TALIBAN FIGHTERS fleeing a military offensive in northern Pakistan are regrouping in Punjab, where they pose a growing threat to the country’s most populous state, senior diplomats and officials have warned.
Officials believe Punjab, the political and economic nerve centre of Pakistan and home to two-thirds of the country’s population, has become a fertile recruiting ground for extremists.
“South Punjab is ready to pop,” said a senior western diplomat in Islamabad, outlining concerns about a Taliban exodus from the Swat Valley, a once popular tourist destination in the north.
The diplomat said militants were taking refuge in mosques and madrassa religious schools in the area. Officials fear that Taliban fighters may find common cause with groups such as Laskhar-e-Taiba, accused of carrying out last year’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Over the past year, Lahore, the province’s capital, has suffered two high-profile attacks; one against the Sri Lankan cricket team, the other on a police academy.
One security official said the Talibanisation of Punjab posed a greater threat than that from Swat, where the army fought militants through a frontal military campaign this year. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009)