Militants in Pakistan Issue Warning to Next Government

By From news reports

Pakistani militants linked to Al Qaeda warned any incoming civilian government Sunday that they would strike even more viciously if President Pervez Musharraf’s fight against them was continued in the tribal areas.

Following the election last week, political parties are in talks to form a coalition, with the two main opposition parties having announced that they would join forces. How they deal with the militants will be one of their most pressing challenges.

In northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, militants attacked a security post , killing a police officer and two paramilitary servicemen and wounding six others, officials said.

Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said by telephone from an undisclosed location that any new operation against militants in tribal areas would lead to violence.

“Whoever makes the government, we want to make it clear to them we don’t want fighting,” he said. “We want peace, but if they impose war on us, we will not spare them. We don’t want political parties to repeat the mistake which Musharraf committed and follow a path dictated by the U.S.”

Musharraf, a principal ally of Washington’s in its war on terror, angered many Islamists by sending the army into tribal lands to flush out Pakistani militants and foreign fighters belonging to Al Qaeda hiding in the rugged and remote region bordering Afghanistan.

Many Qaeda fighters and other militants fled to Pakistan’s tribal areas when U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban government in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Islamist parties ruled the border areas of North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan and were the main opposition in the National Assembly for five years until being swept away in the vote last week by liberal groups led by the Pakistan People’s Party, previously led by the former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto.

Bhutto was killed while leaving a Dec. 27 rally in a plot the government blamed on militants. Hundreds of people have died in suicide and other bomb attacks linked to the militants over the last few years.

The People’s Party and other parties have been critical of extremism and militants and have vowed to fight them.

Last week, Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, and the other major opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, also a former prime minister, said their parties would form a government without Musharraf’s party.

Omar said the warning against any new tribal operations was agreed upon during a meeting of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, an umbrella organization of various militant groups. He insisted that no foreign militants were being given refuge in tribal areas and said the Pakistani militants were ready to help government forces verify this for themselves.

“We can talk and give support,” he said.

Provisional election results have been announced for all but 10 seats, and the People’s Party leads with 87 followed by the Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N, with 67.

The fate of Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in October 1999, could depend on what kind of coalition emerges, although his supporters, with 39 seats, could still have a say. If the two leading parties forge a coalition, it will be the first time in Pakistani history that the two main parties have come together.

Both have said they want Musharraf to quit and have previously suggested impeaching him if he refuses to go, but Amin Fahim, vice chairman of the People’s Party, told CNN on Sunday that his party had no immediate plans to seek the president’s removal.

“We should not rock the boat at this time,” Fahim said. “We must have a civil transition of power from the military to civilians.”

On Saturday, Mushahid Hussain, secretary-general of the pro- Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q, said that his party was prepared to play a “positive, constructive role” in pursuing “a national agenda above party lines,” including “combating extremism and terrorism.”

He also said the losers would help the new government develop programs to improve education, health, and the rights of women and minorities, as well as developing a broad-based foreign policy.

“Relations with Western countries should have the support and sanction of the people of Pakistan,” Hussain said.

Leaders of Bhutto’s party were holding closed-door strategy sessions over the weekend, discussing their legislative program and preparing for coalition talks with Sharif’s party.

A party statement released Saturday said the discussions included ways to curb Musharraf’s powers, including his authority to dismiss the Parliament. Opposition leaders fear that without limitations, Musharraf, a former army chief, might simply dissolve the Parliament and call new elections if the lawmakers take actions that he opposes. The president has constitutional power to dissolve the Parliament.

Originally published by Reuters, AP.

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