While American presidential candidate Barack (Hussein) Obama has pledged to shift the war on terrorism back to fighting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and also Pakistan, the Pakistan’s new coalition government will hold talks with militants believed to have carried out suicide bombings and will use military force as a last resort, media reported, citing political party leaders.
Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan Peoples Party and Nawaz Sharif, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, said a different approach is needed to deal with militants, the newspaper reported in separate interviews with both leaders.
Both views have alarmed U.S. officials and are being seen as a softening of stance by the new government toward militants, the newspaper said. Suicide bombings in Pakistan have increased and are believed to be in retaliation for U.S.-backed pilot-less Predator drone strikes on militants, the newspaper said. There were 17 suicide bombings in the first 10 weeks of this year, the report said.
The observers believe that any deal that allows armed Islamic extremists to operate on Pakistani soil would run counter to U.S. demands for the government to crack down on militants. The Bush administration contends a failed truce last year allowed al-Qaida to expand its reach into this turbulent, nuclear-armed country, and the U.S. has sounded warnings in recent days about a revival of militant strength.
The government has repeatedly tried to strike peace deals with local pro-Taliban militants, urging them to expel foreign al-Qaida militants the U.S. has warned may use their sanctuary inside Pakistan’s tribal regions to plot terror attacks around the globe.
The negotiation strategy has mostly backfired in the past, with militants failing to honor agreements. A cease-fire in North Waziristan in September 2006, which collapsed in July, was widely seen as a setback in the war against terror, giving the Taliban and al- Qaida a freer hand to stage cross-border attacks into Afghanistan and extends their control of areas within Pakistan.
