Sally Sara reported this story on Saturday, October 17, 2009 08:03:00

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Another suicide car bombing in the Pakistani city of Peshawar has killed at least 12 people and injured seven.



It's the second attack in as many days and comes as the Pakistani government prepares for a sustained assault on Taliban strongholds.



Our South Asia correspondent Sally Sara is in Islamabad.



I spoke to her a short time ago and asked her whether the Pakistani people were unnerved by the fact that this latest attack happened in an area which is considered to be one of Pakistan's most secure, near an army garrison.



SALLY SARA: That's right, and that's a pattern that we've seen with a lot of the attacks in the past three or four days, is that the militants from the Taliban have been able to hit what they call 'hard targets' - those that are heavily, protective...protected, and also targets which are very iconic.



So being able to hit military and police targets and also areas where civilians are; that's the pattern that we've seen in these attacks which have claimed so many lives over the past few days.



ELIZABETH JACKSON: And this was quite obviously aimed directly at Pakistan's police service. I think three officers were among those killed this time?



SALLY SARA: That's right. But again, unfortunately, when these attacks are happening in busy areas, many of the victims as it was the case with this particular attack, were civilians; women and children in this case, lost their lives; those who happened to be walking past when such powerful explosives were detonated.



In this case police were saying up to 70 kilograms of high-quality explosives was detonated. And if you look at some of the television pictures of this attack a mosque which was nearby, a two story building, part of the wall on the upper floor of that is just completely gone.



So you can imagine the force of those explosives and the effect that that would have on a human body of those people who just were walking past when the blast happened.



ELIZABETH JACKSON: Sally, what's been the reaction? Is the Pakistani Government still claiming that Taliban militancy is still on the back-foot?



SALLY SARA: The Government has been giving some mixed messages; praising the security forces and then in the same breath saying that some members of the security forces simply aren't equipped or experienced to deal with this kind of threat.



The Interior Minister Rehman Malik was talking yesterday and said that it's very important for people in Pakistan to unite in the war against terrorism, but also important for them not to underestimate the Taliban.



So, the Government have really seen that, particularly with these high profile police targets that the militants from the Taliban have been able to attack these high priority, high profile targets seemingly with very little effort at all.



ELIZABETH JACKSON: And of course these latest wave of attacks come as Pakistan's military prepares for what the Government has said is an imminent assault on the Taliban stronghold in South Waziristan.



SALLY SARA: It is partially to do with that. The Government approved this military operation into South Waziristan back in the middle of the year. It hasn't happened yet.



The negotiations between the military and the Government are now drawing closer, and of course in that part of the world near the border with Afghanistan, winter and snow are coming soon so the Government is running out of time for the military to go in there.



So the feeling is that that operation is imminent. More than 90,000 civilians have already fled their homes from that area because their fears are very strong that this operation is about to get underway.



So the Taliban has said to the Government that if you go ahead with this operation in South Waziristan in the heartland of the Taliban, if you target our leadership, we are giving you a taste now of what will happen.



ELIZABETH JACKSON: That's our South Asia correspondent Sally Sara, joining us from Islamabad.