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Crackdown on Taliban in tribal areas

— PHOTO: AP

On guard: A paramilitary soldier stands guard next to a bunker built on a mosque near Peshawar on Saturday.

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government is bracing up to the prospect of a backlash as it launched offensive operations in the frontier region against militants’ hideouts on Saturday.

As paramilitaries began pounding the hideouts in the Khyber agency, Beithullah Mehsud, the South Waziristan-based Taliban commander, announced he was suspending peace talks with the government. The tribal agency is closest to the North West Frontier Province capital Peshawar and home to at least two militant groups who had been making forays into the city, spreading panic among residents that a Taliban takeover was imminent.

Since Friday, paramilitaries of the Frontier Constabulary have been securing Peshawar against possible revenge attacks by the militants after the launching of operations. Checkpoints and barriers have come up in several places. The News reported that hospitals in Peshawar were on red-alert. Reports from the region said paramilitaries of the Frontier Corps were firing shells at the hideouts of the Laskhar-i-Islam and its leader Mangal Bagh. Geo Television said Mangal Bagh’s home had been destroyed. Troops were also targeting another group that has sought to impose a strict moral code in Khyber and neighbouring Peshawar.

Security forces are reported to have control over Bara, an area of Khyber agency. TV footage showed tanks and convoys rolling into the area. A curfew has been imposed and residents asked not to venture out.

As the operations were launched, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani visited Peshawar and held out the assurance that the government would spare no effort to enforce its writ, and would also back efforts of the NWFP government.

The operations in Khyber mark the new government’s departure from its earlier approach of peace negotiations with the militants.

Speaking in Peshawar, Mr. Gilani said his government wanted to settle every matter through dialogue, and it would enter into peace agreements only with those who wanted to give up militancy and live in peace. He said the use of force was still the last option for the government.

The immediate fall-out of the offensive was an announcement by Beithullah Mehsud that pending a decision by the executive council of his Tehreek-i-Taliban later this week, he was withdrawing from negotiations.

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