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A SPECIAL EDITION OF FRONTLINE/WORLD ON THE GROWING TALIBAN THREAT TO THE PAKISTANI STATE Ongoing Coverage from Pakistan at FRONTLINE/World Presents: As a nervous world watches a new branch of the Taliban gain ground—and as the United States steps up its pressure on the Pakistani government to confront the militants’ mounting threat—PBS’ premier international newsmagazine responds with this special edition of reports from the front lines of what has become, perhaps, the most volatile conflict in the world. In Pakistan Under Siege, airing Tuesday, May 26, 2009, at 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE/World reports three stories, beginning with correspondent Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s “Children of the Taliban,” a timely rebroadcast of her dangerous journey to take the measure of the Taliban’s next generation. Next is a new report from correspondent David Montero in which he investigates the mysterious death of a journalist—and personal friend—killed while reporting from ground zero of the army’s campaign against the Taliban in the Swat Valley. And finally, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy files a fresh dispatch on the coming battle for hearts and minds in Pakistan’s largest city. First, in “Children of the Taliban,” Obaid-Chinoy probes Pakistan’s fault lines, investigating the rising popularity of an insurgent new branch of the Taliban among members of the country’s next generation. She also tracks down the militants themselves, coming face to face with a man who boasts of recruiting child suicide bombers for the Taliban—some as young as 5 or 6 years old. Near the end of her journey, Obaid-Chinoy travels to the lawless tribal regions, where the army maintains that its campaign against the Taliban will succeed, soundly and soon. “The human cost is undeniably a very, very grievous kind of a thing,” says Gen. Tariq Khan, one of the architects of the army’s fight against the Taliban in the tribal areas. “But it’s better to die than to live under an environment where the Taliban are taking away your children.” In “A Death in Swat,” reporter David Montero investigates the mysterious murder of Musa Khan Khel, a Pakistani journalist who covered the army’s failed campaign against the Taliban in the Swat Valley and was killed not long after a peace deal was negotiated—with speculation pointing as much to the intelligence services, as to the Taliban, for responsibility. “Musa’s reporting generated a growing sense of outrage that the war in Swat was not going well. ... People are still dying, and the Taliban are growing stronger,” Montero says. “For someone you know to have been killed, to end up dead in a field, it just shows you how hard this story is getting to report.” While the investigation into Musa’s death continues, Montero finds Musa’s younger brother has taken his place, reporting the latest chapter of the army’s anti-Taliban campaign in Swat for Pakistani TV. Finally, in “A Letter from Karachi,” as the war plays out in the valleys of Swat and Buner, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy reflects on the Taliban’s growing influence on her own hometown, Karachi, the biggest city in Pakistan. “In the past, you found only the very poorest Pakistanis were joining the Taliban,” Obaid-Chinoy says. “Now the Taliban ideology is proving very attractive to young men across the board..., and that is very, very dangerous, because it means that they will permeate into middle-class families, even in places like Karachi.”
Ken Dornstein is senior producer for FRONTLINE/World, and Sharon Tiller is series executive director. FRONTLINE/World is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Major funding for FRONTLINE/World is provided by Shell, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and by the Skoll Foundation. FRONTLINE/World is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and described for people who are blind or visually impaired by the Media Access Group at WGBH. The executive producer of FRONTLINE/World is David Fanning.
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