The World Today, July 5 - Pakistan to launch peace conference as Taliban insurgency revives

Pakistan's army is finding local Taliban insurgents a more resilient enemy than anticipated and is having to mount new operations in territory it believed it had won a few months ago.

At the same time, the government of prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is responding to public outrage at increasingly frequent Taliban attacks in Pakistan's urban centres by promising to organize a national conference on ways to combat terrorism.

In an unusual display of political unity, the announcement of the conference was made in agreement with the leader of the opposition, Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League.

Nawaz called for the inclusion in the national convention of Taliban leaders “who are ready to talk and ready to listen.”

The plans for the peace convention were announced in response to public outrage over the carefully planned and executed suicide bombing of a Sufi shrine in Pakistan's cultural and political heartland, the city of Lahore, on Thursday in which 42 people were killed.

A similar bi-partisan conference on terrorism was held two years ago, but without a clear conclusion and responsibility for attempting to defeat the insurgency reverted to the military.

This new attempt to take control of the agenda by the civilian politicians and government comes as the military, just like the American-led NATO forces over the border in Afghanistan, is finding the Taliban a dogged and resilient enemy.

Two years ago the Pakistan military launched major offensives against the Taliban, which had taken effective control of large areas of the lawless border regions with Afghanistan in South Waziristan, and, closer to heartland Pakistan, the Swat Valley.

Late last year the military declared victory in these campaigns, but the insurgents have re-infiltrated these territories, which have no effective government administration. The army is now preparing to re-take these regions.

Still largely untouched, however, is North Waziristan which is ruled by the Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, whose fighters are believed to play a major part in the insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan and who is thought to be the main protector of al-Qaida terrorists still hiding in Pakistan. This is Jonathan Manthorpe in Vancouver.