Operation Rah-e-Rast (Swat)

[Neo]

Taliban on the run says Pakistan ​

Sunday, May 10, 2009 » 09:21am

Pakistan's military say an offensive in the north has put militants on the back foot.

Pakistan's military said an offensive in the north has put militants on the back foot after a pledge from President Asif Ali Zardari to eliminate the Taliban.

Warplanes pounded rebel hideouts in the Swat valley, an ex-ski resort where up to 15,000 security forces have been deployed under orders to crush extremists in an escalating conflict that has displaced hundreds of thousands.

Together, helicopter gunships and ground forces killed a total of at least 55 militants in various locations in the valley, including 15 in the town of Mingora, the military said.

'They are on the run,' the army said in an earlier statement.

But the statement added that Taliban fighters were 'trying to block the exodus of innocent civilians by preventing their departure through coercion, IEDs (improvised explosive devices), roadblocks with trees and even (making them) hostages'.

Jet fighters and helicopter gunships heavily bombarded militant positions and hideouts in Venai Baba, Namal, Qambar, Peochar, Fiza Ghat, Tiligram and Chamtalai, a senior military official said.

'Large number of militants were killed, including hardcore elements and many militants injured. The operation is in full swing,' the official said.

Meanwhile a suspected US drone fired missiles at a compound used by militants in South Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan, killing up to 10 militants and injuring others, officials said.

The military said Friday an air and ground offensive to crush the Taliban in the northwest killed more than 140 militants.

It was impossible to confirm the death tolls independently, given ongoing operations across three districts which began late last month when the hardline insurgents advanced to within 100 kilometres of Islamabad.

Meanwhile, fresh troops were entering the Malakand district which neighbours Swat valley, a local military official told AFP.

People fleeing the area, however, have accused the military of also killing civilians in the fierce bombardment.

Aftaba Begum, 60, told AFP in Jalala refugee camp near the town of Mardan that she had fractured her leg as shells from helicopter gunships hit Mingora three days ago.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, who is on a state visit to the United States, has pledged to eliminate the Taliban.

'This is an offensive - this is war. If they kill our soldiers, then we do the same,' Zardari told PBS public television Friday during a visit to Washington.

Pressed on whether Pakistan's stated goal of 'eliminating' militants meant killing them, Zardari replied: 'Eliminate means exactly what it means.'

The UN refugee agency has warned up to one million people have been displaced in northwest Pakistan, with tens of thousands streaming out of Buner, Lower Dir and Swat, registering in camps or sheltering with families.

The government has said it was bracing to cope with half a million people displaced by the fighting.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told a press conference after meeting his cabinet on Saturday that the army would minimise civilian casualties while the government would look after those displaced by the conflict.

'It is our resolve and it is the resolve of the armed forces that there should be minimum collateral damage and the operation should be over as soon as possible,' Gilani said.

'The operation will continue till the elimination of extremists.'

Gilani announced the setting up of a 200 million rupee ($A3.31 million) fund for the displaced and said cabinet ministers would donate a month's salary each.

The fighting has sunk a controversial February deal between the government and an Islamist hardliner that aimed to put three million people under sharia law in a bid to end the Taliban uprising.

Critics said the deal emboldened the Taliban and have welcomed the renewed military offensive, which also has broad public support.

 

[waraich66]

We realised our mistakes that is positive sign , now nation should set new targets .
Whole nation should standup againt these jehadi mullahism and political mullahs and wadera and choudary culture.

 

[Neo]

Pak ready to shift troops from Indian border to fight Taliban​

9 May 2009

WASHINGTON: Under pressure from the US, President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday said Pakistan has moved some of its forces and is ready to shift
some more from the Indian border to its western frontier to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida terrorists.

The US has been pressing Pakistan to step up its offensive against the Taliban but Islamabad has been reluctant to move troops from the eastern border as it considers India as its main threat.

US President Barack Obama, who met Zardari here, has been trying to convince Pakistan that such a belief is "misguided" and that the terrorists inside the country pose the most serious threat to its security and safety.

