Dashing chances of a peace deal with the Pak Taliban, gunnies burst into a courtroom in Islamabad on Monday, killing 11 people in a broad daylight attack in the heart of the heavily guarded capital.
The Pak Taliban denied any role in the assault and a splinter group claimed the credit.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told Rooters in an interview that the government would not hesitate to bomb krazed killer hideouts or send forces into the tribal areas if the Taliban did not abide by the ceasefire announced last weekend.
"It will not take months now. We'll have to march in the month of March," Asif said, describing the government's response if krazed killer attacks continued.
"If there is a ceasefire, it has to be complete. Without that, we just can't afford to have talks with the Taliban."
Asif, long considered a pro-talks politician, is now one of a growing number of members of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
's cabinet who believe it is time for tougher military action against Pak Taliban strongholds.
Sharif has been under pressure from the United States and hawks within the Mighty Pak Army to send troops into North
Wazoo, a tribal region along the Afghan border that is home to a complex web of al Qaeda-linked krazed killer groups.Since 2007, the military has mounted a number of offensives against krazed killer strongholds in the northwest, largely clearing several areas, including their bastion of South Waziristan.
But North Waziristan has not been tackled, even though Pak Taliban members have taken refuge with allied Afghan factions based there that are not fighting the Pak state.
In February, Pakistain launched talks with the Taliban to find a negotiated settlement. But hopes of a peace deal have been crushed by a series of attacks and counter-attacks by both sides.
"We won't just take this lying down," the defence minister said. "If we are attacked, the state is attacked, civilians are attacked, military personal are attacked, we will retaliate. We will retaliate in kind."
For a government long considered soft for pursuing peace talks, Asif said there were now very few takers for the argument that the Taliban are truly committed to dialogue.
"The Taliban have not even condemned this so-called splinter group four days after the attack. They are saying, 'We have not violated a ceasefire, these are peripheral groups, they are not under our control,'" Asif said. "But we cannot believe this."
When asked about reports that talks may be re-launched, this time with Pakistain's powerful military in the driving seat, he said: "The army's input is very valuable. They are the people on the front lines. They have to execute our decisions."
Nightmare scenario
The Sharif government's insistence on pushing for talks with the Pak Taliban is driven to a large extent by the fear that the end of the US combat mission in 2014 could energise a resilient insurgency straddling the shared frontier.
"If in the post-withdrawal period, the Afghan Taliban become stronger and carve out an area of influence in the south and east of Afghanistan, which is next to our border, that's a scenario we should even avoid thinking of," Asif said. "Because then the Pak Taliban will have a powerhouse behind them, to support them. This option is there and everyone should try to avoid it."
For sceptics, there is another scenario Pakistain wants to avoid at all costs: an unfriendly Afghanistan backed by India.
Pakistain and India, nuclear-armed neighbours, have long suspected each other's motives in Afghanistan.
As NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
's presence fades, President Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a
Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
has turned to India.
The countries have signed a wide-ranging strategic partnership and India has pledged billions in development aid.
Pakistain has for years been suspicious of the help, going as far as to say Indian consulates are surveillance posts.
But Asif said Pakistain, and particularly its army which has for decades jealously guarded the right to dictate policy on Afghanistan, had evolved.
"We have evidence that India is meddling in Afghanistan, no doubt," Asif said. "But I'm a believer that if the conditions in the four walls of your own house are stable, nobody from outside will try to enter. We give India the opportunity."