Pakistan foils three suspected terror plots in two days

Meanwhile, on Monday, police claimed to have foiled a separate terror plot and arrested six alleged suicide bombers in Sargodha, 100 miles west of Lahore. According to The News, an English-language Pakistani daily, the suspects belong to the Taliban movement in the Punjab province and were carrying suicide jackets and weapons.

And on Sunday, police in Panjgur, a town along Pakistan's border with Iran in the Balochistan province, also claimed to have foiled a major terrorist attack. According to The Daily Times, a Pakistani newspaper, police "seized two vehicles carrying 2,000 kilograms of explosives" and told reporters "this was the largest quantity of explosives ever seized in the area."

Also on Sunday, three people were killed and 15 injured in a suicide bombing prompted by militant infighting in the northwestern city of Peshawar, reports Dawn, a leading Pakistani daily.

Recently, the death of Mr. Mehsud, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, and subsequent confusion over his succession, had left some optimistic that the militant alliance would fall apart. The Globe and Mail reports:

The Taliban in Pakistan is in danger of crumbling, say analysts and local tribesmen, as a wave of defections, surrenders, arrests and bloody infighting has severely weakened a movement that until recently had appeared to pose an existential threat to Pakistan.

The sense of confusion was compounded over the weekend when yet another militant, Hakimullah Mehsud, claimed the leadership of the Tehrek-e-Taliban Pakistan. According to The Christian Science Monitor, "the announcement points to increasing factionalism within the group and adds to uncertainty as to who's actually calling the shots."

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