Militants Want Talks.

On the other hand, militant leaders in the tribal belt on Jan. 19 indicated they wanted to negotiate with Islamabad a truce as a first step, pending a peace deal. This followed a series of deadly attacks on government forces during the past week. They claimed that on Jan. 16, several hundred of their forces armed with assault rifles and rockets had stormed the remote Sararogha Fort in South Waziristan and routed its garrison from the Frontier Constabulary (FC), a paramilitary force formed of men from the area. Pakistani military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said 40 militants had been killed in an exchange of fire when they managed to enter the fort after blowing up a wall. But Asia Times Online on Jan. 18 quoted self-proclaimed Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar as claiming that 16 FC personnel had been killed and 24 more captured. He said only two of his men had been killed, while a dozen had sustained injuries, adding: "The fort is still in our control".

Unrest has escalated in South Waziristan since the government singled out Mehsud for involvement in the assassination of Ms Bhutto in the army garrison city of Rawalpindi. Islamabad has tried to defuse the situation by negotiating with selected Taliban leaders. A Pakistani Taliban shura (consultative council) headed by Hafiz Gul Bahadur in North Waziristan has responded positively to a government truce offer, despite opposition from takfiri elements. The backlash was immediate. Militants launched attacks in Mohmand Agency, followed by the Jan. 16 assault.

This response was orchestrated by al-Qaeda from its camps around the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan. Al-Qaeda views any peace between Islamabad and the Pakistani Taliban as a tactic to split the militants, and says Islamabad has been consistently intransigent over the years. Al-Qaeda demands that it be the chief negotiator in any peace talks, and has set its bottom line: guarantees of the withdrawal of all security forces from the tribal areas; enforcement of sharia law, the release of Maulana Abdul Aziz of the radical Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), who was arrested in 2007; and that President Musharraf step down.

Al-Qaeda has fought back strongly in the tribal areas after being forced onto retreat as a result of Pakistani security operations. Its Neo-Salafi message is summed up by a video now in circulation. It comes from the camp of Tahir Yuldashev, leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, in Mir Ali. It carries bloody footage, including that of severed heads, backed by messages from top takfiri ideologues in the tribal areas, including Abdul-Khaliq Haqqani and Yuldashev.

The video traces some of the successes of the Neo-Salafi insurgents, including mass surrender scenes of Pakistani troops in South Waziristan and detailed footage of the October 2007 war in North Waziristan - the biggest battle in the history of Pakistan's tribal regions. There are scenes of Pakistani F-16s bombing towns and the retaliation of the Pakistani Taliban. The video claims the killing of 150 Pakistani soldiers and shows footage of their bodies, burnt vehicles and seized equipment. The video is primarily a declaration of war against the Pakistani army and urges to struggle to continue until Islamabad is captured. It portrays Musharraf as the prime accused. With propaganda material such as this, al-Qaeda aims to stamp its authority on the area.

Jundullah, a Neo-Salafi group whose objective is to target Pakistan's pro-US rulers and US and British interests in the country, has been revived. Its members receive training in Afghanistan and South Waziristan. Al-Qaeda leader bin Laden, in audio and video messages in 2007, surprised many when he urged the West for dialogue. Some people in Pakistan said this was not an offer of an olive branch, but an indication that al-Qaeda aimed to be the main negotiator of Muslim issues, rather than local groups such as the Taliban, the Sunni and Shi'ite tribes in Iraq, or Hamas in Palestine.