Katherine Tiedemann at Foreign Policy:
Suspected Taliban militants have unleashed a new wave of attacks on security targets in Pakistan, as 25 gunmen stormed three law enforcement agencies this morning in Lahore, Pakistan’s cultural capital, and a suicide bomber blew up part of a police station in the northwestern city of Kohat (Washington Post, AFP, New York Times, Dawn, CNN, Telegraph, Guardian). At least 37 people, including militants, Pakistani policemen, and civilians, have been killed in the fifth set of major assaults in ten days, bringing the number of people killed in the attacks up to some 150 (BBC, Dawn, Geo TV, Wall Street Journal). A blast has also been heard in the capital of the Northwest Frontier Province, Peshawar, and Pakistani police say a car bomb exploded near a school, killing at least five including children (Geo TV, AP, Dawn, ABC News, NDTV).
The attacks in Lahore, Peshawar, and Kohat come ahead of a planned Pakistan Army offensive in the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan, where airstrikes continue to pound the mountainous terrain as more soldiers and tanks move in (Reuters, Dawn, Daily Times). About 200,000 people have fled the area since August (AP). And a suspected U.S. drone reportedly struck an alleged militant compound in Dandey Darpa Khel, a town in the North Waziristan tribal agency where the Haqqani militant network is said to be active, killing at least four people (BBC, Geo TV, AFP). There have been nearly 80 drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas since the beginning of 2008.
The Kerry-Lugar bill to give Pakistan $1.5 billion a year in aid annually for the next five years awaits U.S. President Barack Obama’s signature into law, but the language has not been changed to assuage Pakistani military concerns that some of the conditions impinge on the country’s sovereignty (AP). An explanatory statement clarifying the intent of the bill will reportedly be entered into the record, though such statements do not have the force of law (McClatchy).
Laura Rozen at Politico
Londonstani woke up this morning to find out Lahore had turned into a war zone.
The city, which until earlier this year felt largely insulated from the problems on the western border, was the victim of three co-ordinated attacks in which reports say 24 people have been killed. Gunmen and suicide attackers stormed the Manawan Police Academy, the Elite Police training institute on Bedian road and the Federal Investigation Agency on Thursday morning, as officials continue to debate when to launch their offensive in Waziristan.
The authorities say the FIA incident happened first, at about 10am local time, when gunmen dressed in black with grenades and assault rifles stormed the building. The same building was attacked a few months ago.
Troop are still attempting to clear the attackers from the training institute on Bedian road. News channels are saying “security forces are avoiding a hostage situation such as in GHQ”, a reference to another major attack on security forces last week. Considering that the news channels did not report hostages had been taken at GHQ, there is a real possibility the situation is worse than is currently being reported.
There was also a suicide attack at a police station in Kohat in NWFP. It’s not clear how many were killed in that attack.
Psychologically, Lahore had thought itself far from Pakistan’s insurgency problem until a string of attacks (including an attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team) late last year and earlier this year made the reality of the situation painfully clear. There has been talk since the attack on GHQ last week that anti-Pakistan militancy is gaining followers in Punjab, Pakistan’s biggest and most economically important province. When the Taliban claimed responsibility, they said a local cell had participated in the attack.
Last week it was the Pakistani Intelligence Service, this week the Federal Investigative Agency. They’re at the heart of the Pakistani effort in fighting the Taliban. I hope the WH realizes that while Obama muddles about over a decision on Afghanistan, Pakistan appears to be unraveling. I realize it’s a bit of a distraction from his health care bill. But I hope Obama is paying attention and understands the significance of it, even if he does pronounce the name strangely for an American.
James Lamont at Financial Times:
The militants are taking the fight to Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province. This region, which borders India, is the political and economic heart of the country. It is also from where the officer corps of Pakistan’s army is largely drawn. Lahore, its capital, is regarded as Pakistan’s most cosmopolitan, tolerant and historic city.
This is the fourth wave of high profile attacks this year on a city that prided itself as far removed, almost immune, from terror. Today’s strike, like most of those before it, was a coordinated strike on military targets. Three police targets came under attack across the city during the period of an hour in an assault intended to show defiant fearlessness of the country’s most powerful institution, the army.Attacks in Punjab province are of a completely different order than skirmishes in the far off border areas, which most Pakistani barely consider Pakistan anyway. Lahore is a city under siege. The city, redolent of Mughal era history, will lose some of its openness. A terror campaign will exacerbate the disconnect between the Punjab government, controlled by the opposition Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz and the federal government led by president Asif Ali Zardari. It will also bring under greater scrutiny the possible connections between Mr Sharif, and his brother Shabhaz, and militant leaders in Punjab.
The new front serves as an enormous challenge to the army, long prepared to fight a conventional war against India, in protecting a large civilian population from an internal terror campaign. That challenge is matched by the one faced by Lahore’s civil society. Traditionally a hospitable people, Lahoris are today confronted by a militant religious ideology trying to force entry at its gates. The choice lays before them as to whether to let it in.
Seriously I fear Pakistan is about to fall. They keep trying to play both sides with the Taliban and their allies. For instance, if you go fight Jihad in Kashmir and leave swat alone we won’t imprison you. Pakistan just doesn’t get they are being f*cked over EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
Pakistan’s obsession with India is going to be its death. While it sits waiting on that big show down the Taliban just keep handing Pakistan head on a platter.
My advice, forget India, India is not going to to carp to you. But the Taliban and al-Qaeda are.
A look at the major attacks in Pakistan in the past two weeks:
_ Oct. 15, 2009: Teams of gunmen attack three security facilities in the eastern city of Lahore, leaving at 27 people dead including several militants, while a suicide car bombing at a police station kills 11 people in northwestern Kohat district and another bomb kills a 6-year-old boy in Peshawar in the northwest.
_ Oct. 12, 2009: A suicide car bomb explodes near an army vehicle in a market in the northwestern Shangla district, killing 41, including six security officers.
_ Oct. 10, 2009: A 22-hour long raid and standoff at the army headquarters in Rawalpindi leaves nine militants and 14 others dead.
_ Oct. 9, 2009: A suicide car bomb in the northwestern city of Peshawar kills 53 people.
_ Oct. 5, 2009: A bomber dressed as a security official kills five staffers at the U.N. food agency’s headquarters in the capital, Islamabad.
