North Waziristan offensive: Conflicting reports cloud military operation

[Inception-06]

South India??

BTW, nice to meet a Pakistani who considers Kashmiris as Indian Civilians and Kashmir as much a part of India as NW is of Pakistan

bla bla burn in hell you idiot ! Lets see what the future will bring !

 

[karan.1970]

bla bla burn in hell you idiot ! Lets see what the future will bring !

Yeah!! Lets

North Waziristan cauldron - DAWN.COM

IT was not the first time a Pakistani military post was attacked and our soldiers were killed by militants in North Waziristan. But the retaliation by the troops to last week’s ambush in Mirali that reportedly killed five soldiers was indeed swift and fierce. Heavy fighting involving artillery fire and helicopter gunships left dozens of alleged militants killed.

That was not entirely unexpected from an army constantly under insurgent attack and with an escalating number of casualties. The incident reflected the growing frustration in the military command over the prolonged indecision of the national leadership on how to deal with militant sanctuaries in the region presenting the biggest threat to internal security.

There has been a marked increase in the frequency of IED attacks in recent days as the government begs the militants for peace. The new army chief’s tough warning that terrorist attacks would not be tolerated anymore indicates that patience is running out.

But such punitive action in the absence of a clear counterinsurgency strategy has its downside too. The relentless artillery pounding of terrorist hideouts located amidst civilian population centres carries the risk of collateral damage. It is therefore not surprising that the offensive may have cost some civilian deaths as alleged by some political parties. The fierce fighting also forced many to flee their homes evoking angry protests feeding into the militants’ narrative against military action.

What is more worrisome, however, is the intriguing silence of the political leadership on the brazen militant attacks and the military reaction. This ambivalence virtually de-legitimises the army’s action against the attackers. Instead, there is ever-stronger rhetoric about talks with the Taliban and the army’s withdrawal from the tribal areas.

This apologetic stance adds to the militant propaganda campaign. In fact some political parties such as the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and other right-wing groups echo the militant version of events in North Waziristan adding to the prevalent confusion over the gravity of the terrorist threat.

The latest surge in attacks on Pakistani forces in North Waziristan appears to be a calculated move by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan to bring a weak-kneed national leadership under further pressure. Reports emanating from the region suggest that the TTP is preparing to launch a new wave of terrorist strikes against security forces in North Waziristan. The group has warned the tribesmen to leave their homes. Mullah Fazlullah, the new TTP chief, who is now believed to have shifted his base from across the border in Afghanistan’s Kunar province to North Waziristan, has vowed to escalate attacks on the Pakistan Army.

While the TTP plans to engage security forces in new guerilla warfare, the national leadership does not seem to have a clear strategy to respond to this threat. Last week, the top civil and military leadership approved a much-delayed draft of a new national security policy. But there’s a long way to go before it is implemented.

Although its contours are not clear, officials claim the proposed policy provides a comprehensive strategy to deal with militancy and terrorism. The policy awaits cabinet approval. It is still to be seen how effective this will prove.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the new policy assigns top priority to dialogue with the TTP and the use of force would be the last option. There is certainly no disagreement on peace talks with the TTP or any other group. But the main issue is whether the militants are interested in constructive dialogue and will give up violence.

It is not the first time that peace offers have been made by the government. In fact, more than half a dozen peace deals were signed with militants in the past. None of them have worked — the peace accords were used by militants to regroup and expand their activities.

One such deal which is not effective anymore was reached in North Waziristan with local tribesmen in 2006. Thus the arguments by the PML-N government and political leaders like Imran Khan that peace has never been given a chance are flawed. It is also not true that the peace deals were broken because of US drone strikes.

The government seems to be stuck on the dialogue mantra despite its repeated rejection by Mullah Fazlullah and leaders of other TTP factions. Dismissing the concept of peace talks immediately after the government’s announcement of using force as a last resort, Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the TTP, warned that the insurgents were ready for battle.

How long will the government keep begging for talks while the TTP keeps blowing up our soldiers with IEDs and killing innocent people? What is most dangerous is the narrative adopted by some political leaders that talks were the only option. It does not only breed inaction, it also legitimises militant violence.

There is a total consensus among security officials that North Waziristan has become the epicentre of militancy threatening national as well as regional security. Almost all major terrorist attacks in Pakistan in recent times have roots in the region. There is no way Pakistan can effectively fight terrorism without eliminating the militant training camps based there.

The rapidly deteriorating security situation in North Waziristan presents a defining challenge for the country’s new civilian and military leadership. Failing to confront this effectively will have serious consequences not just for Pakistan’s national security, but for regional peace as well.

