple of mild rebukes, Musharraf is predictably coming under fire from all sides - from civil society and the international community.
One thing he does not appear to have anticipated, however, is the backfiring of the ostensible reason behind the emergency declaration. The army is so distracted and overwhelmed with containing civil protests that it doesn't have the resources to fight the militants. The Taliban must be chuffed to bits.
Asia Times Online :: South Asia news - Taliban stage a coup of their own
The November 4 declaration of an emergency and the preparations before it was enforced distracted the military. As a result, several villages and towns in the Swat Valley, only a drive of four hours from Islamabad, have fallen to the Taliban without a single bullet being fired - fearful Pakistani security forces simply surrendered their weapons.
The Taliban have secured similar successes in the northwestern Afghan province of Farah and the southwestern provinces of Uruzgan and Kandahar, where districts have fallen without much resistance.
A new wave of attacks is expanding the Taliban's grip in the southeastern provinces of Khost and Kunar. And on Tuesday, the Taliban are suspected to have been responsible for the massive suicide attack in northern Baghlan province in which scores of people died, including a number of parliamentarians, most notably Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, the Hazara Shi'ite leader.
Such unexpected offensives have become a hallmark of the Taliban. They surprised many with their successful spring offensive in 2006, when the West had already anticipated their demise.
