Taliban Advance Eastward, Threaten Islamabad

World | Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 10:10:29 am PDT

The militant Islamic throwbacks calling themselves the Taliban are on the brink of taking over one of Pakistan’s main cities: Taliban advance eastward, threaten Islamabad.

Amazingly, they don’t seem to have responded to Barack Obama’s plea for them to unclench their fists.

The Taliban are pushing past the districts of Swat and Buner and are threatening Islamabad, a senior Islamist member of parliament said at a briefing.

The Taliban have consolidated control over the district of Buner and are moving on Mansehre and Haripur. These two regions, which are just on the outskirts of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, have been relatively spared from the violent Taliban insurgency that has plagued the Northwest.

The Taliban have entered the district of Mansehre and are threatening to take of the Tarbela Dam in neighboring Haripur district, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl, an Islamist political party said during a debate in parliament.

“If the Taliban continue to move at this pace, they will soon be knocking at the doors of Islamabad as the Margala Hills seem to be the only hurdle in their march towards the federal capital,” Fazl said, according to a report in The News. “After occupying Buner, they have reached Kala Dhaka and may also be taking over the water reservoir of the Tarbela Dam.”

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