Pakistan end negotiations, shells rebel positions outside Peshawar
Forays by militants into one of Pakistan's largest cities leads to an about-face by the 3-month-old government, which had relied on talks with the Taliban in the gateway to volatile tribal areas.
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN — Pakistani forces today shelled militants' positions just outside the northwestern city of Peshawar, the gateway to the country's volatile tribal areas along the Afghan border.
In recent days, small groups of bearded Taliban fighters had been making increasingly daring forays into Peshawar and its outlying districts, rattling residents and raising fears of an insurgent assault on the city, one of Pakistan's largest.
So far, the government offensive has been limited in scope, carried out by paramilitary troops rather than the large army garrison based in Peshawar.
Troops from the paramilitary Frontier Corps fired mortar shells toward what they described as militant hide-outs on the city's northern outskirts, in the direction of the storied Khyber Pass. Puffs of smoke and dust rose from the arid brown hills. About 700 troops took part in the operation, authorities said.
Hours later, the head of the Frontier Corps, Maj. Gen. Alam Khattak, told journalists in Peshawar his troops had seized strategic high ground outside the city. One militant was killed in the fighting and several insurgent outposts were destroyed, he said.
The military action marked an about-face for Pakistan's new government, in office for three months. Until now, the coalition government has sought to carry out negotiations with insurgents in the tribal region, pulling back troops from sensitive regions while it conducted negotiations with Taliban commanders.
Authorities placed the outlying Bara district under curfew, closing shops and telling people to stay in their homes. On the edges of Peshawar itself, paramilitary troops built bunkers and fortified positions with sandbags. Pakistani news reports said Baitullah Mahsud, the leader of Pakistan's Taliban movement, had broken off talks with the government in response to the offensive.
The Khyber tribal agency, which includes supply routes vital to NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan, had been quiet until about four months ago, when a local warlord called Manghal Bagh began marshaling his forces there.
In recent weeks, Bagh's men and other Taliban-linked fighters moved closer to Peshawar, briefly abducting a group of Christians and seeking to enforce a Taliban-style social code in some villages and districts adjoining the city.
"It had become pretty obvious that the state needed to enforce its writ," military analyst Nasim Zehra said. "These are groups that have no respect for the law."
A day earlier, in the Bajur tribal area, militants executed two Afghan men they accused of being "spies" for the government and the United States.
laura.king@latimes.com
Special correspondent Zulfiqar Ali contributed to this report.
