Pakistan's military has dispatched helicopter gunships to the volatile northwest in support of thousands of angry tribesmen who have laid siege to a group of Taliban fighters, police said Tuesday.
The citizens' militia sprang up over the weekend to avenge a deadly suicide bombing at a mosque in Upper Dir district and appeared unwilling to stop pursuing the Islamist fighters, underscoring the rising anti-Taliban sentiment in much of Pakistan.
The tribesmen's numbers have steadily risen to more than 2,000, with residents of two villages and a town joining them Tuesday, area police official Atlas Khan said.
"People back in the villages, especially children, are fetching them food and other supplies. They are doing it because they think the fighters are fighting for their sake, they think it is their common war," Khan said.
If the good guys don't win this fight, it will be a long time before ordinary Pakistanis risk their lives to fight ruthless jihadis. No matter how cruel the jihadis rule, passivity at least gives you a better chance of living if it seems as if the jihadi power can't be defeated. Resistance in that case just means cruel retribution from the jihadis.
The army needs to help these people kill as many jihadis as possible. Kill them, pursue them, keep killing them, and then look for more jihadis to kill.
Because any jihadi that survives this campaign is just another jihadi that will need to be killed next year. The fate of Pakistan depends on this kind of resolve.
