Taliban’s Version Of Ceasefire Sucker Govt. Is Buying: Car Bomb Kills Three

April 25th, 2008 Posted By Pat Dollard.

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“The U.S. government, which has given Pakistan billions of dollars in return for its help in its war on terror, has expressed concern that militants have taken advantage of past peace deals to regroup”

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A car bomb killed three people in northwestern Pakistan Friday, despite calls from Taliban leaders asking Islamic militants to refrain from attacks amid efforts by the new government to reach peace deals in the region.

The bomb, which shattered a five-week lull in violence, went off between a police station and a market area in the city of Mardan at 6 a.m. local time, senior police official Akhbar Ali Shah said.

He said two civilians and one police officer died and 24 people were wounded, including nine police. Six people were in serious condition at hospitals in Mardan and the regional capital, Peshawar.

Shah declined to speculate about who was responsible for the attack.

It was the first major bombing since Pakistan’s new government took office and pledged to scale back military operations against militants. The last deadly blast was a suicide attack that killed five soldiers in the South Waziristan region on March 20.

The government, led by the party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has vowed to negotiate with militants who renounce violence and sought to distance itself from the strong-arm tactics of U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf, whose influence is fading.

Zahid Khan, a senior official in one of the parties of the ruling coalition, said Thursday that government envoys were in peace talks with tribal elders in South Waziristan, a militant stronghold. Khan offered no details about the possible terms of a deal.

Followers of Baitullah Mehsud, considered Pakistan’s top Taliban commander, distributed fliers in his name around the lawless region on the Afghan border telling his supporters not to break a ban on acts of “hostility,” as Pakistan’s new government steps up peace talks.

A copy of the flier obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday warned those who disobeyed the order would be “strung upside down in public and punished.”

Maulvi Umar, a spokesman for Mehsud, told AP that militants across the region were ready for peace if the government met their demands to withdraw the army and release militant prisoners.

Mehsud is wanted for a string of suicide attacks in Pakistan, and the previous government has accused him of Bhutto’s assassination in December. He has reportedly denied involvement.

The Taliban leader exerts considerable influence in parts of South Waziristan. Most of his followers are believed to be fellow tribesmen; some are allegedly foreign militants.

Mehsud has not been widely accused of involvement in attacks on U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials have voiced some support for the government’s peace initiative, while urging it to keep the pressure on Taliban and al- Qaida figures suspected of orchestrating violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan—and perhaps plotting major terrorist attacks in the West.

The U.S. government, which has given Pakistan billions of dollars in return for its help in its war on terror, has expressed concern that militants have taken advantage of past peace deals to regroup.

(AP)


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One Response

  1. Dan (The Infidel)

    Pakistan has to make a choice. Freedom or the nazi utopian reality that the Taliban offer. Perhaps they’ve forgotten what life in Afghanistan was like under the Taliban?

    Pakistan fails to see that peace will only come when the kafirs in the MMA and the Taliban are defeated.

    Remember, the Taliban are an Equal Opportunity murder, Inc.
    They kill Muslims with as much relish as they kill non-Muslims.

    Is that the utopia that Pakistan really wants here?

Respond now.

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