Suicide bombings, car bombs and artillery have scarred the valley's roads and buildings. The charred remains of hospitals litter the landscape.
The Taliban have converted the Swat Valley in Pakistan, once known for its scenic beauty, into a hell-hole of bodies and ruins, a media report said here on Sunday.
In Mingora, Swat's largest city which once buzzed with foreign tourists, now has empty shops and hundreds of hotels in the valley have been destroyed or forced to closure after threats from the militants, The Sunday Times reported.
The women's clothes markets were either closed or have banners proclaiming: "Women are banned from entering this market". Barbers have pasted handwritten posters in front of their shops saying: "Shaving a beard is un-Islamic. We have stopped shaving beards. Please don't visit the shop for a shave."
After two years of fighting between 5,000 Taliban militants and 12,000 troops from the Pakistan army, a ceasefire has been hammered out between the government and the rebels.
It has left the Swat Valley, just a three hour drive from Islamabad, the capital, under the control of a hardline cleric known as Radio Mullah for his fiery sermons on an illegal radio station.
According to the report, American officials are concerned that the cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, who is intent on imposing a harsh version of sharia (religious law), will allow the valley to become a base for Al-Qaeda and other terrorist.
On Wednesday, a journalist for Pakistan's Geo TV network, Musa Khan Khel (28), was killed when he tried to secure a interview with Fazlullah. In a characteristic Taliban flourish, there were signs that his killers had attempted to behead him.
Describing the scene, the correspondent observed that what he found in Swat was a hell-hole. Suicide bombings, car bombs and artillery have scarred the valley's roads and buildings. The charred remains of hospitals and even a madrasah (seminary) litter the landscape.
Nearly 200 schools have been destroyed, all girls over the age of eight are banned from lessons and, in a symbol of the Taliban's hatred of learning, the public library in Mingora has been wrecked.
The Taliban have banned music and dancing, television and internet cafes. Women cannot leave home without wearing a burqa, the all-encompassing robe. Justice has been enforced with floggings and public executions. Police stations are deserted and fewer than 100 local policemen remain.
Green Square, the heart of Mingora'a bazaar, is now known as khooni Chowk - or bloody square - because of the public executions carried out there by Taliban who leave the bullet-riddled bodies of police and soldiers for all to see.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}