Pakistani Taleban are moving into a new area in northern Pakistan, clashing with villagers and police in a mountain valley, police and district officials said on Wednesday. In a development that will deepen the West's concerns, scores of Taleban have moved into Buner district, 100 km northwest of Islamabad, from the Swat valley where authorities struck a peace pact in February aimed at ending violence. “About 20 vehicles carrying Taleban entered Buner Monday and started moving around the bazaar and streets,” said senior police officer Israr Bacha. Villagers formed a militia, known as a lashkar, to confront the Taleban and eight of the insurgents were killed in a clash Tuesday, police said. Two villagers and three policemen were also killed. “People don't like the Taleban,” Ghulam Mustafa, deputy chief of Buner, said. Muslim Khan, a Taleban spokesman in Swat, was defiant. “What law stops us going there?” Khan said. “Our people will go there and stay there as long as they want.” In New Delhi, a top US envoy to the region said Wednesday the threat posed by Al-Qaeda and its allies can be met only with the joint efforts of arch rivals India and Pakistan, as well as the United States. “For the first time since partition (of the sub-continent in 1947) India, Pakistan and the United States face a common threat, a common challenge and we have a common task,” US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke told reporters in New Delhi. “Now that we face a common threat we must work together,” said Holbrooke, who held talks here with senior Indian officials following visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan. But in his joint briefing with Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Holbrooke stressed that Washington had no intention of pushing New Delhi into resuming a peace dialogue with Islamabad. “We did not come here to ask India to do anything. We did not come here with with any requests,” Holbrooke said, adding that his only brief was to “inform and consult with” Indian officials. Those comments appeared aimed at addressing Indian concerns that Washington is intent on mediating a rapprochement with Pakistan. Relations between the South Asian neighbors hit a fresh low in the wake of last year's Mumbai attacks, blamed on Pakistan-based militants. India is particularly sensitive to any suggestion of outside interference in its long-standing territorial dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir. There are also fears that US President Barack Obama's new strategy to fight Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants in the region will pump further military and financial aid into Pakistan. The United States has promised a $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan in return for greater efforts fighting extremist safe havens within its borders. Mullen stressed that India was crucial to maintaining stability in South Asia.