 

[Marwat Khan Lodhi]

There is always more to the story shown to the public that is all i can say at this point.
One needs to visit the effeced area and get better idea on ground realities.
Before making such allegation media should try to get evidence, Political representives of the govt should raise the issue in nA and senate. We are a democratic country better start acting like one.


One wonders what were truck drivers doing in that hot zone that is everything but economic zone.....
Talking about shops and hotels then some of them are actually made as a shelter to the militants.....

Nah man, the truck drivers killed by pak army were from lakki marwat, my home district. You want evidence? funerals of killed ones have returned to lakki marwat, guess what none of them were militants. If you dont believe me then go and meet each family of deceased ones. What exactly happend was that beside madly bombing markets and houses, they lined up 23 people in the hotel and shot them like that leaked video of swat. Now collateral damage was always happening in north waziristan due to pak army shellings and mortars but it was never in dozens in one incident. The bold revenge action of pak army has alarmed wazirs and this time they have decided to protest.
You claim to be a fauji but dont know that north waziristan is not exactly sealed as warzone, it has civilian population, bazaar , markets and hotels function when there is no curfew. Just because faujis have locked themeselves in camps, doesnt mean the wazirs and pashtuns of neighbouring districts are shivering and paralyzed due to fear.

 

[root]

You can't trust Tribals...

 

[cleverrider]

What exactly happend was that beside madly bombing markets and houses, they lined up 23 people in the hotel and shot them like that leaked video of swat.
.

Why would they do this? mistaken identity? out of anger? to make a point? make people scared?

 

[Irfan Baloch]

What exactly happend was that beside madly bombing markets and houses, they lined up 23 people in the hotel and shot them like that leaked video of swat.
.

do you know what the Prophet PBUH says about those who spread stories without evidence or confirmation?

I let you off and asume that its right, if it is then well done Pakistan army, kill the terrorists and kill those who shelter them and support them

how's that?

 

[batmannow]

do you know what the Prophet PBUH says about those who spread stories without evidence or confirmation?

I let you off and asume that its right, if it is then well done Pakistan army, kill the terrorists and kill those who shelter them and support them

how's that?

should hve done that 3 years ago?
all this fake cries, been sung by those who are supporting the TTp terrorists just rule a province in pakistan?
mainly PTI, JI , JUI fazlu are doing the dam prapoganda in fear that they will be the target of the terrorists?
because thats why they been allowed to win, by terrorists?

 

[Amaa'n]

Nah man, the truck drivers killed by pak army were from lakki marwat, my home district. You want evidence? funerals of killed ones have returned to lakki marwat, guess what none of them were militants. If you dont believe me then go and meet each family of deceased ones. What exactly happend was that beside madly bombing markets and houses, they lined up 23 people in the hotel and shot them like that leaked video of swat. Now collateral damage was always happening in north waziristan due to pak army shellings and mortars but it was never in dozens in one incident. The bold revenge action of pak army has alarmed wazirs and this time they have decided to protest.

my dear - I never called what shared with us over here a bluff, i believe you, all I am saying to other fellows over here was to stop being an internet warrior and stand along the people. Posting pictures and leaked videos is not going to get us anywhere. They have representatives in Senate & NA, raise their voice over there. holding military accountable in front of the Govt is what real democracy is.
if it was collateral damage, military will & should own it, if it was war crime then culprits will be & should be punished.
All I said and saying is do the right thing by doing it the right way.

You claim to be a fauji but dont know that north waziristan is not exactly sealed as warzone, it has civilian population, bazaar , markets and hotels function when there is no curfew. Just because faujis have locked themeselves in camps, doesnt mean the wazirs and pashtuns of neighbouring districts are shivering and paralyzed due to fear.

ahem ahem !!, i never claimed to be a fauji - idk what gave you the impression, it is a different thing that i have worked and lived along them in most the volatile areas of the country - excluding FATA & KPK.
just to get experience and to get better understanding of life of a truck driver, I have traveled along with the truck drivers from islamabad to karachi numerous time, wore clothes like them, walked like them, ate like them - that is what i am, i have done and do things, just to get better understanding of ground level realities.
coming back to our main question -
I never said it is a war zone - what I said was it is a hot zone, with militants residing in their.
It has markets, and selling foreign made stuff - but all that is smuggled and no taxes are paid to GoP, so technically it does not have its part in economy of Pakistan. hence it not an economical zone.
might be helping locals by selling stuff to the militants but not to GoP.
most of the truck drivers are involved in Nato supply vehicles.
now tell me if i have said anything wrong.

