Terror groups seek to bring down Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Pakistan's recent militant attacks show the terror groups that once enjoyed official support now are turning against the state, officials and analysts say.

The attacks have been targeting security installations, including those on Thursday in Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city and the capital of the prosperous Punjab province, in which more than 30 people died as the militants attacked two police training centers and the Federal Investigating Agency. On the same day, a police station was attacked in Kohat in the northwest, killing eight people.

The nature of these attacks showed the Taliban, al-Qaida and other Jihadi groups in the Punjab province are firming up their alliance, analysts told The New York Times, warning this unity has made the militant threat to the state more ominous than ever.

The report said the Punjabi terror groups, which until recently were seen as allies in the fight against the country's enemies, have now turned on the state while aligned with the Taliban and al-Qaida.

"These are all Punjabi groups with a link to South Waziristan," Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, a former interior minister, told The Times.

Pakistani officials, who say the Taliban and al-Qaida are holed up in the South Waziristan tribal region, are preparing for a ground assault against these groups.

In describing the new threat, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said a "syndicate" of militant groups wants to see "Pakistan as a failed state," The Times said.

Hasan Askari-Rizvi, a military expert in Lahore, told the British newspaper The Guardian that boundaries among different extremist groups are becoming blurred.

"They are working together to challenge the Pakistani state. They want the war to be fought in the cities rather than allowing the state to take it to Waziristan," he said.