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04/17/2006:

"Coming soon? The Taliban’s new country"

Last Monday, the Taliban offered Islamabad peace — from within Pakistani territory. From Waziristan, a mountainous tribal area on the Afghanistan border that’s just a bit bigger than Tripura but that has become the epicentre of the USA’s War on Terror. It’s also become another war against the Pakistani state from within, joining Balochistan, Gilgit, and Karachi.

And despite Islamabad having sent six divisions of the Pakistan army — pulling several from the India border and equipping them with helicopter gunships, jet fighters and heavy artillery — to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda, Waziristan continues to slip out of its grasp. Another six months, say government sources in New Delhi, and the war in Waziristan would have a momentum of its own. “Azad Qabaili” (Free Tribals) would become a reality, and the Taliban would have found a new country of their own.
hindustantimes.com