The Pakistani army has finished its offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan, but may soon pursue militants in another part of the lawless tribal belt along the Afghan border, the prime minister said on Saturday. Yousuf Raza Gilani's suggestion of an operation in Orakzai tribal region, where it recently launched airstrikes, is another sign that Islamabad did not deal the death blow it had intended against the Pakistani Taliban militants by taking them on in their main base.
It also illustrates the intractable nature of the extremist challenge facing this nuclear-armed nation: Even as troops flood one militant stronghold, the insurgents can regroup in another stretch of the rugged, barely governed tribal districts.
The US has long pushed Pakistan to retake spots along the border that have become safe havens for militants, a pressure likely to intensify now that 30 000 additional US troops are heading to Afghanistan to take on a resurgent Afghan Taliban.
To Washington's chagrin, Islamabad has focused on groups such as the Pakistani Taliban, which threaten its citizens, rather than militants who have gone after US and Nato forces across the border. Gilani did not indicate a shift in that strategy on Saturday.
"The operation in South Waziristan is over. Now there are talks about Orakzai," the prime minister told reporters in televised remarks from the eastern city of Lahore. He did not give a timeframe or any other details.
Later on Saturday, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said "targeted operations" in South Waziristan would continue, and vowed that the government would pursue militants wherever they challenged authorities.