Violence Ratcheting Up In Pakistan

The kettle is getting hotter....this is extremely worrisome (via TNR):

Today, months of escalating tensions between Ghazi's self-described mujahideen and Musharraf's security forces finally broke out into fierce street battles that, as of this evening, had left nine people dead. Just before noon, while police were setting up a roadblock near Lal Masjid, male and female madrassa students attacked the police officers, who fired tear gas in response. Before long, the Taliban, wearing ammunition vests, holding Kalashnikovs, and sporting gasmasks, emerged from the mosque's Pepto-Bismol pink walls. Some took up positions behind sandbag bunkers, while others brazenly walked around in the streets.