Since then, Zarqawi has been killed by US forces, Iraq has receded as a haven for the Al Qaeda, and Baitullah has come into his own as a terrorist leader in newly unstable Pakistan. Last month a council of militant leaders from the tribal agencies and neighbouring areas named Baitullah the head of the newly formed Taliban Movement in Pakistan, a loose alliance of jihadist organisations in the tribal agencies.

One of Baitullah’s biggest successes came in August, when his men captured more than 250 Pakistani soldiers and paramilitary troops, who surrendered without firing a shot. Mehsud demanded the release of 30 jailed militants and the end of Pakistani military operations in the Mehsud tribal area as the price for the men’s release. To show he meant business, he ordered the beheading of three of his hostages. Once again, Musharraf gave in. On the day after Musharraf declared a state of emergency — which he claimed was aimed at giving him a stronger hand to fight militants like Baitullah — the Pakistani president released 25 jailed insurgents including several failed suicide bombers. Last week Mehsud’s forces captured four more Pakistani paramilitary troops in several brazen operations that may have led to the death of 25 of his men.

In his few statements to the press, Baitullah has made his agenda frighteningly clear. He vowed, in a January 2007 interview, to continue waging a jihad against “the infidel forces of American and Britain,” and to “continue our struggle until foreign troops are thrown out” of neighbouring Afghanistan. From his secure corner of Pakistan — a country run by a widely despised autocrat who, after Bhutto, has few real democratic successors — Baitullah may well wage that fight for a long time to come.

... contd.