Audacious,unending

With Lahore now the target,will Pakistan stop differentiating extremists?

Having already taken their battle to the Pakistan armys GHQ in Rawalpindi last week,militants continue to underscore that they can choose where to strike,and when. With

coordinated attacks Thursday morning on key security installations in and around Lahore,as well as on a police station in Kohat,they escalated the urban terror currently pervading Pakistan. These attacks come in a 10-day cycle that has had,besides the army headquarters incident,suicide bombers strike at bazaars in Peshawar and Sangla near the Swat Valley and at a UN office in Islamabad. The attacks come in the midst of widespread speculation about a forthcoming army offensive on the so-called Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan. By all accounts the Pakistan army had wanted time to prepare for the offensive. Indications are that it will now be advanced.

The current spate of militant strikes reportedly carried out by the Tehrik-e-Taliban,but with affiliates from other terrorist groups also comes amidst a controversy in Pakistan over a US legislation. Conditionalities about monitoring mechanisms in the Kerry-Lugar Bill for 1.5 billion annual assistance have not gone down well with the Pakistan military. And its reservations have ignited a political debate. Additionally,with the Taliban expanding their area of dominance in Afghanistan and with the Pakistani Taliban asserting their resilience after the death of their leader,Baitullah Mehsud,this August,the Obama administration is expected to take a call on how to calibrate American military involvement in the region.

What this months attacks on key army and police installations would have highlighted is Pakistans lack of options other than taking on the militants. Coherence in the military strategy against the Taliban can only help stabilise Af-Pak,and by extension reduce the security threat posed beyond the borders of the two countries. However,this

coherence can only be had if Pakistan rethinks its long-time strategy of treating some militant groups as assets,of fighting some and feeding some. The army is seen to be particularly wary of taking on the Afghan Taliban or groups with a Kashmir focus. How Pakistan rethinks this strategy will have implications not just for its own security. It should also inform how other countries affected by violence from Pakistan-based groups redraw their Af-Pak strategy.