| I think we expected to see this, given the Asia Times article from the other day. |
| That's because the Talibs and Qaeda worked out the terms they're gonna offer to the government, which will take them without more than a proforma argument. |
Militant leader Baitullah Mehsud had ordered an "indefinite" truce following months of clashes in the tribal region of South Waziristan and neighbouring regions, said spokesman Maulvi Omar. | Maulvi Omar's different from Mullah Omar and Haji Omar, and prob'ly different from Mualana Omar and Father Omar and Monseignor Omar and Pope Omar XV... |
The Pakistani government and the US Central Intelligence Agency have accused Mehsud of masterminding Bhutto's assassination in a gun and suicide bomb attack in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on December 27. Pakistani officials say he is linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network and is also responsible for a string of suicide bombings around the country.
Chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the army would keep up operations against the Taliban. "There is no formal information conveyed to us from them about a ceasefire. When they stopped firing we thought it was because of the severe weather conditions in the region," Abbas told AFP. "Our position is very clear -- the operation has not ended, it will continue as long as the objectives the operations are achieved," he added.
| "We just don't have anything planned for the immediate future." "And how long's the 'immediate future'?" "For however long they don't shoot at us." |
More than 300 people have died in militant related violence this year, much of it in fighting between Islamic militants and troops in South Waziristan, the stronghold of Mehsud. Mehsud's fighters occupied a paramilitary fort in the region during January. Pakistani troops have also been battling to drive out insurgents from the tourist valley of Swat in North West Frontier Province, which borders the semi-autonomous tribal belt.