Pakistani Taliban free 29 police and soldiers

[Coventina]

Source: Reuters

MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani Taliban released on Wednesday 29 paramilitary soldiers and policemen they had captured in a raid on a police station in the Swat valley in the northwest, two of the captured men said.

Security has deteriorated sharply in northwestern Pakistani areas along the Afghan border, as well as the Swat valley where troops are struggling to stem spreading Taliban influence.

In the latest violence, militants attacked and destroyed a police station in Shamzoi village in Swat, and captured the 29 men after a siege of more than 24 hours, police said earlier.

"They have released all of us. They did not harm us," said policemen Abdul Haq, one of the two men who spoke to Reuters by telephone after their release.



Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE51338Z20090204

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According to the article, they were released after promising to quit their jobs and to quit acting against the Taliban's interests.

[Igel]

1. Of course.

It's called pacification, and one way of obtaining pacification is through, um, "voluntary" submission of those who would challenge the peace you're bringing.

Remember, "pacify" is just another way of saying "cause to be at peace," and submission is one route to pacification. Obtaining peace outside of yourself, in society, is the external struggle, obtaining true submission within yourself is the internal struggle. So I guess they must all be good things.

At least that's what I'm told by some, who, oddly enough, insist on code-switching when they talk about them. They also insist that obtaining submission within is the greater struggle--I could see that, because it's saying it's more meritorious (I know when I'm teaching I try to get my students to think of the internal struggle to be highly meritorious, if only it makes my life so much easier).

Of course, the terms can be warped and twisted. But all sides say that about all the other sides.

I think it's all a COS ("crock of shit"), but then again, what do I know?

[ohio2007]

2. Did they quit their jobs and to quit acting against the Taliban's interests ?

Maybe they could put in for a transfer to the eastern front

[ohio2007]

3. Taliban hammers Pak army unit ( 10 min video doesn't bode well for Pak resolve vs badland republic)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WmQTxwXrhA&eurl=

Honestly,

how much trouble would India have if the Pak army can't even handle a few fundy radicals holding a few valley towns hostage?