"Let me tell you that we have moved some more (troops) recently because the action asked for it. If need be, we will move more," Zardari told the popular Charlie Rose Show on PBS today when asked about the US request in this regard. Afghan President Hamid Karzai also appeared on the show.

"It was the demand based proposition, when the demand goes up, we shift. Whenever we have to move, we will have to move from that (Indian) border towards this (Afghan border)," Zardari said.

Zardari's comments came after the US said it continues to be concerned over the situation in Pakistan. Washington also voiced skepticism over assurances given by Zardari to Obama on the Taliban issue and made it clear that the country needs to "do more" to meet the threat.

 

[Neo]

Pakistan faces full scale war against the Taliban​

The Pakistani army are readying for an urban battle unprecedented in the short history of its battle against the Taliban

Buner refugees travel by road as they flee fighting between the Pakistan army and the Taliban near Swabi, Pakistan. Photograph: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images​

The skiing season at Malam Jabba, Pakistan's only ski resort, is over. Yesterday the pistes echoed with the sound of explosions as fighter jets screamed overhead, part of the Pakistan military's intensifying campaign to dislodge the Taliban from the Swat Valley.

An hour's drive away in Mingora, the war-racked valley's main town, the Taliban and army are readying for an urban battle unprecedented in the short history of Pakistan's battle against the Taliban.

Pakistan's prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, today said the army was fighting for "the survival of the country", speaking after an emergency cabinet meeting.

The country's leaders, encouraged by the US, launched the full-scale offensive in Swat last week in order to halt the spread of Taliban control which had spread to districts within 60 miles of the capital. The battle has now been taken to the heart of the north-west region of the country which the Taliban has seized as its powerbase, and in particular to the beleaguered, frightened town of Mingora.

This once-bustling riverside community, nestled between orchards and rolling mountains, has become a hub of the dispossessed and the desperate. Since fighting erupted last Tuesday, following the collapse of a fragile peace deal, tens of thousands of frantic residents have fled, scrambling on to buses, cars and even rickshaws. They left behind a ghost city controlled by the Taliban, under siege from army mortar fire and helicopter gunship assaults, and tensed in the expectation of an army ground offensive that could lead to urban warfare reminiscent of Russian bids to clear Grozny, Chechnya, in 1999 and 2000.

At Mingora hospital yesterday embattled medics struggled to tend to dozens of residents injured by army shelling and stray gunfire. Riaz Khan, a 36-year-old teacher, his wife and two daughters occupied four of the beds, suffering shrapnel wounds to the arms and legs. His two other daughters were killed by an army mortar last week, he told an Associated Press reporter.

If, as expected, the army launches a major ground offensive to dislodge the Taliban, casualties are expected to rise on all sides. Yesterday the army said it had killed 55 fighters in clashes over the previous 24 hours. The Taliban have laid mines under bridges and along roads across the city. In some cases, wires trail from the bombs into houses where *fighters, some fresh-faced teenagers, lie in wait.

Others have seized the tallest buildings, mounting rocket launchers on rooftops and taking cover behind water tanks. At the Continental Hotel, a former haunt of the local and foreign journalists, the rooms are occupied by fighters, the walls are pocked with bullet holes and many windows have shattered.

Education has always been a hot issue for the Taliban – last January they ordered the closure of all girls' schools – so it is perversely appropriate that the war is being fought between schools.On Thursday the Observer visited the Pamir building, which until recently housed the Educators School and College. It was filled with Taliban, their weapons trained on a contingent of soldiers located in a deserted school a few streets away.

The target is the last military bastion in the otherwise Taliban-controlled city, and the soldiers hunkered down inside also face fire from a second position: the Mullababa high school, on the far side of a desiccated riverbed. The army says that 15,000 members of the security forces are located in Swat, many under siege in two camps across the river Swat in Kanju village. One is located on the city golf course, where heavy artillery booms from the rutted greens; the other is inside an unused air strip that has been the target of several Taliban assaults.

The Taliban are bringing in fresh fighters, drawing others back from the Buner valley nearby, where they have been engaged in fierce combat for two weeks. To reach Mingora they pass along a mountain road that crosses the White Palace, a luxury hotel where the Queen stayed during a visit to Swat in 1961.

