 Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Maulvi Umar said the deadline given to the NWFP government to resign had already ended but the Taliban would await the provincial government's response until Wednesday morning, a private television channel reported on Tuesday.
| Apparently nobody in Pakiwakiland is ever on time ... |
According to Geo News, Maulvi Umar asked for a halt to military operation in Hangu and Swat, as their deadline for the NWFP government to resign expired on Tuesday.
| NWFP govt squealed like Islamic piggies and pressured the government to cease and desist, which it did, rather than risk either the Talibs beating up the mighty Pak army -- both India and NATO are watching with professional interest -- or the converse, the mighty Pak army actually hurting the oligarchy's tool for maintaining Strategic Depth™. |
He said they would launch attacks against the government if operation was not stopped in the two districts.
| Presumably these would be boomers and kidnapping of enlisted men, that sort of thing. |
The channel quoted Umar as saying that important decisions were taken at a Taliban Shura meeting held on Tuesday. According to the channel, TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud chaired the Taliban Shura and discussed with his colleagues a future course of action, adding that important decisions regarding the ultimatum to the provincial government were taken.
| The Talibs have begun referring to themselves as an "emirate." It's kinda hard to maintain the fiction of Islamabad's writ applying when they have Islamic "princes" strutting around ordering people's heads chopped off. At the same time, the myth of the "ungovernable" tribal areas is evaporating, since the "emirate" doesn't seem to have much trouble. |
Maulvi Umar welcomed the NWFP government's announcement that it is willing to resolve all problems through negotiations.
| You could also call that a spade, or even a surrender. |
He said that despite the use of force in Swat and Hangu, the government has failed to redress any of the region's problems. He went on to say that the TTP preferred talks over confrontation.
| But of course you can't have talks without first having confrontation. That's the way the game is played. |
NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar had told a press conference on Monday that his party was against violence. They would however be "compelled" to use force if the other side continued to challenge the writ of the government.
| But they'll keep denying the obvious whenever they can get away with it. |
Mehsud had on July 18 given the NWFP government a five-day ultimatum to either resign "or else face dire consequences", inviting strong reactions from the provincial government. The NWFP government responded the next day, saying they would not resign, nor become hostage to any militant group. |