Inside the Taliban's heart of darkness
Paul McGeough Chief Herald Correspondent in Miram Shah on the Pakistan-Afghan border
IT'S not just clouds that shroud Waziristan's treacherous high country. Up here on the Afghan border, a veil of state secrecy also cloaks a new Taliban wave breaking eastward across Pakistan.
Against the totemic thump of the drums of war, dust churns as the bodies of suspected anti-Taliban spies are dragged behind Toyota utes - as many as four at a time.
The severed heads of those who cross the fanatical jihadis are held aloft in cheering, jeering crowds. And in the bazaar, just a few rupees buys one of the hottest selling new DVDs - that's the one in which a 12-year-old boy wields the decapitation knife.
Now heard for the first time in years, the boom of the dhol drums summons the lashkars - tribal armies - for an episode in George Bush's war on terror that reads like a South Asian version of Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
But this incendiary mix of extremist Islam and guerilla war unfolds amid great confusion. As President Pervez Musharraf wrestles with an explosive political crisis of his own making in Islamabad, two deadly wars are playing out on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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Hat Tip:
The Religion of Peace
Pertinent Links:
1) Inside the Taliban's heart of darkness
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