In the foothills of the Hindu Kush, two of Pakistan's hottest actors go through their paces for the next Bollywood-style blockbuster. Abbas Khan and his female lead, Meghar, used to make 20 films a year for Pakistan's north-western tribal belt. There's an emphasis on action, romance and, of course, the all-important dance scene. But these people are now in the sights of the Pakistani Taliban.

 

SAYED IRFAN, FILM WRITER (Translation): The terrorists who don’t know our culture, they say that film and music are forbidden in Islam.

 

Sayed Irfan is the film's writer. He believes his industry is under direct threat because such brazen contact between man and woman and even the actual filming of their image is condemned by Islamic extremists.

 

SAYED IRFAN (Translation): They're against show business. They want it removed from Afghanistan and our Pakistan. That's why we don't feel safe and we feel disturbed because a lot of people earn a living from films.

 

Films like this are normally shot in the beautiful Swat Valley. But veteran director Ajab Gul says Taliban threats have forced them out and now nowhere is really safe.

 

 

AJAB GUL, FILM DIRECTOR: Any problem could start here at any moment. And we don't have any security, no security from the government.

 

Gul is not imagining the dangers. The Taliban is so enraged by these scenes they have started taking direct action. On May 22, they blew up the main cinema in Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province. 10 died, 65 were wounded, and no-one goes to the movies anymore. I'm told that many actors have now left the profession or fled, or suffered an even worse fate.

 

MOHAMMED HUSSEIN, ACTOR (Translation):  She spoke ill of the Taliban. "Taliban are like this, or like that." This was reported to the Taliban.

 

 

Mohammed Hussein is an actor whose actress friend was singled out.

 

 

MOHAMMED HUSSEIN (Translation): When they got the report they attacked her house. They told her they hadn't done anything up till then. "Now we'll show you how the Taliban treat your sort."

 

 

She was beheaded at a major intersection. Hussein fled the Swat Valley to come to the Pashtun Film Studios here in Lahore, where today, directors and actors are having a crisis meeting about the Taliban threats. Even here, 400km from Swat, they don't feel safe.

 

 

MOHAMMED HUSSEIN (Translation):  Not only me, but our entire team in Swat were all threatened. Some people were arrested, others were beaten. They told us to either stop what we were doing or we'd be killed.

 

MAN (Translation):  If they can infiltrate a police force of 2,000 why can't they do it here?

 

MAN 2 (Translation):  The Taliban are oppressive and tyrannical. Muslims are killing Muslims, we cannot tolerate that.

 

 

Outside, I find a crowd gathering to protest against another Taliban attack.

 

 

MAN 2 (Translation):  And now that they have attacked our Pakistan and terrorised us, we are right behind the men of the Punjab Police.

 

 

Two days earlier, 17 were killed when Taliban suicide bombers tried to blow up the headquarters of military intelligence, the ISI. For years the ISI has supported Islamic militants but it's now under attack by the Taliban which thinks Pakistan's army has become America's puppet. Secular Pakistanis are increasingly angry and afraid.

 

MAN 3:  If the government of Pakistan give the weapons to everybody, citizens of Pakistan, to training the citizens of Pakistan, then we will kill the Taliban in Pakistan.

 

REPORTER:  Right, so you think everybody should be given a weapon?

 

MAN 3: Yeah, yeah.

 

REPORTER:  But that's civil war!

 

MAN 3: No civil war.

 

Two members of a new local extremist group were later arrested. Police say this bombing proves the Taliban is forming deadly new alliances with militant extremists across Pakistan. It's a view shared by Pakistan's leading author on the extremist threat, Ahmed Rashid.

AHMED RASHID, AUTHOR:  We have the Pakistani Taliban, they lead an alliance of some 40 groups. These include not only Pashtun tribesman who have been helping not only al-Qaeda and helping the Afghan Taliban but they include Punjabi groups from Lahore and from other places in Punjab that have been fighting in Kashmir. This is why the idea of the Talibanisation of the whole of Pakistan is perhaps not only very dangerous of course but also perhaps more closer to reality than the situation in Afghanistan.

 

I head north-west to Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, much closer to the Taliban's mountain strongholds. I find a city that feels under siege. Most intersections and every major institution are heavily guarded. At the city's main public university, physics Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy is collecting year-end exam papers from his students. He's worried by signs of increasing Islamic fundamentalism.

 

 

PERVEZ HOODBHOY, PHYSICS PROFESSOR: There is an enormous increase in conservatism, social conservatism and you can see that in the way, students in this university, other universities, even schools, how they dress, how they speak, the kind of books they read, their knowledge about the outside world, religious symbols are much more on display, that people pray a lot more than they used to, go to mosques much more often, and this wasn't so earlier on.

 

Professor Hoodbhoy says 80% of Pakistanis would support the introduction of Sharia law and he fears the country could succumb to a Taliban takeover.

