Taliban lying low to fight another day

BUNER (Agencies) - Dressed in worn grey-coloured traditional shalwar kameez and carrying no belongings, Ghazan Khan (a fictitious name) was sitting on a small rock just a few metres from an unmanned post at remote Ambela Pass, and he was not looking at all like a Taliban fighter. Despite the long black beard, he looked little different from the rest of the refugees, who were either returning home briefly to harvest the wheat crop or to see how much damage to their houses or shops the fighting between government troops and the Taliban had done.
But unlike everyone else, Khan was not going to Ambela village. Instead he was waiting for the bus from Ambela heading to Mardan. He wanted to die fighting troops in Buner, but his commander asked him to flee to the neighbouring district and wait quietly for two to three months to be called back for another round of guerrilla war, reported German news agency DPA.
Following orders, Khan and 29 other fighters divided into five groups and dumped their AK-47 assault rifles, light machine-guns, rocket-propelled grenades, some suicide jackets, and wireless sets at five different places in the mountains.
Each man parted from the rest to walk alone through safe mountain paths to reach the adjoining districts of Mardan and Swabi.
After a week of walking and occasional crawling to avoid Army snipers and helicopter gunships, Khan descended from the mountains and mingled with the hundreds of refugees waiting to enter Buner while the curfew was relaxed.
'Our people are giving stiff resistance but you know, the Army has tanks, helicopters and planes. Therefore, they have divided Mujahideen in two groups - some will continue the fight and the others will either hide in the mountains or leave the area for a while, said Khan at Ambela Pass, an entry point connecting Buner with the rest of the country.
'When this fight is over and the military regains control in Buner, we will wait for some weeks. Then we will come back and start a new fight from the mountains, said Khan.
Khan, 20 and a resident of Buner, joined the Taliban months before the military raided the district from the adjoining Swat valley, where a peace deal with the government had emboldened the militants to infiltrate the neighbouring areas.
He was sent back to Buner last month to recruit fighters. The new recruits joined more than 400 Swati Taliban rebels who entered Buner in April.
Monitoring Desk adds: Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has directed its fighters not to shoot at security forces in Mingora city in order to avoid civilian casualties and a possible damage to public properties.
Talking to the BBC on Sunday, TTP spokesman Muslim Khan said Taliban would, however, stay in their hideouts established in the city. He said same strategy would be adopted in Qambar area.
He claimed that a suicide attacker had targeted a checkpost with explosives-laden vehicle in Chahar Bagh area. However, he was unable to confirm any casualties in the incident.
On the other hand, military sources denied of any such incident in the area.