Pakistan not to allow Taliban to re-organize
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Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Thursday said that his government will not allow Taliban to re-organize after the death of their leader Baitullah Mehsood.
"Taliban network has been eliminated after the death of Baitullah Mehsood, and we will not allow them to reorganize," Gilani told a news conference.
Baitullah, the most-wanted Taliban leader to the Pakistani and U.S. authorities, was killed in an American drone strike in South Waziristan on Aug. 5.
Pakistani Taliban have elected Hakimullah Mehsood as new leader a few days after his death and the militants are carrying suicide attacks on security forces across the country.
A suicide bomber Thursday killed at least five persons in the northwestern city of Peshawar near a police check post.
Gilani said that the militants after defeat have now started suicide attacks in the cities, adding that the attacks have stopped foreign investors from coming to Pakistan. He said there is flight of capitals in the wake of suicide attacks.
He said that the security forces have successfully completed operation in South Waziristan and the militants have either been killed or fled the region.
"South Waziristan had been the stronghold of the militants but our forces have rendered great sacrifices to eliminate the militants and to take control of the area," Gilani said.
He rejected the impression that Pakistani forces are fighting on the pressure from the U.S. "It is our own war. It is our own problem," he said.
Gilani said that Pakistan is winning war against the militants with the support of the public.
"We cannot win war without the people's support," he said, adding that the military actions in the Swat valley and Waziristan region had been successful with the people's backing.
