[olenhad]

As a Pakistani I find this report alarming. However I also believe that the situation, especially the army's view of the Taliban, in particular groups under the TTP, has drastically changed. The TTP's brazen attacks on the Pakistani military in recent months have prompted the army to respond with force. In particular, the army actually is waiting for the govt's green light to clean up North Waziristan. It recently launched air strikes [1] on Taliban positions, and until a couple of weeks ago a full scale military operation similar to the a successful one conducted in Swat in 2009 seemed imminent.

Ironically though the Sharif administration is not entirely in favour of an operation. Some of the complexities include the fact that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is governed by PTI which disagrees with a military operation entirely.

Currently there is a shaky ceasefire between the govt and the TTP. However a new splinter group called Aharar-ul-Hind, forked off from the TTP and carried out a daring attack on a court in Islamabad a few days back [2].

Interestingly enough, the new TTP chief Maulana Fazlullah is supposedly based in Afghanistan, and there is a worrying, ironic prospect of TTP raids from Afghanistan into Pakistan after NATO withdrawal.

1. http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/25/world/asia/pakistan-airstr... 2. http://www.geo.tv/article-139849-TTP-splinter-faction-Ahrar-...

[mercurial]

> However I also believe that the situation, especially the army's view of the Taliban, in particular groups under the TTP, has drastically changed.

That's possible, but it's pretty clear that ISI is a state within the state. As long as it isn't broken up and brought under civilian control, it is impossible to ensure it does not continue supporting these Talibans it deems acceptable. The testimony of the unnamed former intelligence official in the article speaks volume about it: "In 2007, a former senior intelligence official who worked on tracking members of Al Qaeda after Sept. 11 told me that while one part of the ISI was engaged in hunting down militants, another part continued to work with them." As long as they're willing to fund LeT actions like the Mumbai bombings, it's unlikely they will care that Pakistanis also become victims of terrorism.