PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Villagers are rising up against the Taliban in a remote area in northern Pakistan, a grass roots rebellion that underscores the shift in the public mood in Pakistan against the militants and a growing confidence to confront them.
Several thousand villagers from the district of Dir, have been fighting Taliban militants since Friday, when a Taliban suicide bomber detonated his payload in a mosque at prayer time, killing at least 40 villagers.
Enraged by the bombing, men from surrounding villages gathered and began looking for Taliban militants and their supporters. According to accounts from five local residents and an official, people went door-to-door, burning houses and killing at least 11 men they identified as Taliban fighters.
