Militants mass near strategic Pakistani city

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Heavily armed Islamic militants have massed on the outskirts of Peshawar, the strategic provincial capital in northwest Pakistan, and the Pakistani government has dramatically stepped up security around the city amid fears that it could fall.

Taliban groups and other extremist warlords now threaten Peshawar from three sides. Should they take over Peshawar, the rest of the North West Frontier Province could follow, leaving Islamic extremists in control of a region that borders Afghanistan and sits astride one of the main supply routes to U.S. and coalition troops there. Weapons for NATO troops pass from the port of Karachi, to the outskirts of Peshawar and through the Khyber Pass to the battlefields of Afghanistan.

Residents of Peshawar, a city of 3 million, have become alarmed at recent developments. Militants have begun entering Peshawar to threaten record shops and other businesses of which they disapprove. Last week, a band of warriors loyal to warlord Mangal Bagh arrived in Peshawar in pickups and kidnapped a group of Christians, whom they released 12 hours later.

The government has deployed a paramilitary force to guard Peshawar's boundaries, sent in police from other provinces and put the army on standby.

The situation in Peshawar, a two-hour drive from the national capital of Islamabad, is challenging the new Pakistani government's controversial policy of pulling back the army and seeking peace deals with the militants. For instance, Swat, a valley in the Frontier Province, was overrun by extremists for several months last year, requiring a full-scale army operation to dislodge them. The provincial government is now considering arming local citizens groups to act as the first line of defense against extremists, one official said.

Baitullah Mehsud, based in South Waziristan in the tribal areas, heads Pakistan's version of Afghanistan's Taliban, with a following of warlords across the tribal belt and in Swat, but some Islamist militants such as Mangal Bagh are independent operators.

Despite its proximity to the capital, Peshawar has always been a world unto itself, and the province, as well as the tribal areas, have been largely forgotten by successive Pakistani governments.

Until now, the people of Peshawar have pretty much liked it that way, providing for themselves or growing rich on the smuggling routes that come with its position as the entrance to the semi-autonomous tribal lands.

The city has also long been a staging area for intrigue.

In the 1980s, the Americans used the city as rear base for the mujahedeen, the Islamic fighters who drove the Soviets from Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden came here in 1985 to help in that effort, and almost exactly 20 years ago, in August 1988, bin Laden held meetings at a house here that gave birth to al-Qaida, according to a new history "The bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century" written by New Yorker writer Steve Coll.

In all of these places, the militants usually develop complex alliances with criminals, first attacking them to win favor with local people, then absorbing their ranks after the criminals grow their hair and their beards to win favor from the Taliban.

Last weekend, 16 Christians were abducted from a house in an upscale section of Peshawar. Unnerving for reasonably tolerant Peshawar was the recent kidnapping of four prostitutes from a house in Hayatabad, the most expensive area of the city, adjacent to Khyber Agency.

Abduction of young boys has also become common in Hayatabad.