ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistan has authorised the use of "all means" to wipe out militants, following a string of humiliating Taliban attacks on security forces, but stopped short of unveiling specific new measures.
Six guerrillas stormed the naval air base in Karachi on Sunday, killing 10 personnel and destroying two US-made aircraft each costing 36 million dollars in an attack that took hundreds of troops 17 hours to quell.
It was the worst siege on a military base since militants besieged the army headquarters in 2009 and heaped humiliation on commanders still reeling from the disclosure that Osama bin Laden was found living under their noses.
Pakistan's main Taliban faction have claimed a string of attacks on the security forces to avenge the Al-Qaeda chief's killing on May 2 in an American special forces raid that apparently unfolded without the military realising.
On May 13, 98 people were killed in a bombing outside a police training centre in the northwest. A week later, the Taliban bombed a US convoy in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing one Pakistani and wounding 11 people.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani convened a meeting of the defence committee of the cabinet on Wednesday to review security measures, attended by cabinet ministers, army, navy, air and intelligence chiefs.
On the same day, nine security personnel were killed and a police station flattened in a massive suicide truck bomb in Peshawar.
Gilani admitted that "serious concerns are being expressed about our ability to deal with the gravity of problems posed due to terrorism".
But a statement issued after the meeting failed to list any specific policies and appeared largely confined to rhetoric.
"Security, defence and law enforcement agencies will be authorised to use all means necessary to eliminate terrorists and militants," it said.
Possibly alluding to ground operations against militants along the Afghan border it added: "All arms of the government will ensure that terrorist hideouts are being destroyed using all appropriate means."
The United States has long put pressure on Pakistan to lead a major air and ground offensive in North Waziristan, the most notorious Taliban and Al-Qaeda bastion used to launch attacks across the border in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has always maintained that any such operation would be of its own time and choosing, arguing that its 140,000 troops committed to the northwest are too overstretched fighting against militants who pose a domestic threat.
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