Attack threat up since joining war on terror: Pakistan

Pakistan lacked the resources to halt infiltration by members of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban and their al Qaida allies across the porous, mountainous border in Baluchistan province, they said.

"Pakistan's decision to join the international anti-terror coalition has given militants a solid reason to fight against us," Ashraf Nasir, chief secretary of Baluchistan, told reporters.

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"They have zero tolerance level. They are hardened fighters. It has added a new dimension to the law and order challenges."

Baluchistan, which shares a 720-mile-long border with Afghanistan, has seen a spate of violence in recent months, including a suicide attack on a mosque in its provincial capital, Quetta, in July that killed more than 50 people.

Nasir said such attacks were a new phenomenon in Baluchistan where there had been a new wave of what he called illegal Afghan immigrants since the beginning of the war on terror after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

There had also been a steep rise in crime such as vehicle snatching, highway robbery and murder, he said.

Pakistan estimates more than a million Afghan refugees live in Baluchistan province, while about the same number are in North West Frontier Province, that also borders Afghanistan.

There had also been an increase in drug smuggling as Afghanistan expects a bumper opium poppy crop this season, he said. Opium is refined into heroin.

"Narcotics money has a direct link with terrorism," Nasir said.

Afghan authorities have alleged that the Taliban were using Pakistani soil to regroup and launch attacks back into Afghanistan, a charge vehemently denied by Pakistan.

Shoaib Suddle, inspector general of Baluchistan provincial police, denied the presence of militant training camps in Baluchistan.

"We would also like to know where they exist? We will immediately go and arrest them," he said.

While officials do not deny the presence of low-level Taliban members in Pakistan, Suddle said no senior Taliban officials were allowed to stay.