The army has scored some successes. Yesterday the body of Taliban commander Akbar Ali laid unclaimed in no man's land, a day after he was killed. An earlier rocket assault targeted Taliban fighters in a nearby emerald mine a few kilometres from the city. The mine was reopened a few months ago by Sirajuddin, a local commander with a scraggly gray beard whose previous job was as Taliban spokesman. He laid down strict rules – miners would pray at the appointed times, suffer the loss of an arm and a leg if they attempted to steal gemstones, and give one third of their takings to the Beit ul Mal, or Taliban treasury.

The mine provided rich, illicit *pickings. One commander told the Observer he had sold half a million rupees worth of emeralds (£4,200) to a trader, one of about two dozen who came to the mine from Peshawar for a weekly auction. But the Taliban gravy train ground to a halt last Thursday when helicopter gunships pounded the mine, killing 35 militants, the army said.

On the plains to the south of the valley, in Mardan and Swabi districts, a humanitarian nightmare is brewing. More than 200,000 people have fled, another 300,000 are on the move or about to leave, according to the UN, adding to another 550,000 people displaced by earlier fighting in the tribal belt and Frontier province.

As aid workers rush to erect camps, supplies are limited and tempers quickly fray. Yesterday afternoon a riot briefly erupted in Sheikh Shahzad camp, near Mardan, as angry villagers looted UN supplies. Gilani appealed for international help with the ballooning humanitarian crisis that affects up to one million people, according to the UN. He promised the army would strive to end the crisis quickly – an outcome that appeared highly unlikely.

Not everyone has escaped. An unknown number of besieged residents remain trapped, unwilling or unable to leave their homes. Hunkered behind thin walls they survive with no electricity, dwindling water supplies and in fear of stray bombs and gunfire.

Those left behind fear what lies ahead. Reached by phone Khaista Bibi, 55, a resident, said she had hardly eaten in two days. "The situation seems impossible."

 

[Neo]

Pakistan faces full scale war against the Taliban​

The Pakistani army are readying for an urban battle unprecedented in the short history of its battle against the Taliban

Buner refugees travel by road as they flee fighting between the Pakistan army and the Taliban near Swabi, Pakistan. Photograph: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images​

The skiing season at Malam Jabba, Pakistan's only ski resort, is over. Yesterday the pistes echoed with the sound of explosions as fighter jets screamed overhead, part of the Pakistan military's intensifying campaign to dislodge the Taliban from the Swat Valley.

An hour's drive away in Mingora, the war-racked valley's main town, the Taliban and army are readying for an urban battle unprecedented in the short history of Pakistan's battle against the Taliban.

Pakistan's prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, today said the army was fighting for "the survival of the country", speaking after an emergency cabinet meeting.

The country's leaders, encouraged by the US, launched the full-scale offensive in Swat last week in order to halt the spread of Taliban control which had spread to districts within 60 miles of the capital. The battle has now been taken to the heart of the north-west region of the country which the Taliban has seized as its powerbase, and in particular to the beleaguered, frightened town of Mingora.

This once-bustling riverside community, nestled between orchards and rolling mountains, has become a hub of the dispossessed and the desperate. Since fighting erupted last Tuesday, following the collapse of a fragile peace deal, tens of thousands of frantic residents have fled, scrambling on to buses, cars and even rickshaws. They left behind a ghost city controlled by the Taliban, under siege from army mortar fire and helicopter gunship assaults, and tensed in the expectation of an army ground offensive that could lead to urban warfare reminiscent of Russian bids to clear Grozny, Chechnya, in 1999 and 2000.

At Mingora hospital yesterday embattled medics struggled to tend to dozens of residents injured by army shelling and stray gunfire. Riaz Khan, a 36-year-old teacher, his wife and two daughters occupied four of the beds, suffering shrapnel wounds to the arms and legs. His two other daughters were killed by an army mortar last week, he told an Associated Press reporter.

If, as expected, the army launches a major ground offensive to dislodge the Taliban, casualties are expected to rise on all sides. Yesterday the army said it had killed 55 fighters in clashes over the previous 24 hours. The Taliban have laid mines under bridges and along roads across the city. In some cases, wires trail from the bombs into houses where *fighters, some fresh-faced teenagers, lie in wait.

