Impotent government fuels fear of return of Taliban among Swat residents

New York, Sep.23 (ANI): With the Taliban's fear and their diktat slowly wearing away in the Swat Valley, women in the region have started coming out of their homes shunning their clumsy garb, but one can still feel a peculiar uneasiness among the people in the picturesque war ravaged valley.

The military operation in the Swat and Malakand Divisions forced the Taliban out of the region, and women, who were the biggest sufferers during the Taliban's barbaric rule, have now started to return to their public life.

Teachers are back at work, maids are commuting to jobs across town and nurses are giving injections without having to squint through a coarse layer of netting, The New York Times reports.

However, local residents said that just because the Taliban were not there doesn't mean that there were no problems in the valley.

People said they fear the extremists coming back, and that the government has failed to win the people's faith after the military operation.

"Just because there's no Taliban, doesn't mean the problem is gone. No practical steps have been taken for people to have faith in the government," the report quoted Sher Yar, a businessman based in Mingora, as saying.

Sharisa Rehman, a teacher who returned to her job at the Sangota Girls School, said she still fears that they would return, it added.

"I was bound like a prisoner," Rehman said.

Pointing towards her burqa she said: "It's still hanging in my room, ready to wear." (ANI)