Taliban Stir Up Class War

Taliban militants in Pakistan are exploiting class divisions in the Swat Valley in order to consolidate power and win local support, according to The New York Times. Residents who have fled the region say that the Islamist group gathered support from armed peasants and led a revolt against an elite group of four dozen landlords who control most of the area. "This was a bloody revolution in Swat," one senior Pakistani official in Swat said. The Taliban have imposed strict Islamic law in the region and the Pakistani government has increasingly given up its claims to the territory.