Increased Taliban Activity In Pakistan

A suicide bomber struck again outside a packed sports stadium in Peshawar, killing 4 people and injuring dozens. The Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) claimed responsibility for the incident and identified Bashir Bilour, a senior ANP official as the target of the attack. Bilour, along with the provincial governor, Owais Ahmed Ghani, had left the stadium minutes before the attack took place.

The bombing occurred a day after 12 U.S. trucks were hijacked by the TTP as they travelled along the Peshawar-Torkham border - a major supply route to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The stolen trucks were then paraded in front of television cameras as the 'Baitullah Caravan' with the Taliban posing for pictures.

What some found particularly disturbing was the fact that security officials who man numerous check-posts along this highway stood by and watched while the looting took place. A main concern as expressed in one Pakistani editorial was that"incidents such as the one on Monday can reinforce the impression in certain quarters that our security forces cannot by themselves stamp out militancy and enforce the rule of law."
As if further emboldened by the success of their attack the previous day, militants captured yet another truck carrying a U.S. military jeep from Afghanistan and destroyed it Tuesday.

Meanwhile the Afghan Taliban urged President-elect Obama to repudiate President Bush's 'war-mongering policies'. According to an AFP report, the Taliban warned that if Obama followed in his predecessor's footsteps, "... and nurture(d) the ambitions of prolonging the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq ... then it is clear that the fate of the Democrats will be even more shameful and despicable than the Republicans."

The warning came as glimpses of Obama's new Afghan policy were revealed in a recent Post article which stated that while the Obama administration will look "favorably on the nascent dialogue between the Afghan government and 'reconcilable' elements of the Taliban, it intends to move ahead with a planned deployment of thousands of additional U.S. troops there."