Others have seized the tallest buildings, mounting rocket launchers on rooftops and taking cover behind water tanks. At the Continental Hotel, a former haunt of the local and foreign journalists, the rooms are occupied by fighters, the walls are pocked with bullet holes and many windows have shattered.

Education has always been a hot issue for the Taliban – last January they ordered the closure of all girls' schools – so it is perversely appropriate that the war is being fought between schools.On Thursday the Observer visited the Pamir building, which until recently housed the Educators School and College. It was filled with Taliban, their weapons trained on a contingent of soldiers located in a deserted school a few streets away.

The target is the last military bastion in the otherwise Taliban-controlled city, and the soldiers hunkered down inside also face fire from a second position: the Mullababa high school, on the far side of a desiccated riverbed. The army says that 15,000 members of the security forces are located in Swat, many under siege in two camps across the river Swat in Kanju village. One is located on the city golf course, where heavy artillery booms from the rutted greens; the other is inside an unused air strip that has been the target of several Taliban assaults.

The Taliban are bringing in fresh fighters, drawing others back from the Buner valley nearby, where they have been engaged in fierce combat for two weeks. To reach Mingora they pass along a mountain road that crosses the White Palace, a luxury hotel where the Queen stayed during a visit to Swat in 1961.

The army has scored some successes. Yesterday the body of Taliban commander Akbar Ali laid unclaimed in no man's land, a day after he was killed. An earlier rocket assault targeted Taliban fighters in a nearby emerald mine a few kilometres from the city. The mine was reopened a few months ago by Sirajuddin, a local commander with a scraggly gray beard whose previous job was as Taliban spokesman. He laid down strict rules – miners would pray at the appointed times, suffer the loss of an arm and a leg if they attempted to steal gemstones, and give one third of their takings to the Beit ul Mal, or Taliban treasury.

The mine provided rich, illicit *pickings. One commander told the Observer he had sold half a million rupees worth of emeralds (£4,200) to a trader, one of about two dozen who came to the mine from Peshawar for a weekly auction. But the Taliban gravy train ground to a halt last Thursday when helicopter gunships pounded the mine, killing 35 militants, the army said.

On the plains to the south of the valley, in Mardan and Swabi districts, a humanitarian nightmare is brewing. More than 200,000 people have fled, another 300,000 are on the move or about to leave, according to the UN, adding to another 550,000 people displaced by earlier fighting in the tribal belt and Frontier province.

As aid workers rush to erect camps, supplies are limited and tempers quickly fray. Yesterday afternoon a riot briefly erupted in Sheikh Shahzad camp, near Mardan, as angry villagers looted UN supplies. Gilani appealed for international help with the ballooning humanitarian crisis that affects up to one million people, according to the UN. He promised the army would strive to end the crisis quickly – an outcome that appeared highly unlikely.

Not everyone has escaped. An unknown number of besieged residents remain trapped, unwilling or unable to leave their homes. Hunkered behind thin walls they survive with no electricity, dwindling water supplies and in fear of stray bombs and gunfire.

Those left behind fear what lies ahead. Reached by phone Khaista Bibi, 55, a resident, said she had hardly eaten in two days. "The situation seems impossible."

 

[fatman17]

here is some more ranting from the western press, sitting in their air-con rooms and writing "drivel" without checking the facts on the ground, without even visiting the area to get a "first-hand view"

Army’s ability to defeat Taliban questioned

* Globe and Mail says Pakistan military has been trained and equipped to fight India

Staff Report

TORONTO: Though Pakistan has launched a ‘full-scale’ operation to wrest back the control of Swat from the Taliban, questions remain about whether the army is up to the task of defeating the insurgency, The Globe and Mail reported on Saturday.

While Pakistan has an army of well over half a million men, they have been trained and equipped to fight India, across the plains of the Punjab, not their own people in the mountains of the northwest, the paper said.

Many of the operations in Pakistan have been haltingly pursued and ended with peace deals that left the extremists in charge.

