Waziristan bloodbath (emphasis added) next?

Or a semi-shrouded message to specific or ancillary factions to lay low or pull back?

Or a showpiece, transitory operation which will peter out as before?

And little to no mention anywhere of bustling Quetta (see again here and additional citations), where criminally-geared and terror-affiliated segments (that is to say, directly relevant to and revolving around operations in Afghanistan rather than the more local sovereignty movement or breakaway factions) yet plainly exist and operate visibly and with near impunity.

The high-profile convention of clerics in the Pakistani capital was the second in three days to condemn suicide attacks and beheadings, two of the Taliban’s favored tactics, as “haram,” or contrary to Islam.

Both conventions also supported the Pakistani military offensive against Taliban in Swat and two adjoining districts, although almost all the clerics share the militants’ goal of establishing Islamic law in Pakistan.

[snip]

The shift, coupled with intense pressure from Washington and a more sober assessment of the threat posed by the militants, appears to have roused the government of President Asif Ali Zardari.

Zardari has said that Pakistan would extend its military offensive to Waziristan, the area along the Afghan border that’s a base for Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, and also for al Qaida. That would trigger a major conflict, in which the support of the clergy could be vital.

[snip]

A deeply religious people, Pakistanis tend to take guidance from senior clerics, and their previous ambivalence and confusion about Islamic extremism rose in part from the clergy’s silence or from denials that Muslims could have perpetrated acts of violence against civilians.

At the two religious conventions, however, there was even criticism of the Pakistani military’s past patronage of jihadist groups.

“We are now harvesting the crop we sowed three decades ago,” Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman told a lively convention of some 4,000 clerics on Sunday, referring to the policy of backing Afghan “mujahedeen” guerrillas in the 1980s under U.S.-backed dictator Gen. Zia-ul-Haq.

[snip]

Sunday’s meeting was organized by clerics from the Barelvi sect, the dominant Islamic school in South Asia, a Sunni creed that preaches a tolerant brand of religion but whose voice is often drowned out by firebrands from more radical sects.

Tuesday’s conference was sponsored by the government and involved broader participation, including from Shiites, Pakistan’s other main Islamic denomination, and even some clerics from the Deobandi school, a branch of the Taliban that preaches a purist Islam akin to the Wahabi [sic] faith of Osama bin Laden.

While the majority of Pakistanis are Barelvi, the Deobandis run most of the madrassas — Islamic schools — that churn out religious scholars and foot soldiers for the Taliban and other extreme religious groups. Source

One meanwhile fervently hopes that there is strong and constant backchannel pressure coming from the U.S., the U.K., Russia and China, directed at India to put all and any moves regarding Kashmir, with the exception of negotiations, totally on ice for the duration.