500 ill-equipped cops no match for mighty Taliban in Buner

Isamabad, Apr.25 (ANI): When Taliban fighters entered the Buner district of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) days ago, over 500 hundred security personnel stationed in the region offered absolutely no resistance.

It was not because the security personnel lacked ability or willingness to do so, but because of the fact they were ill-equipped and far less in number than the insurgents.

A senior police official stationed in Buner has admitted that the cops were no match for the mighty extremists.

"When you are confronted with better-equipped and better-trained people who have higher morale, the writ of the district police collapses," The Independent quoted a senior police official of the region Abdur Rashid, as saying.

Rashid said the district police constables were virtually hunkered when the Taliban invaded the district.

When the cops finally thrown-in the towel, the residents of Buner had no choice but to confront the surging extremists.

Initially they offered some resistance, but it was difficult to match the might of the Taliban who had sophisticated arms along with an unbending frame of mind.

Last year, local people had formed a militia and rebuffed a Taliban encroachment in Shalbandai village, but this time extremists were greater in number and stronger in might.

Now, it is being reported that the insurgents have retreated from the region, but people fear that they would certainly return sooner or later to establish their writ in Buner which is strategically located and is just 60 miles away from the federal capital Islamabad. (ANI)