Pakistan's Interier Minister Rehman Malik said Thursday that attempts to kidnap ambassadors and bombblast plots were foiled in Islamabad He made clear that security in Islamabad, already tightened, must be improved even more, saying efforts were under way to recruit an additional 20,000 police to protect the city.His announcement at a ceremony for slain policemen came a day after Pakistan ordered its army to go after the country's top Taliban commander, a feared al-Qaida-allied militant whose remote stronghold could prove a difficult test for troops but whose demise would remove a major threat to the country's stability. The announcement was made on Sunday, of the operation in South Waziristan, rumored for weeks, came hours after a suspected U.S. missile strike killed five alleged militants there. The move will likely please Washington, which wants Pakistan to eliminate safe havens for militants leaving Afghanistan and which considers South Waziristan a particularly troublesome hide-out for Al-Qaida. Pakistan has seen a series of attacks including five suicide bombings this month since the Taliban threatened to retaliate for an offensive against militants in the northwest Swat Valley. Malik indicated it could have been worse.”I am proud of you that, essentially for the last six months, there have been a number of suicide bomb attempts, there have been a number of abduction attempts, you have frustrated them,” he told police. Malik also said Islamabad police recently arrested an unspecified number of suspects “who had plans to kidnap diplomats, and they had also selected some places for bomb attacks.” He did not elaborate, but said the investigation yielded arrests across the country. Owais Ghani, governor of North West Frontier Province, said that the government felt it had no choice but to use force against Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and his network. Past army action in the region had usually faltered or ended in truces, strengthening the militants. “Baitullah Mehsud is the root cause of all evils,” Ghani said, noting the slew of suicide bombings.
