Word: mehsuds
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...Pakistan's most notorious militant leaders, Baitullah Mehsud, accused of being behind scores of deadly bombing attacks, has declared a cease-fire in the troubled Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan. Mehsud's declaration came as Pakistan's new government announced that it was close to a peace deal with tribal leaders there. "We will give the nation good news very soon regarding the peace initiative," Interior Affairs Adviser Rehman Malik told reporters on Thursday...
...what happens when an "irreconcilable" like Baitullah Mehsud declares a cease-fire? As head of the militant umbrella group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Mehsud has waged a devastating campaign in Waziristan against government forces for the past year. Now local journalists there report that he has circulated leaflets commanding his followers to halt attacks in preparation for peace talks. The move has been greeted with relief by the military, which has lost nearly 1000 troops to militant activity over the past several years. "Any cessation of hostilities is a welcome step," military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told...
...hardly a definitive one. A cease-fire could provide an opening for real negotiations and would allow the thousands of refugees from the region to return home. But Mehsud, said to be a superior tactician, could also use a pause to rebuild his forces. And if he is able to make a cease-fire stick, he'll have demonstrated an alarming cohesion within the militancy. "If the militants are able to shut down attacks, and keep them shut down for this period of time, it proves that the terrorist attacks were not by freelance bombers," says Marvin Weinbaum, scholar...
...school and boasts squadrons of suicide bombers ready to detonate explosives, the moderate mullahs stay silent. Virtually unhindered, al-Qaeda has regrouped in the ungoverned tribal areas along Pakistan's long border with Afghanistan, and a newly unified militant group is hounding the military with devastating success. Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the group and al-Qaeda's viceroy in the region, has been blamed for last December's suicide-bomb attack that killed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Twelve out of 14 suspects arrested in January for planning terrorist attacks in Spain are Pakistani; all are thought to have...
...fisted attempts to stay in power have earned him widespread opprobrium, it was perceived to be a cynical, and successful, bid for support from the West at the expense of his own people. "There has been a failure in our Islamic obligation to condemn people like Fazlullah and Mehsud," admits Al-Ghazali, the imam of Islamabad's Faisel Mosque. "But you know the man who is championing this anti-extremism cause is a very unpopular man. Musharraf is identified with this cause so much, that if they initiate a move against this extremism, they are perceived to be supporting...