Baitullah Mehsud, a former fighter with the Taliban, said his main desire was to fight US-led coalition and NATO forces in Afghanistan. He entered into a peace deal with the Pakistani government in 2005, agreeing not to attack Pakistani forces, as long as he could continue his jihad across the border.

But under increasing pressure from the US, and acting on a tip from American intelligence, Pakistani authorities sent helicopters to strike at a presumed hideout of his followers on January 6, killing eight people. Mehsud vowed revenge, and several of the recent suicide bombings are believed to be in retaliation.

General Pervez Musharraf vowed at a February 2 news conference to go after Mehsud. But the governor of North-West Frontier Province, Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai, preferred to send a delegation of elders to talk to him. The militant commander later denied any involvement, but the bombings slowed.

A security official said other leads pointed more to another militant group, Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi aimed at setting up Shariah, or Islamic law, which is active in the tribal areas north of Peshawar. The movement was almost certainly behind the suicide bombing that killed 44 military cadets in November in Dargai, in retaliation for an airstrike against a religious school run by one of its members in the tribal area of Bajaur.

A girls’ high school in Mardan was recently warned that the girls should veil themselves or stay home, a tactic typical of groups like Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi. Four English language schools closed for four days last month after the police learned of another possible threat.

... contd.