TALIBAN militants, who struck a peace deal in the Swat Valley in February in exchange for the implementation of sharia law, have begun extending their reach deeper into Pakistan, confirming US fears the agreement would embolden extremists.
The Islamic militants, who waged a two-year campaign of beheadings and bombings in Swat before the Pakistan Government ceded to their demands, fought a fierce battle with troops and tribal leaders in the neighbouring Gokand Valley yesterday.
Twenty-one people were killed in the clashes -- 16 militants, three police officers and two local militia men -- after tribal elders failed to convince the Taliban in several rounds of talks to leave the area. Pakistani media reported the militants said they were under orders from Tehrik-e-Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud to consolidate their hold on the region, less than 200km north of the capital, Islamabad.
Mehsud has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Pakistan in recent weeks, including the ambush of Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore in which eight people died. He is also suspected of masterminding the December 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
The clash shows the size of the challenge faced by the US in its bid to suppress the insurgency in Pakistan, which is not only feeding Islamic extremism across the border in Afghanistan but also threatens to destabilise Pakistan's civilian Government. The US believes the bulk of the Taliban leadership is in Pakistan, not in Afghanistan.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mike Mullen accused Mehsud this week of orchestrating attacks on NATO forces, including US troops, in Afghanistan. Admiral Mullen and US special envoy Richard Holbrooke were in New Delhi last night for talks aimed at convincing India to pull back its rhetoric on the disputed territory of Kashmir, so that Pakistan can concentrate its troops on the border with Afghanistan.
Mr Holbrooke said last night the threat posed by al-Qa'ida and its allies could be met only with the joint efforts of India and Pakistan, as well as the US.
"For the first time since partition (in 1947), India, Pakistan and the United States face a common threat, a common challenge and we have a common task," he said. "Now that we face a common threat we must work together."
US President Barack Obama's new strategy for stabilising the region, unveiled last month, includes 21,000 additional troops for Afghanistan and a tripling of Pakistan's civilian aid budget -- conditional on greater co-operation from Pakistan. The US has long suspected Pakistan of taking its money to fight militants while at the same time supporting Islamic extremists in order to maintain leverage in Afghanistan and Kashmir.
But Pakistan civilian and military leaders hit back at those accusations, warning it would be difficult to bridge the "trust deficit" if the US continued to ignore the contributions of the Pakistan army in the war on terror.
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