Pakistani Taliban promise more violence

KARACHI, Pakistan – The Pakistani Taliban threatened more violence Monday after a five-hour assault on the nation’s busiest airport killed 29 people – including all 10 attackers – raising a new challenge for a U.S. ally trying to end years of fighting that has claimed thousands of lives.

With recently started peace efforts stalled, the cautious government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif may be dragged closer to a decision on whether to take on the militants in earnest across a country with a long history of ambiguity when it comes to dealing with militancy.

A further weakening of stability in the nuclear power whose tribal regions are already a hotbed of foment could ripple to neighboring Afghanistan as international combat forces prepare to withdraw from that country.

“Everywhere is a threat,” warned Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. “Every area is a target, every building is a potential target.”

Such an attack in Karachi, Pakistan’s business center, likely will discourage foreign investment at a time when its economy is struggling.

The Taliban said the assault on the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, was in revenge for the November killing of the militant group’s leader in a U.S. drone strike.

In a telephone call to the Associated Press, the group’s spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid, warned that “such attacks will continue until there is a permanent cease-fire.”

The attack began late Sunday when 10 gunmen, some disguised as policemen, stormed into a section of the sprawling airport where a terminal for VIP flights and cargo is located. They opened fire with machine guns and rocket launchers, sparking a battle with security forces that lasted until about dawn.

During the battle, airport operations were suspended and all incoming flights were diverted. It reopened Monday afternoon.

Shahid, the spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan – as the Pakistani Taliban are known – said the attack was to avenge the death of Hakimullah Mehsud, the Taliban chief who was killed in an American drone strike in November 2013.

Mehsud’s death was the last major killing of a militant commander under the controversial drone program. The AP reported in May that the program largely has wound down over Pakistan, and there hasn’t been a drone strike in the country since December.

The claim further diminished prospects for a resumption of peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban that officials had hoped could bring an end to the group’s yearslong campaign seeking to overthrow the government.

Sharif’s government has advocated a policy of trying to negotiate with militants to end the insurgency, but the talks have floundered recently. The Taliban called off a cease-fire they had declared during the negotiations. Since then, Pakistani troops have hit hideouts with airstrikes in the troubled northwestern region, killing dozens of suspected militants.

But Samina Ahmed, senior adviser for South Asia from the International Crisis Group, said part of the problem is that Pakistan doesn’t have a clear policy on dealing with the militancy.

“There is already a military operation,” she said, referring to the airstrikes. “But that operation is reactive and tactical. It’s not strategic, and it’s not sustained.”