Pakistan's in trouble...

An interesting case study in Swat...

Masked men with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades hauled four young policemen onto the village square, hands bound behind their backs. They were forced to their knees and then beheaded, one by one. "Let this serve as a warning to all those who spy for the government or help the government. All sons of Bush will meet a similar fate," said one of the masks.

This is not Iraq or Afghanistan. It's the pastoral district of Swat in northwest Pakistan. It was once a flourishing tourist destination. It's become the latest front in an increasingly brutal war between the Pakistan army and an insurgent, militant Islam. The epicenter is Afghanistan and the Pashtun tribal regions that straddle its Pakistan border. But the conflict is gravitating inland. Swat is a three-hour drive from Peshawar.

The beheadings were one response to the recent dispatch to Swat of 2,500 Pakistani soldiers, allegedly at the request of village elders. There were others. On 25 October a suicide bomber wrecked an army truck in Mingora, the district headquarters. Twenty people were killed, including 17 soldiers.

The troops had come to quell the activities of Maulana Fazlullah, a local, pro- Taliban cleric. In the last year he has established "a parallel system of justice" in Swat, with courts, jails and, says the army, a 4,000-strong militia.

The aim he says is to spread Sharia law. He has not yet declared jihad against the army but "in that case the situation will turn from bad to worse," warns a spokesman. The state -- police, local government and politicians -- has crumbled like sand before him. The army is the last line.

Swat is a case study of the mutation of militant Islam in Pakistan -- and an illustration of why it poses such a threat.