More significant challenges for Pakistan remain even if the army is successful in defeating Taliban in Swat, the paper said, adding that the challenges include how to deal with areas such as South Waziristan where well-entrenched Taliban have safe haven.

While Swat and Buner are the farthest that the insurgents have moved into Pakistan, their base remains the tribal territory, especially South Waziristan where there is no military operation.

If the army will move against the extremists in the Tribal Areas that harbour Afghan insurgents and those who cross the border to fight, the country would face a colossal enemy, the paper said.

The battle for Swat is not a contest over a single valley, it is a war between a democratic government, closely allied to Washington, and a rebel movement intent on imposing its brand of fundamentalism on as much of the country as possible, the paper said.

 

[fatman17]

ASIA PACIFIC
Date Posted: 08-May-2009

Jane's Defence Weekly

Pakistan Army expands Swat operations

Farhan Bokhari JDW Correspondent - Islamabad

Key Points
A peace deal between the Pakistani government and militants in Swat has effectively collapsed

The army is preparing to expand its operations in the Swat valley, where it faces up to 8,000 Taliban fighters


The Pakistani military was preparing to expand its operations against Taliban militants in the northern Swat valley on 7 May: the day after officials said the peace agreement between the government and the Swat Taliban had effectively collapsed.

The army was beginning to broaden its operations beyond a series of skirmishes after the son of the local Taliban leader, Sufi Mohammad, was reported to have been killed in an exchange of fire. Five days earlier, the Pakistani authorities had placed the area under curfew.

The turn of events in Swat - where the pursuit of a controversial peace agreement has given way to a resumption of hostilities - underlined Pakistan's changing stance on the issue.

In the past two weeks, US officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have increasingly pressed Pakistan to deal more aggressively with the militants.

Pakistani officials had previously defended the Swat agreement as an attempt to bring months of violence to a conciliatory end. However, the effort eventually collapsed when the militants refused to disarm in contravention of the peace deal and even though the Pakistani government had conceded to their demands on the implementation of Islamic law.

Western defence officials said the events in Swat could now point the way towards how the Pakistani military will deal with the militancy issue in the days to come.

On 7 May General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army, presided over a meeting of the service's top corps commanders at the army headquarters in Rawalpindi. The meeting prompted speculation that the army commanders were debating operational plans on how best to contain the situation in Swat, especially if there was further escalation.

"In Swat, the terrain supports the Taliban," one Western official told Jane's . "They are fighting in mountainous locations and using guerrilla-type tactics." The army was anticipating a tough battle, he said. However, he added that it would be far more difficult for the Taliban to fight the army if they chose to come down to the plains of the populous Punjab province and the capital, Islamabad. "I know there is a great deal of fear that these Taliban will spread rapidly," he said, "but realistically speaking it is not so simple."

Pakistani officials said the Taliban militants in Swat and the surrounding area numbered between 5,000 and 8,000 but that they had confidence in the country's military.

"We have one of the world's larger armies, which is well equipped to fight," said one. "It is only a matter of time before these people will have to give in."

 

[ajpirzada]

interesting to see karzai referrin to zardari as his brother.....

 

[ajpirzada]

Over 180 militants killed in Swat operation ​

Updated at: 1629 PST, Sunday, May 10, 2009
RAWALPINDI: During last 24 hours, as many as 180-200 miscreants have been killed in various areas of Swat by security forces.

According to the ISPR statement issued here on Sunday, the security forces destroyed the miscreants training camp at Banai Baba where 140-150 miscreants were killed.

Besides, 50-60 miscreants were killed at Kanju, Mingora, Venaibaba, Namal, Qambar, Peochar, Fizagath, Tiligram, Chamtalai.

The ISPR said that indiscriminate mortar firing and planting of IEDs in the streets and roads by the miscreants in the populated areas of village Thana, Malakand and Mingora, resulted into many civilian casualties.

Miscreants also destroyed two schools at Barikot and Maniar while Zahid Khan, Imam Masjid at Nishat Chowk mosque was murdered by the miscreants.

One soldier embraced Shahadat during the operation for the safety of the hills in Shangla.

