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Peshawar: The Taliban are no longer at the gates of Peshawar, they're inside, throwing their weight around in Pakistan's largest city in the north-west.
Their brazen presence is a chilling demonstration of the political and military failure to resist a militant Islamist tide rolling in from the Pashtun tribal belt on the Afghan border.
"This speaks of a complete lack of control by the government over the situation," said Mehmood Shah, a former tribal region security chief. "That's why people are feeling insecure."
President Pervez Musharraf, the West's ally in the war on terrorism, warned more than two years ago that Talibanisation, the spread of the militants' puritanical culture, was the greatest threat Pakistan faced.
But his policies of containment have failed against an enemy that fights an asymmetric war, and the new government formed last March after the electoral defeat of pro-Musharraf parties, has inherited a rapidly deteriorating situation.
"We have virtually been besieged by these militants," a worried security official said. "If they are not stopped, they will take over Peshawar."
Bomb attacks were more frequent in Peshawar than any other city, although the militants spread their targets to the rest of Pakistan during a suicide bomb campaign last year.
Peace deals sought
The attacks tailed off in recent months, probably due to the new government's policy of seeking peace deals.
Earlier this week, Taliban fighters killed close to 30 tribesmen who had been part of the peace process in South Waziristan.
These days Taliban fighters arrive in broad daylight on the back of pick-up trucks, brandishing automatic weapons, and threatening owners of music stores to close down.
"They had long hair and flowing beards, and were carrying Kalashnikovs. They told me to close down the shop or face the consequences," said Abdul Latif, whose video store received a visit from the vigilantes last week.
Even a hardline Muslim cleric known for his past support for the Taliban has rung alarm bells.
"It's just a matter of months before the entire province slips out of control," Fazl-ur-Rehman, head of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam and member of the ruling coalition, warned.
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