[DAWN] AS he squatted under a TTP banner and toted his Kalashnikov, his face looked familiar, though his beard had grown much thicker and was perhaps dyed in henna, hiding the grey. After a long disappearance, Mast Gul resurfaced last week in North Wazoo with another myrmidon commander claiming responsibility for a terrorist attack on a hotel in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
that killed several Shias.
That takes me down memory lane more than 18 years ago when the burly young primitive had returned to a hero's welcome after leading a bloody, two-month siege of Charar Sharif, a 14th-century shrine in India-held Kashmire. The fighting killed several Indian soldiers and ended in the destruction of the historical holy place.