Pakistanis back from war find respect is gone
A most excellent development in the war. :-)
[ Pishin, Pakistan -- The 200 Taliban fighters who have come home to this apple-growing oasis on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan are not getting the hero's welcome they might have expected when they set off across the border to fight the holy war.
"People blame them for the destruction of Afghanistan," said shopkeeper Mohammed Akhram.
The U.S. bombing campaign against the Taliban, who were harboring terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, set off massive and often violent anti-American protests across the Muslim world.
But as the Taliban militia collapsed with stunning swiftness, it has become obvious people here have little patience with losers.
That is a remarkable reversal, especially for a hamlet that looked on with pride two months ago as its youths, filled with zeal, went off to join the Taliban.
Now police keep an eye on Taliban who returned. Villagers no longer listen to their views on religious issues. Only their madrassas, the Islamic seminaries long accused of turning out zealots, welcome them. And they are under pressure.
After the Eid al-Fitr feast in mid-December, President Pervez Musharraf is expected to announce measures that probably will include the closing of some madrassas.
If Pishin is anything to judge by, defeat has so discredited the Taliban that they will find it difficult to continue promoting their politics or their puritanical brand of Islam.
About 200 have now returned home, according to Pishin journalist Saadullah Taarim, shaving the long beards and taking off the black or white turbans that marked the Taliban. ]
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