Pakistan: Taliban agree to talks

then demand release of:

Maulana Abdul Aziz, a prayer leader of the radical Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad, Mullah Obaidullah, a former minister of defense under Taliban rule in Afghanistan and Muslim Dost, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner now in Inter-Services Intelligence detention.

in exchange for safe return of 250 security personnel held in custody. The Taliban were eager to talk.

"This demand was given from Baitullah Mehsud's camp as soon as Islamabad proposed dialogue," a source affiliated with the Shura of Mujahideen in the North Waziristan tribal area told Asia Times Online. Mehsud is a leading Pakistani Taliban figure. Gillani has vowed to eradicate militancy from the country through dialogue.

And about the skeezebag Mehsud:

All of the captives are in the custody of Mehsud's men. The hardline al-Qaeda-linked Mehsud, who is wanted in connection with the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto and other suicide attacks in Pakistan, is believed to no longer be in the tribal areas; his only possible hideout could be in Afghanistan, from where he is thought to be sending messages through his local contacts and tribal intermediaries.

Islamabad's dilemma:

The government in Islamabad is now in the unenviable position of having to decide between giving in to the Pakistani Taliban's demands and releasing some of its most-wanted detainees, or submitting to inevitable war.

The real bite of it all (for the Pakistan government):

One of the most compelling reasons for the PPP not to comply with the demands of the militants - even at the cost of a war with them - is financial. Special secretary at the Ministry of Finance Ashfaq Hassan Khan recently revealed that the US did not release the promised funds for Pakistan's expenditures in the "war on terror" last year and as a result Pakistan was forced to take loans from local banks worth US$5.6 billion. Should Pakistan now bow to the militants' demands it will surely be seen in Washington as reneging on its "war on terror" commitments, which could mean further money being withheld - as much as $1.25 billion a quarter.

They're politicians. What do you think they will do?
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