@Pakone - keeping our differences aside - let me know if you are anywhere near islamabad - will surely meet you - would love to have a talk over a cup of hot kashmiri chai -

 

[Devil Soul]

North Waziristan appears close to full-blown conflict
ISMAIL KHAN

Government officials put the total number of local militant groups operating in North Waziristan, including the Haqqani network, at 43. — File photo
Published 2013-12-26 06:59:35
GUNS have fallen silent in Mirali — a bustling town 35km to the east of North Waziristan’s regional headquarters of Miramshah, but now with rows of burnt down and bombed shops and houses.

The sudden flare-up and military’s fierce response to a suicide bombing at one of its main camps in Khajori on Dec 18 have shown that the situation in North Waziristan remains volatile, dangerously close to a full-blown conflict.

That the peace process would be illusive was known to all but what many people fail to understand is just how complex it would be, given the large number of militant groups with different agendas and goals.

A ceasefire has now been in effect. But the question is for how long. The military is edgy. For far too long, they say, they sat out there, taking casualties.

Since September, they say, a total of 67 improvised explosives devices were planted to harm them; 40 were neutralised, 27 exploded, resulting in deaths and injuries to about a hundred of their men.

Since 2009, compared with other tribal regions, the casualty rate the military has suffered is the highest in North Waziristan and eleven times the casualties they have taken in South Waziristan. Patience has worn out.

“The question is for how long,” asked one military officer. “It’s better to go out and die fighting them than take casualties sitting inside our camps.”

In Mirali the fighting has stopped but the situation remains fluid. The military, despite its furious response, says it is committed to the political leadership’s plan to initiate peace dialogue with militants in Waziristan.

Commitment notwithstanding, no-one in the know is willing to put his bottom dollar on the success of the yet-to-start peace process. Such is the complexity of the situation. There are so many groups and with so varied objectives that no matter whom the government speaks to sue peace, any of the groups not happy with the process can light a match to burn down the entire process. Consider what happened on December 18. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) posted an English translation of its statement on the Jamia Hafsa Urdu Forum on Tuesday, saying that the military responded with air and ground attack after a group of “frustrated fighters” had bombed a military convoy.

In the event, it said, fighters from the IMU, the TTP and Ansarul Mujahideen hit back to ‘defend civilians’.

Two IMU fighters were killed and 22 foreign “refugees” wounded. It put the civilian casualty figures at 70. The military, the IMU said, had suffered more than 300 casualties.

The military rubbishes the claim and insists that not a single soldier was killed or injured in the follow-up action which, it says, left more than 30 foreign militants dead, most of them Uzbeks.

This is what Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his pointman for the peace process in North Waziristan, Chaudhry Nisar, will have to grapple with: a plethora of militant groups ever keen to attack security forces and an increasingly edgy military. And they may not have much time at hand.

No-one seems to be in control in North Waziristan. Together with the military and the paramilitary, the political administration is confined to the fort in Miramshah. With curfew clamped, the military moves only on what is called the Road Opening Days, suffering roadside bombings and ambushes.

As for the militant groups, they are many. Government officials put the total number of local militant groups operating in North Waziristan, including the Haqqani network, at 43. Dattakhel-based Hafiz Gul Bahadar has the highest number of groups affiliated with him — 15, followed by 10 independent groups. There are six TTP-affiliated groups. The Punjabi Taliban have four groups.

In addition, there are 12 foreign militant groups, including Al Qaeda.

With a combined strength of roughly 11,000 fighting men, the Pakistani and foreign militant groups represent a formidable challenge, officials acknowledge.

Given the enormity and complexity of the problem, the lack of trust between the militants and the state and prevalent scepticism within the civil-military establishment regarding success and sustainability of the proposed peace process, the path to peace, if and when taken, would not be easy.

 

[waz]

So it was the Uzbeks...The cat is finally out of the bag.

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) posted an English translation of its statement on the Jamia Hafsa Urdu Forum on Tuesday, saying that the military responded with air and ground attack after a group of “frustrated fighters” had bombed a military convoy.

 

[FaujHistorian]

While offensive in Wazirastan is inevitable,

Our politicians must realize that source of the poison exists right in Islamabad madhouse madrassahs.

If we are ready to burn down terrorists dens in Wazirastan,

We must do the same to the mosques and mardrassahs in Islu, Pindi, Lahore and karachi.


Oh while we are at it.


We should be ready to hang Mullah Munwaard of Jahliyya fil Islam (JI) who just recently declared mardood chor Mehsood as terrorists.


We the Pakistanis are sick and tired of these Mullahs and Ayatyllahs who continue to support anti-Pakistan stance all in the name of their so-called Islam,.

We are sick and tired of these beardo weirdos.


Time to burn down the terrorists dens

Time to shoot the terrorists and their supports.

Otherwise we will remain in the civil war for a long time to come