Pakistan: Kidnap, bomb plots foiled in capital

[June 15, 2009]  ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Police in Islamabad recently foiled plots to kidnap diplomats and carry out bombings in the Pakistani capital, the interior minister said Monday.

Rehman Malik made clear that security in Islamabad, already tightened, must be improved even more, saying efforts were under way to recruit an additional 20,000 police to protect the city.

His announcement at a ceremony for slain policemen came a day after Pakistan ordered its army to go after the country's top Taliban commander, a feared al-Qaida-allied militant whose remote stronghold could prove a difficult test for troops but whose demise would remove a major threat to the country's stability.

The announcement Sunday of the operation in South Waziristan, rumored for weeks, came hours after a suspected U.S. missile strike killed five alleged militants there. The move will likely please Washington, which wants Pakistan to eliminate safe havens for militants leaving Afghanistan and which considers South Waziristan a particularly troublesome hide-out for al-Qaida.

Pakistan has seen a series of attacks -- including five suicide bombings this month -- since the Taliban threatened to retaliate for an offensive against militants in the northwest Swat Valley. Malik indicated it could have been worse.

"I am proud of you that, essentially for the last six months, there have been a number of suicide bomb attempts, there have been a number of abduction attempts -- you have frustrated them," he told police.

Malik said Islamabad police recently arrested an unspecified number of suspects "who had plans to kidnap diplomats, and they had also selected some places for bomb attacks." He did not elaborate, but said the investigation yielded arrests across the country.

Owais Ghani, governor of North West Frontier Province, said late Sunday that the government felt it had no choice but to use force against Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and his network. Past army action in the region had usually faltered or ended in truces, strengthening the militants.

"Baitullah Mehsud is the root cause of all evils," Ghani said, noting the slew of suicide bombings. "The government has decided that to secure the innocent citizens from terrorists, a meaningful, durable and complete action is to be taken."

Ghani suggested the operation has begun, though the military has insisted its recent attacks on militants in South Waziristan were retaliatory, not the launch of a new offensive. Two intelligence officials said the army and Taliban were fighting in the Spinkai Raghzai area of South Waziristan.

South Waziristan, part of Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal belt, is a rumored hide-out of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. As the military has pursued a separate offensive against Taliban fighters in Swat, observers have noted that the Taliban will not be defeated unless they lose their tribal sanctuaries.

The U.S. has frequently targeted South Waziristan with missile strikes. The suspected strike Sunday hit three vehicles and killed five suspected militants. Two Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed the attack on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Neighboring North Waziristan, another militant stronghold and target for U.S. missiles, may also fall under the new Pakistani offensive at some point.

Mehsud is believed to pose a serious internal threat to the Pakistani government, and has been blamed for the killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, though he has denied that accusation. The Taliban chief also has been linked to attacks on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, though he is believed to have operated primarily in Pakistan.

In many ways, a full-scale battle in South Waziristan will be a harder fight than in Swat, where the army claims to have killed hundreds of militants over the past six weeks.

One reason is that the tribal region's porous border with Afghanistan could make it easier for militants to escape to the other side.

A new offensive could mean more displaced civilians in Pakistan, already struggling to deal with more than 2 million who fled their homes in Swat and surrounding districts.

Pakistan's decision comes as public opinion has shifted against the Taliban, who have been blamed or have claimed responsibility for a series of bloody attacks.

But fighting on multiple fronts could tax the army's ability to hold regions once it says it has cleared them -- a problem that it has run into before.

[Associated Press; By MUNIR AHMAD]

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