Over 180 militants killed in Swat operation - GEO.tv

 

[ajpirzada]

Ulema declare attack on forces, desecrating corpses ‘Ghair Sharai’ ​

Updated at: 1527 PST, Sunday, May 10, 2009
RAWALPINDI: Markazi Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan president, Shahibzada Fazal Karim has declared suicide attack, attack on security forces and hanging the corpses by tree in the name of sharia were un-Islamic and ‘Ghair sharai’ (not compliant with the sharia).

Addressing Istehkam Pakistan Convention here, Shahibzada Fazal Karim said that Taliban pursuing the American agenda blemishing the name of Pakistan at international level, which would not result favourably for Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

Allama Hyder Alvi on this occasion said that the military operation was a ‘jehad’. He said Sufi Muhammad was the rebel of the constitution and shriat and deserved punishment for sedition.
Ulema declare attack on forces, desecrating corpses ‘Ghair Sharai’ - GEO.tv

 

[IceCold]

interesting to see karzai referrin to zardari as his brother.....

Actually he's right in saying so after all just see who's agenda Mr.Zardari is following, definitely not of Pakistan.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

According to the ISPR statement issued here on Sunday, the security forces destroyed the
miscreants training camp at Banai Baba where 140-150 miscreants were killed.

Besides, 50-60 miscreants were killed at Kanju, Mingora, Venaibaba, Namal, Qambar, Peochar, Fizagath, Tiligram, Chamtalai.

180 in one day!!

The Taliban can't continue to sustain these kinds of losses ... a shift towards a more classical insurgency is bound to occur soon.

Awful news on the militants causing civilian casualties through IED's and mortar attacks on populated areas, but I imagine that is precisely their aim, to generate outrage amongst Pakistanis over civilian casualties and use that to pressure the GoP into ending the operation.

 

[ajpirzada]

according to Fox news, 140 were killed in Shangla while 40-50 in swat on sunday.
Al Jazera has reported that army is waitin for civillians to leave the area before boots are brought in. rit now their supply lines have been blocked and talibans are fightin in small groups. also army has appealed to swat ppl to declare war on talibans.

 

[fatman17]

Pak ready to shift troops from Indian border to fight Taliban​

9 May 2009

WASHINGTON: Under pressure from the US, President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday said Pakistan has moved some of its forces and is ready to shift
some more from the Indian border to its western frontier to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida terrorists.

The US has been pressing Pakistan to step up its offensive against the Taliban but Islamabad has been reluctant to move troops from the eastern border as it considers India as its main threat.

US President Barack Obama, who met Zardari here, has been trying to convince Pakistan that such a belief is "misguided" and that the terrorists inside the country pose the most serious threat to its security and safety.

"Let me tell you that we have moved some more (troops) recently because the action asked for it. If need be, we will move more," Zardari told the popular Charlie Rose Show on PBS today when asked about the US request in this regard. Afghan President Hamid Karzai also appeared on the show.

"It was the demand based proposition, when the demand goes up, we shift. Whenever we have to move, we will have to move from that (Indian) border towards this (Afghan border)," Zardari said.

Zardari's comments came after the US said it continues to be concerned over the situation in Pakistan. Washington also voiced skepticism over assurances given by Zardari to Obama on the Taliban issue and made it clear that the country needs to "do more" to meet the threat.

there is no need to shift troops from the eastern border - there is a corp HQ at quetta and a corps HQ at peshawar - further there is corp reserves HQ. potentially that is more than 100,000 troops plus the 70,000 para-miitary FC/elite Police units are also available.troops are being mobilised as per the deployment plan of operation Rah Haq II.

one piece of advise to posters - please avoid sensationalism - this only adds fuel to the fire.

a full scale war is taking place - its not going to end over-night - this requires patience and complete support of the govt., media and most importantly the people of Pakistan.

SUPPORT OUR ARMY JAWANS IN THEIR BATTLE FOR PAKISTAN

 

[Rajkumar]

its good to see that army seems very effective against Taliban but question is. will army able to hold for long enough the affected area to make sure Taliban don't come again?
once this will finish, gorilla war will start and holding will increase the death toll.