Dateline: Northwest Frontier

Along the northwestern border of Pakistan in the Bajaur region, straddling Afghanistan and Pakistan, at the forefront of the American conflict with the Taliban and the center of the search for Osama bin Laden local tribes have formed a militia army of their own called a Lashkar. This non-aligned local army may prove the most effective force for routing the Taliban. However, these folks, who are fighting on their own land, often against their own cousins and tribes folk have made very clear the non-aligned nature of their force.

The Taliban, NATO and the US “are all equal for us”, said Malik Manasib Khan, the leader of a lashkar, called up to help Pakistan’s army expel the Taliban and anyone else. “We will fight against America until the last soul if they come to our country,” Khan told reporters in Raghagan, 12 kilometres northeast of Khar.