Pakistan Readies Operation in Swat

Pakistan might be unlimbering troops in Swat  in Malakand to ready them for an operation against the radical mullah, Maulana Fazalullah, who has called for insurrection to support Lal Masjid. The mullah has known associations and sympathies for the Lal Masjid clerics, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda; many of the students in the red mosque also come from the Swat area and are part of his “Tehreek Nafaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi” (TNSM — Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws.)

The mullah is a religious radical calling for extreme shariah for all the world, and he, as well as his predecessor, use the Earthquakes as signs of the wrath of G-D to coerce the ignorant in a neo-luddite movement. They decry electronics and the modern world, but Fazalullah uses an illegal FM station to preach his evil.

More at Frontier Post

The area is where many jihadis come from who cross the border into into nearby Kunar in Afghanistan. In the past Fazalullah’s predecessor, Sufi Mohammed, led thousands of followers across the border to join Osama Bin Laden. They were spurned, but ended up being used as cover as the real Al Qaida escaped. Thousands and thousands died, while the mullah leaders  of TNSM ran away. (Sufi Mohammed was imprisoned by the Pakistani government after his return.)

The mullah has stopped all vaccinations in the area, and large-scale polio outbreaks are feared as there are new virulent strains originating in Myanmar/Burma passing through the sub-continent. From the story at Hindu Times:
The situation is alarmingly deteriorating in Swat district as most of the students of the madrassas affiliated to Lal Masjid are hailing from the region.
Also, after the security operation Fazaullah, through his illegally-run FM Radio, had issued a statement saying anyone who supported the crackdown was an ‘infidel’. He called the religious leaders supporting the present government as “rebels of Islam”.
After the operation in Lal Masjid began several attacks against the security forces took place in the Agency.