 

 

PERVEZ HOODBHOY: Basically if there is a charismatic leader he could be clever enough to slough over these differences and weld together a fighting force that could bring down any secular government such as the one we have now.

 

Two months ago, Taliban fighters advanced to within 100km of Islamabad. The ongoing threat of Taliban attack ties up thousands of police and soldiers who must remain on high alert throughout the day. But the real danger of attack now comes increasingly at night.

 

We've just heard there has been suicide bombing in the middle of Islamabad. It's now 9 o'clock at night. There is apparently one dead and three injured, but it was a very big blast. The problem is the terrorists often use one blast and then a second blast. There's now a big crowd gathering in front of us - we will go and have a look.

 

The police are nervous and try to force the people back. The Taliban is creating fear by striking when and where it wants.

 

This is exactly what the Pakistani Taliban have been threatening. Ever since the government's offensive into the North-West Frontier, they've been saying they're going to send more suicide bombers into the major cities, and here we are tonight a suicide bomber attacking a police station here in the middle of the capital, Islamabad.

 

Pakistan's security services are on the back foot, constantly responding to the waves of attacks launched by Taliban leaders. This is a Taliban propaganda video made just two months ago and obtained by Dateline. It contains interviews with a series of young boys - all of them are suicide bombers trained and sent to their deaths by the Pakistani Taliban.

 

 

BOY (Translation):  The Koran tells me to turn myself to pieces. Secondly, suicide bombers are like automatic weapons for Muslims. The infidels have weapons which Muslims don't have. We have only suicide bombers who sacrifice themselves. On Doomsday, you must answer as to why you didn't take revenge.

 

These suicide attacks have been stepped up ever since the army launched an offensive against the Taliban here in the Swat Valley. A local cameraman working for Dateline filmed these scenes as the army moved into the Swat Valley capital of Mingora. The attack has forced the Taliban out of here for now. But up to 3 million men, women and children have been forced from their homes. Thousands are in camps, but most are seeking shelter wherever they can. I find some of them on the outskirts of Islamabad.

 

 

 

ABDUL RASHID, GOVERNMENT JUDICIAL OFFICIAL (Translation): Our homes were damaged and the children's education suffered. People were slaughtered for no reason. We didn't know if we were being shot at by the Taliban or by government forces.

 

Abdul Rashid is a government judicial official. I'm surprised to hear that many supported the Taliban because their brand of Islamic law was better than what many see as the government's slow and failing justice system.

 

REPORTER: Do people in Swat support what the Taliban stood for?

 

ABDUL RASHID (Translation): The people of Swat supported the Taliban because the Taliban stood for Islam and would implement Sharia law according to the teachings of the Koran and Hadith. That is why the whole population supported and followed them.

 

Rayat Ummar Khan shows me around. His charity is the only support for 600 families, almost 4,000 people. He takes me to a widow whose two daughters are so troubled they barely move from under these blankets - they have the vacant stare of the traumatised. In another room I'm shown an 85-year-old woman with untreated throat cancer. The young mothers cower in shame with their babies. 33 relatives are living in this cramped, dirty enclosure. Many of these people have lost loved ones, been forced from their homes and farms, and are getting no help from the government. No wonder they're angry.

 

 

WOMAN (Translation): Our cattle, our goats, all our wealth, and our fields are all left behind. Now we are asking them to let us go back there to die, so we can die there in honour. Now there's no honour, only dishonour. We're naked if we die here, we're naked if we live here. They say this government took pity on us but I'll return them their pity before your very eyes.

 

Such miserable conditions are fertile ground for extremists. To find out what a Talibanised Pakistan might look like you only have to travel two hours from Islamabad, to Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province. The first thing I notice is the large number of women wearing the full burkha, a sign of Talibanisation. The Taliban are here and seem to operate at will. Foreigners are targets for killing or kidnapping.

 

So just behind me on the right-hand side here is the old market in central Peshawar. Less than two weeks ago there were two bombs that went off here killing 11 people. At the same time there was a suicide attack just on the other side of town killing three people, and today, just about an hour ago, an IED, a roadside bomb, blew up a police car, killing one officer. This city is a very dangerous place right now and remains so despite the fact that the government is on a full offensive not so far from here.

 

These are busy days for Saifullah Gul, the Peshawar news editor of Dunya TV - he sends reporters daily into an increasingly deadly conflict.

 

SAIFULLAH GUL, NEWS EDITOR OF DUNYA TV: They are the rocket attacks - rockets and mortar shells into the city into the Peshawar city.

 

He tells me 11 journalists have been killed in recent months and shows me how much of Peshawar the Taliban now controls.

 

SAIFULLAH GUL: This lower part of the old city - I would say that's towards the Khyber. This is a general no-go area and again, this part of the city because again it goes into the tribal areas. This is in the evening, that when the darkness falls, it's this part, again we would say that's a no-go area.

