When Pakistani shopkeeper Abdur Rahim’s phone rang in mid-October, he was shocked to hear the voice of a senior terrorist commander demanding protection money from him and his fellow traders in the Swat Valley.
The menacing call was taken seriously in a northern pocket of the country where Pakistani Taliban insurgents took partial control in 2007, before being ousted two years later in a major military operation hailed as a telling blow against Islamist violence.
Locals fear that recent threats of extortion and a spate of targeted killings earlier this year mark an attempt by the Taliban to regain a foothold in the picturesque, mountainous area they once ruled with an iron fist.
Western powers, including the United States which has thousands of troops fighting other militant groups across the nearby border in Afghanistan, want to see jihadi networks along the frontier crushed.
During the October 19 conversation, Mullah Akhtar, a commander close to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mullah Fazlullah, ordered Rahim to collect money from 15,000 members of the Swat Traders’ Federation, of which he is president.
But in a tense exchange, Rahim refused to cooperate, and told Akhtar militants were not welcome in Swat.
According to Rahim, Akhtar boiled over with rage: “I will blow you up, so that even the doctors won’t be able to find the pieces.”
Since the call, Rahim’s life has changed.
Speaking to Reuters in Swat’s main town of Mingora, he stood flanked by two armed policemen, while plainclothed officers keep a watchful eye in the background. CCTV cameras monitor his home.
MOTIVES UNCLEAR
Representatives of the terrorist movement could not be reached for comment on their tactics in Swat Valley; some residents believe demands for money and a rise in attacks in the first half of the year are signs of desperation.
Attacks have been a part of life there since 2010, including the attempted assassination of Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai in 2012, but in recent months the murders have stopped after a series of arrests by police.
The Taliban have also struggled to build ideological support after their bloody two-year rule that saw them impose a harsh version of Islamic law on the valley’s 2 million residents.
The group remains active elsewhere, however, particularly in southern Baluchistan province, where a faction of the Taliban and ISIS have claimed responsibility for a series of bomb and gun attacks that have killed more than 180 people.
The Pakistani military will be desperate to keep the Taliban out of Swat, the first sizeable region outside lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan to fall to the terrorists.
The army’s publicity wing did not respond to requests for comment on the situation in the area.
