Taliban gaining more strength in Pakistan

Peshawar (Pakistan), Apr 17: Pakistani government officials and analysts said that the Taliban have advanced deeper into Pakistan by engineering a class revolt that exploits profound fissures between a small group of wealthy landlords and their landless tenants.

The militants have organized peasants into armed gangs and told them to act as shock troops, the residents, government officials and analysts said.

Analysts and other government officials warn that the strategy executed in Swat is easily transferable to Punjab, saying that the province, where militant groups are already showing strength, is ripe for the same social upheavals that have convulsed Swat and the tribal areas.

Mahboob Mahmood, a Pakistani-American lawyer and former classmate of President Obama's, said, "The people of Pakistan are psychologically ready for a revolution."

The Taliban strategy in Swat, an area of 1.3 million people with fertile orchards, vast plots of timber and valuable emerald mines, has unfolded in stages over five years, analysts said.

ANI