Extremist Encroachment
The NWFP is swiftly crystallizing at the core of the Islamist militant mobilisation in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region even as radical Islamists rapidly expand their presence across Pakistan's other provinces.
KANCHAN LAKSHMAN
Even as Pakistan was reeling under the impact of the violence and disorders in Karachi, in which at least 45 persons were killed, a suicide-bomber hit the Marhaba Hotel in Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), killing 25. No official determination has been made so far regarding the group responsible for the fidayeen attack, although the provincial Law Minister Malik Zafar Azam indicated that it could have been an act of retaliation for the killing of the senior Taliban 'commander' Mullah Dadullah two days earlier in Afghanistan. Most of those killed were Afghans, including the restaurant's owner Sadruddin and his two sons, Uzbeks of Afghan origin related to the anti-Taliban leader General Abdul Rasheed Dostum. A message inscribed in Pashto on the bomber's legs warned that "those spying for America would face the same consequences."............
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