WaPo A01: Pakistan Attacks Shatter Accord

[gulliver]

I'm not sure whether this is progress, birth pangs of a new South Asia, flowering democracy, or just more hard work in the War on Terror.

<snip>

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Two months ago, Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, triumphantly announced a peace pact with Islamic extremists in the North Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border, saying he hoped it would become a model for curbing domestic Islamic militancy and cross-border insurgent attacks in Afghanistan.

Today that model lies in shreds. Northwestern Pakistan's fragile political peace has been shattered by two devastating attacks: a government missile strike that killed 82 people at an Islamic school in the Bajaur tribal district on Oct. 30, and a retaliatory suicide bombing Wednesday that killed 42 army recruits at a training camp in the Malakand tribal district.

The missile strike was based on U.S. intelligence reports that the school was being used as a training site for Islamic insurgents, who have found sanctuary across the semi-autonomous tribal areas where Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures may also be hiding. Now, officials are predicting a new wave of violence, as anti-government anger spreads and religious extremists call for holy war against the Pakistani military and Western forces fighting in Afghanistan.

"This is a disaster. We all recognize the gravity of the situation," said a senior military official in this northwestern provincial capital, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It's a nightmare to have an army being attacked on its own soil and by its own people." After the two incidents, he added, "the doors to peaceful negotiated settlements are closed. I am afraid we are on a war course in the tribal areas."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001785.html

[rodeodance]

1. The missile strike was based on U.S. intelligence reports

[rodeodance]

2. the US 'talked' them into this.

Pakistani military and intelligence officials said they had little choice but to bomb the site after they received overwhelming proof from U.S. intelligence sources that it was being used as a training center for insurgents. A refusal to act, the Pakistanis said, would have badly damaged their relations with the United States, which counts Pakistan as a key ally in the war against al-Qaeda and fundamentalist Islamic terrorism.

"They loaded us with evidence. The strike was absolutely inevitable," said a senior intelligence official, also speaking on condition of anonymity. Another official called the attack a "major test" of military and intelligence cooperation between the United States and Pakistan. "We thought about other options, but the Americans weren't ready to take any chances," he said. "We were caught between the devil and the deep sea."

Public outrage has also flared over Wednesday's suicide bombing, in which a man wrapped in a cloak strolled among army recruits exercising on a field and detonated powerful explosives, killing more Pakistani troops than any previous terrorist attack. But many Pakistanis view that bombing as a predictable response to an ill-conceived military action taken under U.S. pressure.

Ansar Abbasi, Islamabad bureau chief for the News International newspaper, called the Bajaur attack "outrageous" and argued in a column that while it might have raised Musharraf's tough-guy image in the West, it served no national interest and could only exacerbate conflict between the army and the civilian populace. "Have we not fallen into a U.S. trap?" he asked.

[rodeodance]

3. well, if there WAS evidense--it was removed B/4 inspectors came.

It may never be known whether the tiny Islamic school in Bajaur's Chingai village was a garden of knowledge or a staging ground for terrorists. A group of lawyers from Peshawar who visited the site last week said they saw no evidence of training or weapons.

What they did see was disturbing enough: a tense, angry crowd that surrounded their vehicles, shouting for holy war against the Pakistani and U.S. governments, less than a week after local leaders had been ready to sign a peace pact with the government.

"If it was a military camp, I found no sign of it. But the people were very inflamed," said Barrister Baachaa, one of the lawyers. "Bajauris are known to be quiet and not carrying guns, but the mood is becoming very militant. If Bajaur can fall into Talibanization, so can the other tribal areas, and then I fear it can spread to the settled areas, too," he said. "This has to be contained, but the way they did it in Bajaur has only made it worse."

Khan reported from Karachi.