Frontier Insurgency Spills Into Peshawar

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — For centuries, fighting and lawlessness have been part of the fabric of this frontier city. But in the past year, Pakistan’s war with Islamic militants has spilled right into its alleys and bazaars, its forts and armories, killing policemen and soldiers and scaring its famously tough citizens.

There is a sense of siege here, as the Islamic insurgency pours out of the adjacent tribal region into this city, one of Pakistan’s largest, and its surrounding districts.

The Taliban and their militant sympathizers now hold strategic pockets on the city’s outskirts, the police say, from where they strike at the military and the police, order schoolgirls to wear the burqa and blow up stores selling DVDs, among other acts of violence.

Suicide bombings, bomb explosions and missile attacks occurred an average of once a week here in 2007, according to a tally by the city’s police department. In 2006, while there were occasional grenade attacks and explosions, the authorities did not record a single suicide bombing or rocket attack inside the city.

The proximity of Peshawar to the tribal areas where the Taliban and Al Qaeda have regrouped in the past two years makes the city a feasible prize for the militants in Pakistan’s quickly escalating internal strife that pits the Islamic extremists against the American-backed government of President Pervez Musharraf.

Though few here believe that the Taliban will rule anytime soon, the police and residents say that by the standards of counterinsurgency warfare the extremists are doing well. They have undermined public faith in the government, sown distrust and made the police fearful for their lives. “People feel the insecurity is so high, no one can fix it,” said Humair Bilour, the sister-in-law of Malik Saad, a popular Peshawar police chief who was killed in a suicide bomb attack last year. “How can the government do anything when the government itself is involved in it?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/world/asia/18peshawar.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

...but "eventually:" is implied.

I don't understand what the hell our government is doing -- or NOT doing -- regarding this situation.

Joe Biden has said the Musharraf is taking the money we're giving him to FIGHT these factions, and giving it TO them. He also said that if the situation worsens, Pakistan will be a tinderbox for at least a decade. I trust his knowledge on this. It's infuriating this administration doesn't seem to listen to any input that's outside its circle of devotees.

Thank you for posting this. We need to be aware, and it, like many critical issues, has slipped off the radar.

Start by changing the cabal in control of the Government and getting someone in control who is ready willing and able to lead the fight for real change.