Islamabad: Suicide attacks, car bombings,
shootings in the capital and fighting in the mountains Taliban
guerrillas are dragging Pakistan into a war deadlier than in
Afghanistan and mimicking the carnage of Iraq.
Militant attacks killed at least 320 people in
nuclear-armed Pakistan last month alone, including 170
civilians slaughtered in market bombings in the northwestern
city of Peshawar, according to tallies from police and medics,
and the bloodshed has continued in November.
Across the border in Afghanistan, where US President
Barack Obama is mulling whether to send thousands of extra
troops into battle against the Taliban, attacks were more
frequent, but the death toll for October was around 130.
Pakistan is on the frontline of the US war on al Qaeda
and has been a key ally in the Afghan campaign, but local
analysts warn that increased instability in the country of 167
million people could prove more damaging.
"The danger here is much greater. It's a bigger country,
more developed with the nuclear bomb and all that," said
tribal affairs expert Rahimullah Yusufzai.
"The previous three or four attacks in markets was a kind
of strategy that was being used in Iraq... but it will come at
a cost. No guerrilla movement can survive without local
support," he added.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, November 15, 2009, 20:13