At least 69 dead and dozens of wounded. It's the toll from three suicide attacks, launched during the week-end by extremists linked to Taliban in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Attacks meant to retaliate the army blitz against the Red Mosque in Islamabad.

Three attacks in two days. Twenty-four soldiers were killed Saturday morning near Miranshah, in the tribal region of North Waziristan, when a car bomb exploded near a military convoy.

Sunday morning, in the Swat Valley, district on the North West border (Nwfp), an army column was hit by four explosions triggered by two hidden roadside devices and two car bombs: thirteen soldiers were killed. Moreover, the explosions have destroyed the nearby houses and killed 6 civilians.

Few hours later, in the city of Dera Ismail Khan, a suicide bomber blew himself up among hundreds of would-be policemen lining up in front of a recruiting center set up in the city stadium: at least 26 were dead.

The end of the ceasefire. Premonitory signals of this bloody wave of attacks were more than evident.

Few days ago the North Waziristan-based council of tribal leaders, tied to the Talibans, foretold the end of the truce signed with the Pakistan Government last September, calling people for Holy War against the central Government to retaliate the bloodbath of the Red Mosque. The decision was confirmed on Saturday by Abdullah Farad, the spokeperson of the Wazire Taliban militants.

At the same time, in the North West border district, Maulana Fazalullah, leader of Tehreek e-Nafaz e-Shariat e-Mohammadi (Tnsm), a Taliban-linked movement, marshaled his militias ordering the roadblock in the Valley.

“Musharraf is paying for his mistakes”, Ahmed Rashid said. “All the Taliban-style extremist movements in the country are concentrated in the pashtun tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, where there are also Pakistani and foreign armed militants tied to Al-Qaeda” declared to PeaceReporter Ahmed Rashid, a well-known Pakistani journalist and worldwide expert of Taliban and radical islamic groups.

“The majority of the hundreds of students killed or wounded during the Red Mosque siege came from there: in those areas there are now thousands of people, family, friends or partners looking for revenge.”

“In dealing with the crisis of the Red Mosque crisis Musharraf did everything wrong - Rashid pointed out - he ignored the problem for months, when it was still possible to solve it peacefully, and let the crisis grow till he found himself in a dead-end street. Eventually, he did not have any other choice but to use military action, which now comes back to trouble him.”