Pak violence raises poll fears

Bombings, attacks kill scores

ISLAMABAD, Dec 24, (AFP): A surge of violence in northwest Pakistan culminating in the assassination of a senior provincial minister has raised fears of a renewed Taleban campaign that could threaten national elections, analysts say.

The province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the adjacent Federally-Administered Tribal Areas, which border Afghanistan, are on the frontline of the country’s battle against Islamist militancy and are no strangers to violence.

But the past week has seen a noticeable rise in bloodshed, with more than 40 people killed in near-daily attacks. These culminated in Saturday’s suicide bombing at a meeting of the Awami National Party (ANP) in Peshawar, the province’s main city.

The blast, which killed nine including provincial number two Bashir Bilour, was claimed by the Pakistani Taleban, who said the minister was targeted in revenge for the death of one of the movement’s “elders”.

The surge of violence began on Dec 15 with a spectacular commando-style Taleban attack on Peshawar airport and also featured a car bomb near a local government office in Khyber tribal district that killed 21 people. “The spate of attacks in recent days indicates the Taleban are on a major onslaught to destabilise the country and create chaos to shake people’s faith in the state apparatus,” political analyst and author Hasan Askari told AFP. “It’s part of their broader agenda to undermine the credibility of government and prove that the state apparatus is crumbling.”

For the Taleban, killing a high-profile and outspoken critic such as Bilour has a double effect, Askari said: silencing an experienced and fearless adversary and striking fear into those who might think of following in his footsteps.

The coalition government led by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) — which also includes the ANP — will complete its five-year term in March and insists elections will be held on time.

But no date has yet been announced for polls and there are rumours the ballot could be postponed if the security situation is deemed too precarious. Retired Lieutenant General Talat Masood, a security and political analyst, said the Taleban were stepping up their assaults on political and military targets precisely to create this kind of anarchy.

“They will try to disrupt elections because they can flourish when the state is weak — there is a political vacuum and then people lose confidence in the government,” he told AFP.

If elections go ahead successfully it will be the first time in Pakistan’s turbulent history that an elected civilian government has completed a five-year term.