Pakistan has been rocked by 14 bomb blasts that have killed more than 80 people in urban areas since it launched a determined air and ground assault against the Taliban in pockets of the northwest at the end of April.
The military said on Saturday that troops had regained control of the main town of Mingora in Swat valley from the Taliban, in what is being touted as a significant milestone in the month-long ongoing offensive.
But the rebels, who Washington fears threaten Pakistan´s very existence, are striking back in cities like the regional capital Peshawar, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Mingora and previously shielded from major attacks.
"They are taking this war to the cities, hoping to build up enough pressure on the government to halt the military activity," security analyst Hasan Askari told AFP.
"The Taliban challenge now threatens routine life and commercial activity in cities... allied extremist groups are facilitating their agenda," he added.
Attackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, analysts say, executing commando-style assaults armed with suicide vests, vehicle bombs, guns, grenades and rockets.
Over the last two weeks in Peshawar, bombs have exploded outside a cinema, near crowded electronics shops, at a police checkpoint and even alongside a bus full of children with special needs.
And in Lahore, Pakistan´s entertainment capital, a bomb, gun and grenade assault killed 24 people and partially damaged the provincial headquarters of the country´s premier spy agency on Wednesday.
It was the third spectacular assault in and around the eastern city -- hundreds of miles from the offensive in the northwest -- in as many months.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) militant group claimed responsibility, telling people in a statement they should get out of the cities because there will be more violence to come.
Newspaper columnist Shafqat Mehmood said the Taliban, who want to enforce sharia law, are becoming more and more desperate in the face of the military onslaught in the northwest, which the army says has claimed 1,200 rebels.
"Militants are under pressure and will employ any tactic to cause maximum damage. Urban terrorism is one of those tactics," said Mehmood.
While the government could do more to protect key targets, he said, underfunded and overstretched security forces can only do so much.
"It is difficult to patrol markets and streets," he added.
"Our province is facing a war-like situation," the police chief of North West Frontier Province, Malik Naved Khan, told AFP.
"We have 9,000 police. In a big city like Peshawar, this is not enough to deal with situations like the one we´re facing," said Khan.
Northwest expert Rahimullah Yusufzai said the Taliban were increasingly focused on civilian targets as widespread public opinion turns -- for the first time -- in favour of Pakistan´s military operation.
The offensive already has the firm backing of Washington, which says Al-Qaeda and Taliban have carved out safe havens in the northwestern areas bordering Afghanistan to plot terror attacks on the West.
"The Taliban have jacked up attacks targeting civilians as they have failed to target security forces," Yusufzai said.
Echoing Hasan Askari, he added the Taliban will likely have willing allies from a catalogue of banned radical groups that traditionally have battled India in Kashmir.
These include Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Yusufzai said, an extremist element linked to Al-Qaeda, and Lashkar-e-Taiba, accused of carrying out the Mumbai attacks last year that left 166 dead.
"These extremist outfits and TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban) have a relationship that runs in their blood. They are natural allies who lived and fought together."
Alarmingly, the government in Islamabad had no particular strategy to prevent attacks on cities, Yusufzai said, warning he did not see an end to the urban bloodshed any time soon.
"I don´t think the situation can be brought under control quickly because it has roots in (the tribal areas of) Waziristan and Bajaur, and what is happening in those two regions is linked to the Taliban in Afghanistan," he said.
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