 

He tells me the government has virtually surrendered the outskirts as it tries to protect the centre.

 

SAIFULLAH GUL: You can say that during the night the city is almost under siege of these people - not under siege but surrounded.

 

That very evening, the inner security cordon is spectacularly breached. Peshawar's only 5-star hotel is attacked by Taliban suicide bombers using a truck full of explosives. 17 people, including 2 foreign UN workers, are killed and more then 60 wounded.

Just blocks away from the bomb site, I find these boys. They're orphans from the Swat Valley. Some lost their parents in the fighting between the Taliban and the army. The orphanage manager, Arbab Kashif, worries about the impact of indiscriminate military force in the valley these boys used to call home.

 

ARBAB KASHIF, ORPHAN MANAGER: Because if you want to kill one Talib or 10 Taliban for that, you have to bomb the whole area. I have heard many cases in this province where the local person, his father, was killed in that attack and that boy went to the other group.

 

REPORTER:  What group? To the Taliban?

 

ARBAB KASHIF: Yeah, to the Taliban and that boy became a Talib as well. When these children came to us most of the children were pro-Talib - they were in favour of Taliban, they were singing songs of Talibans.

 

Arbab works to remove the pro-Taliban sentiment from these boys. He says he tries to explain that the whippings, violence, killing and beheadings used by the Taliban are wrong and says most of the boys now understand. But their experiences leave deep scars and room for future doubt. This is Imran. He's six.

 

IMRAN (Translation): Our house was bombed by a helicopter.

 

ARBAB KASHIF: (Translation): They fired by helicopter? Were your sisters at home at the time? Were they killed?

 

ARBAB KASHIF: He is saying that his four or five sisters died in that attack by the Pakistan Army chopper and his father actually lost his sight and his mother is almost paralysed in that attack.

 

ARBAB KASHIF (Translation): Do you like the Taliban?

 

He doesn't like the Taliban. For now, little Imran is safe from extremist views. But despite their re-education, many of the older boys still seem to harbour support for what the Taliban stood for in their valley.

 

BOY 2: The good things they do, we appreciate.

 

REPORTER:  What good things?

 

BOY 2: I think in that day, there were a lot of crimes but when they came they finished all the crimes.

 

And these are the fighters that once inspired the orphans - the Pakistani Taliban. Filmed just two months ago for their own propaganda video they have not been seen in these numbers before. The army claims it's killed 1,200 militants in Swat. But many thousands more including some top commanders are believed to have escaped and joined the main body of the Pakistani Taliban here in Waziristan where the army has just launched a new offensive against them. One of the top three Taliban leaders in Waziristan is this man, Maulvi Umar. Umar's message is a declaration of war against the government not just in these mountains but in all of Pakistan.

 

MAULVI UMAR (Translation):  Their cruelty and the bombing of our territory will make those who gave the orders our target. Those of us whose wives and children died, their heart is not made of stone, they too will take revenge. We will go to their land and their territory and God willing, take action until they stop their atrocities.

 

For Professor Hoodbhoy the growing Taliban power has an even more alarming side. He's teaching the next generation of nuclear physicists and is concerned that Pakistan's nuclear material could one day fall into the wrong hands, a concern shared in the West.

 

PERVEZ HOODBHOY: There are radical elements within the huge bomb establishment. It's a pretty big establishment - a few thousand people are in it - there are some who are very religious, perhaps radically religious.

 

Pakistan has more than 100 nuclear weapons and is making another six weapons every year in a nuclear arms race with its rival, India. To keep them secure, the army insists it has a multi-layered, fool-proof system, but Professor Hoodbhoy is not convinced.

 

PERVEZ HOODBHOY: I am also sure they have also spent a lot of money on perimeter fencing and arming guards and so forth but the problem is that nuclear weapons are inherently unsafe and especially when you have an insurgency and you have people within the country who think very differently from the government, and perhaps even people within the military who think differently from the leadership - that's where I think the possibilities of danger lie.

 

AHMED RASHID: The weapons are only as safe as the army is united. If this threat of Talibanisation increases certainly there is sympathy for the Taliban inside the army. It is very important that the army takes a position now against Talibanisation within its own ranks and within society in general.

 

Despite the dangers, many in Pakistan are bravely trying to continue their normal lives.

 

ACTRESS: We are facing such a problem but we are hopeful that our government will overcome this problem very soon. And we always pray to God that all will get well soon, very soon.

 

But it's not clear how long these symbols of a moderate, secular Pakistan can withstand the rising extremism.

Reporter/Camera
EVAN WILLIAMS

Researcher
MELANIE MORRISON

Fixer
SHAFIQ AHMED

Editors
WAYNE LOVE
DAVID POTTS

Producer
AARON THOMAS

Translations/Subtitling
FAZEL RESHAD
AESH RAO

Original Music Composed by
VICKI HANSEN