Pakistani Police Chief: Al Qaeda/Taliban Have Further Developed Bio-Chemical Weapons

Some scary observations and predictions by the head of police in the NorthWest Frontier Provinces in Pakistan are relayed here at the Times of India. The police head has relayed that not only is the coalition of the Taliban and al Qaeda set to attack spots in the Middle East but that they have further developed bio-chemical weapons. Here's some of the details:

The al-Qaida-Taliban combo plans to use parts of the Middle East as launch pads for attacks against the west. Not only so, the groups have also developed some expertise in making bio-chemical weapons, NWFP police chief Malik Navid told a Pakistan National Assembly’s standing committee.

Navid warned that the Pakistan government needed to urgently focus on containing militancy as it spread from its bases. “Taliban’s philosophy is to create pockets everywhere,” he said, adding that jihadi groups were moving through southern Punjab and eventually aimed to reach the financial hub of Karachi.

That second paragraph is what I have been talking about, seemingly endlessly, here for the past few months...that the Taliban have been slowly but surely moving their operations deeper and deeper into the heart of Pakistan. You see, at one point in time, the Taliban was content to just lay low in the NW areas of Pakistan as they would regroup and retrain for operations in Afghanistan. Two things happened that changed that and have given the Taliban the idea that Pakistan is vulnerable and that moving operations into the heart of Pakistan are indeed possible:

1. First off, when the huge influx of al Qaeda fighters hit Pakistan, they carried with them some strategies of terror that they designed for inside of Pakistan and the Taliban saw just how effective those suicide bombers, urban attacks and convoy ambushes were.

2. The second aspect is when the new Pakistani government opted for pandering to the Taliban instead of driving them out of the NWFP - the peace agreement route of reconcilliation cemented the Taliban into the NW areas and gave them even more time and resources to plan a strategy for deep penetration into Pakistan.

I'd have to say that it's a bit disturbing when a Pakistani police chief is alerting the world to new threats by al Qaeda and the Taliban and not some of the top anti-terror people in the world and at the same time, one has to wonder what the life expectancy of this police chief is, now.

'Qaida-Taliban combo has chemical weapon formula'

The al-Qaida-Taliban combo plans to use parts of the Middle East as launch pads for attacks against the west. Not only so, the groups have also developed some expertise in making bio-chemical weapons, NWFP police chief Malik Navid told a Pakistan National Assembly’s standing committee.

Navid warned that the Pakistan government needed to urgently focus on containing militancy as it spread from its bases. “Taliban’s philosophy is to create pockets everywhere,” he said, adding that jihadi groups were moving through southern Punjab and eventually aimed to reach the financial hub of Karachi.

The frank assessment of the police official serves to confirm concerns about whether Pakistan and its military complex in particular was prepared to clearly acknowledge the threat posed by jihadists given the army and ISI see Taliban as allies in ensuring a “friendly” dispensation in Afghanistan while also feeding the jihad in Jammu and Kashmir. The army’s sporadic efforts to roll back jihadis lacked conviction and have predictably shown poor results.

Navid’s testimony also points to the virtual merger of al-Qaida with Taliban, with the latter being both part of the core and the major striking arm. Indian intelligence assessments see anti-India groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba being very much a part of this conglomerate.