There are growing fears in Pakistan that the war against Taliban is widening, the BBC reported. It said Pakistan's army was opening up new fronts against Taliban, who were responding by spreading the conflict, destabilising even NWFP's Peshawar city. The army is on the offensive, pushing into the Bajaur and Mohmand agencies, fighting a slow, hard battle against Taliban, it said. With tanks, artillery and airstrikes, the army is trying to clear villages, towns and roads of Taliban, attempting to drive Taliban from their sanctuaries.
Across the Tribal Areas that border Afghanistan, unmanned US aircraft have also stepped up their activity in recent weeks, launching missile strikes every few days against suspected Al Qaeda targets. The war against Taliban has come to Pakistan's tribal districts and the consequences are being felt across NWFP, it said.
Standing among the ruins of the Loyesam town, army spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas told the BBC last month that its capture had put Taliban "at a great disadvantage and had broken their back". Battered Taliban may be, but they are retaliating, the report said, adding: "Under pressure from the Pakistani offensives and the American missile strikes they are being forced further inland, resulting in the conflict ballooning and spreading to new areas."
Deeper: The BBC report said US airstrikes and Pakistan's military operation in the Tribal Areas were pushing Taliban deeper into Pakistan. So Peshawar is now on edge. Westerners have fled from the city. It said almost 75 percent of all supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan came through Pakistan, the majority through Peshawar. That means that NATO's most important supply route is under threat. First Taliban have struck back near the Khyber Pass, hijacking and burning trucks driving towards the Afghan border, it said, adding the vehicles they had been targeting were trucks carrying supplies meant for NATO forces in Afghanistan and the Afghan army.
In the most brazen attack a fortnight ago, Humvee armoured cars destined for Afghanistan were seized. Taliban filmed themselves triumphantly driving off with their booty of NATO vehicles.
Better equipment: According to the report, the police have stepped up security in Peshawar. There are new checkpoints, more armed patrols but the police say they are outgunned and ill-equipped for the fight on their hands, it added. "The militants I think have far better equipment, they have rocket-propelled guns and we have none," NWFP police chief Malik Naveed Khan told the BBC. "We have no helicopters, no aerial mobility, in transport we are 50 percent down on peacetime requirements and presently we are at war," he said.
As for Taliban's tactics, Naveed said they were clear. "They would like to destabilise the city centres so they can put pressure on the government to get concessions in the Tribal Areas," he said. "And they want to open up more fronts for us to dilute the effect of the law enforcement agencies. Their agenda is to cause problems for the government to check its commitment and resolve in the war against terror."
Pakistan's army is fighting in Mohmand, closer to Peshawar. The war will probably spread much further too. But just as NATO has found in Afghanistan, the Pakistani security forces are now discovering too that Taliban is a foe that is hard to corner, even harder to defeat.