Pak to discuss home-grown strategy againt terror

STICKY SITUATION: Zardari and his team aim to devise a homegrown counter-terror strategy.

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Islamabad: Serial blasts struck Pakistan barely hours before it's first ever joint parliamentary session on terror.

Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari and his team are now hard pressed for a home-grown strategy against terror.

A series of explosions in Lahore just hours before Zardari gears up to tell Pak's lawmakers that the war on terror is not about America, but Pakistan itself.

This message was already made loud and clear by a spate of suicide bombings, attacks on the army and Pakistani leadership in the recent months.

September 20: Eight people were killed in a suicide attack on a military convoy in Miranshah

September 20: The massive suicide attack on Marriot hotel in Islamabad left 60 dead.

October 2: Four people were killed in an attack on Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali Khan.

October 6: Suicide blast targeting PML-N leader killed 20.

October 7: On Tuesday, 3 explosions rocked Lahore, injuring 5.

This spurt of violence is the Taliban's retaliation to major army offensives in Bajaur and Swat regions.

Reports of the Afghan Taliban severing its links with the al Qaeda may act as a breather, but on this side of the border, it may not have much bearing.

Defence analysts believe the Taliban is out to displace the Pakistani state and have consolidated territorial control in Fata and NWFP..

While the Taliban challenge intensifies, US attacks inside Pakistan, which Zardari hinted had the consent of Islamabad, are increasing resentment among locals.

On Wednesday, Zardari and his team aim to devise a homegrown counter-terror strategy. The briefing will also be an indication if US' long-time ally in the war on terror can deal with the mess in its own backyard.

The briefing by newly appointed ISI chief Lieutenant General Shuja Pasha will take place later this evening. It is being seen as the first move by President Zardari to change public perception that the war on terror is America's war .. he says it is Pakistan's war and the nation should take ownership of it and fight it.

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