Insecurity in Pakistan

Counterproductive

Gregg Carlstrom | August 7, 2009 8:05 AM | 1 | recommend (0) |   |      

I was writing a post on how Baitullah Mehsud's death might actually hurt the anti-Taliban campaign in Pakistan. Then I noticed Abu Muqawama wrote the same thing. So I'll just excerpt him and say "yeah, what he said":

But it's my sense that many in Pakistan consider Mehsud to basically be the root of their problems and that taking him out would be the natural end to a campaign against the militants in FATA and the NWFP. So should we worry that the death of Mehsud might, perversely, mean a relaxation of the Pakistani Army's campaign against Pakistan's insurgent groups?

By the way, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn talked to a Taliban commander who confirms that Mehsud was indeed killed.

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Categories: Pakistan, Regional News, War and Terrorism

Tags: Abu Muqawama, Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan, Taliban

1 Comment

Saba Imtiaz — August 7, 2009 8:16 AM

Completely disagree with the excerpt above - analysts have said that there are several more Taliban commanders that need to be killed/captured before TTP is crippled. They have a number of people in line to take on from Mehsud so they've been able to continue on regardless of the leaders killed. The operation is still continuing in the Khyber Agency and the US will take Mehsud's death as a reason to continue drone strikes in the area.

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