Pakistan Army HQ Assaulted, Hostages Taken (Update: Seige Ends In Assault)

By Steve Hynd

The big news out of AfPak today is the assault by gunmen in military uniforms on Pakistan's Army headquarters in Rawalpindi, a city covered in security checkpoints. Armed with assault weapons and hand grenades, a group of attackers has killed at least six - including two senior officers, a brigadier and a lieutenant colonel - and taken hostages inside the complex. Reports vary but as many as twelve hostages were originally taken, apparently including other senior officers. Six hostages have since been released. According to Pakistani media, the TTP (Pakistani Taliban) have claimed responsibility.

It's a massive embarassment for the military and its elite allies in government. Significantly, they reacetd much as Musharraf did during the lawyer's protests - by supressing the media, temporarily shutting down two TV stations which have taken critical positions about the government in the past.

TIME magazine's Omar Waraich writes that the attack, like others recently, is retaliation-in-advance for the well telegraphed coming assault on TTP positions in South Waziristan.

In perhaps its toughest challenge yet, the Pakistan Army is gearing up, after much reluctance, for a ground offensive in South Waziristan to target what remains of Baitullah Mehsud's group, over five thousand well-armed central Asian fighters known for their brutality, and Arab fighters belonging to al-Qaeda. From their eastern patch of South Waziristan, the militants have authored close to 250 suicide attacks across Pakistan in the last two and a half years, and trained other militants who have spread the Pakistani Taliban's brutality across the northwest.

Pakistanis will have to be braced for the fallout. At the moment, after a largely successful sweep of the Taliban who dominated the Swat Valley in the northwest, army morale is cresting. Revulsion against the militants' brutality has also sent anti-militant sentiment to an all-time high. But it remains to be seen whether that resolve will hold up in the face of expected troop losses and further bombing attacks across the northwest and in major cities; security is now being beefed up outside government buildings, western targets, and civilian areas. There is also the fear that by moving against the militants in one area, they may simply relocate to others. Nor does the army have the luxury of fighting on a single front: battles continue in pockets in Swat and across the tribal areas.

U.S. observers shouldn't take too much comfort from the way in which Pakistan seems to be getting serious about it's own militant problem. It's just a "seems". The military and politicians are staying well clear of militants in the Punjab, where Jane's Intelligence Review estimated a few years back that there may be as many as 20,000 Taliban-trained gunmen in Karachi alone. Nor are they going after Taliban who are involved in fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan. They've already told leaders of such groups in South Waziristan that their peace accords are safe.

Update: The Pakistani army's seige of its own headquarters is over. Three hostages were killed and another 22 rescued as army commandos assaulted the security office where militants were holding them.