Pakistani official calls Bhutto’s killer ‘patriotic’

Unnamed Pakistani military officials seem eager to let it be known that they are ready and willing to give up the fight against militants in the tribal areas. The News reports from Islamabad: All main militant groups fighting in Fata, from South Waziristan to Bajaur and from Mohmand to the Khyber Agency, have contacted the ...

Unnamed Pakistani military officials seem eager to let it be known that they are ready and willing to give up the fight against militants in the tribal areas. The News reports from Islamabad:

Unnamed Pakistani military officials seem eager to let it be known that they are ready and willing to give up the fight against militants in the tribal areas. The News reports from Islamabad:

All main militant groups fighting in Fata, from South Waziristan to Bajaur and from Mohmand to the Khyber Agency, have contacted the government through different sources after the Mumbai bombings and have offered a ceasefire if the Pakistan Army also stops its operations.

And as a positive sign that this ceasefire offer may be accepted, the Pakistan Army has, as a first step, declared before the media some notorious militant commanders, including Baitullah Mehsud and Maulvi Fazlullah, as "patriotic" Pakistanis.

These two militant commanders are fighting the Army for the last four years and have invariably been accused of terrorism against Pakistan but the aftermath of the Mumbai carnage has suddenly turned terrorists into patriots.

A top security official told a group of senior journalists on Saturday: "We have no big issues with the militants in Fata. We have only some misunderstandings with Baitullah Mehsud and Fazlullah. These misunderstandings could be removed through dialogue."

Baitullah Mehsud, let’s recall, is the tribal leader accused of masterminding the murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Some "misunderstanding."

Interpreting some earlier statements by Pakistani officials about shifting troops to the eastern border, the Times of India says the following:

Stripped of complexities, Pakistan is conveying the following message to the US: If you don’t get India to back down, Pakistan will stop cooperating with US in the war against terror.

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