Pakistan on Monday banned the main Taliban militant group behind a wave of suicide attacks in the country that has killed hundreds of people since last year, the interior ministry said. I am taken aback. A ray of common sense? Emanating from Pakistain? Not that I expect it to last, mind you...
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) -- an umbrella group for the Taliban Islamist militants who have threatened more suicide attacks -- will have its bank accounts and assets frozen.
Good idea, since it could also be call "al-Qaeda in Pakistan."
The TTP is headed by Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, based in the lawless South Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan.
It's so closely allied with al-Qaeda that their children will be hemophilic.
The outfit has been blamed for most of the attacks in which nearly 1,200 people have been killed since July last year. The previous government accused Mehsud of orchestrating the gun and suicide attack which killed former premier Benazir Bhutto last December but he denied involvement.
Which proves nothing, or maybe even less than nothing.
The fundamentalist movement has been involved in a wave of suicide attacks targeting security installations to demand an end to an army offensive against militants near the Afghan border.
In Islamic circles this is known as "thought." In more civilized locales it's known as "venting mental methane."
It claimed responsibility for the double bombing on the country's main army munitions factory last Thursday that killed 64 people and wounded 70 others.
Then they offered a truce...
Pakistan on Sunday rejected a ceasefire offered by Taliban militants in the Bajaur tribal region bordering Afghanistan after a two-week military operation left some 500 people dead.
Even Mr. Ten Percent has noticed that if they're in charge in NWFP and FATA then the government isn't. Nawaz hasn't caught on, but that's because he thinks he's on the other side. The NWFP government doesn't seem to have caught on yet, or maybe they're just not bright enough to understand the implications of being at war with Afghanistan, NATO, and the U.S.
Bajaur is a known hub of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. Pakistan's fractious coalition government, which forced U.S. ally president Pervez Musharraf to resign a week ago, is under intense international pressure to tackle al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. U.S. and Afghan officials say the rebels use sanctuaries in the rugged tribal border regions to train, regroup and launch attacks on international troops in Afghanistan.