The past month will go down as one of the most politically volatile and grisly periods in Pakistan’s history. Where the nation was still reeling from the superfluity of ‘gates’, scandals and courtroom theatrics, this week brought news of Taliban resurgence; the presence of TTP safe havens across the border; the killing and beheading of seventeen Pakistani soldiers, during a cross border skirmish by Afghan Taliban in north-western district of Upper Dir.
A video released on Wednesday by the Pakistani Taliban revealed that the erstwhile count of seven beheadings was actually higher. A voice recording by Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud precedes gruesome footage of the heads of seventeen officers lined on a white sheet. Intelligence gathered suggests the militants were the TTP faction expelled from Swat that regrouped in Afghanistan under Maulvi Fazlullah. Pakistan criticized NATO and Afghan forces for lapse in security which allowed the hundred strong militants to raid the Upper Dir check post. Very little sympathy was offered as Pakistan has time and again refused to carry out operations in the Upper Dir region where the Haqqani Network has built safe havens.
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