Nawaz Sharif's civil agitation is a sideshow. Pakistan's real danger is that of being taken over by the Taliban. This represents both a serious threat as well as a crucial lesson for us in India. The threat is obvious; the lesson less so, but all the more vital for that.
The Taliban is in full control of Swat, where it has declared Sharia law. Islamabad, whose writ does not run in the area, has virtually bribed the forces of radicalism into calling a truce as uneasy as it is transient. Like a tidal force that cannot be checked, Talibanisation is spreading across the country and now threatens to overwhelm Peshawar.
A Frankenstein's monster which they helped to create with US help to fight the Russians in Afghanistan, the Taliban have turned on Pakistan's army and the ISI in a deadly twist of irony. The murderous fanaticism that Islamabad exported, first to Afghanistan and then to India, in continuance of its 'proxy war' with New Delhi, has rebounded on its creators, with dire implications not only for Pakistan but for the entire South Asian region, beset as it already is with continuing strife and instability in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
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