There remains grave danger that Pakistan will fall apart. A friend who is from Pakistan, and is a Canadian jurist now, has said he dares not return to his hometown for fear if being attacked. He described the situation in Pakistan as untenable.
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/story.html?id=2090665&s=Home
Augustine Anthony, Reuters
Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan -- Pakistani army commandos surrounded an office building in Rawalpindi on Sunday where suspected Taliban militants who attacked army headquarters were holding up to 15 hostages.
The brazen attack on the tightly guarded headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Saturday came as the military prepared a major offensive against the militants in their northwestern stronghold of South Waziristan on the Afghan border.
The strike at the heart of the powerful military is likely to revive fears for nuclear-armed Pakistan's stability at a time when the United States needs its help in the campaign against an intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan.
Gunmen wearing army uniforms attacked the army headquarters on Saturday killing six soldiers in a gun battle at a main gate of the sprawling complex.
Four of the gunmen were killed and two of their wounded colleagues were captured, security officials said. But four or five gunmen fled and took hostages in a security agency office building near the headquarters.
"Commandos have taken up positions and are waiting for the go-ahead orders," a security official, who declined to be identified, said on Sunday.
Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said plans were being drawn up to save as many of the hostages as possible.
"We're facing an extraordinary situation. It's a very difficult hostage situation," Abbas told Geo television.
Pakistani Taliban militants linked to al Qaeda have launched numerous attacks in Pakistan over the past couple of years, most aimed at the government and security forces, including bomb attacks in Rawalpindi.
James Morton
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