A suicide bomber killed 13 people
near Pakistan’s army headquarters a day after Taliban militants
said they’d join talks with the government to end more than a
decade of violence in the nuclear-armed country.
The dead included seven civilians and six soldiers,
according to a military official who asked not to be identified
because he’s not authorized to speak publicly. Taliban militants
killed 20 troops yesterday in the northwestern town of Bannu,
prompting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to cancel a visit to the
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The Taliban attacks on army personnel, which Dawn Newspaper reported was to avenge the deaths of leaders killed by U.S. drone strikes, may add pressure on Sharif to order a military operation against the Pakistani Taliban. Sharif won an election last year after pledging to start peace talks with the loose coalition of militant groups operating along the border with Afghanistan known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
“The army will definitely be pressed to take action against these people,” retired General Talat Masood, a defense analyst, said by phone from Islamabad. “I doubt talks will move anywhere.”
Nearly two dozen people were also injured in today’s bomb attack, including children heading to school, Pakistan’s Dawn TV reported, citing an unidentified police official.
Plans to start negotiations with the TTP have stalled since September, when Sharif received backing from political and military leaders to approach militants for talks. Soon after, Taliban fighters assassinated a major-general and killed 81 Christians in a suicide bomb attack at a Peshawar church.
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