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Operation Zarb-e-Azb | Updates, News & Discussions.

I wouldn't be surprised if most of it or part of it is true,they probably failed with heavy counter fire while trying to take over, the truth is probably somewhere in between. Pak Mil establishment is very good at covering things up, even other major attacks such as in Karma/ Mehran etc. were heavily covered up and most likely had internal security breaches, they had key intel only someone from the inside can provide. I am not surpised and I am sure most of Pak's Army, Navy and AF bases and key command nodes are breached to some extent.
 
Militancy
  • On October 27, Pakistani gunship helicopters killed 33 militants in separate strikes in the Datta Khel and Gharlamai areas of North Waziristan. Local security officials claim the strike in Datta Khel killed both Uzbek militants and other militants belonging to the Haqqani Network.[1]
  • On October 26, unidentified Pakistan officials stated that there is evidence that the TTP has set up sanctuaries across the border in Afghanistan to accommodate militants fleeing from North Waziristan.[2]
  • On October 25, leading elders from the Mehsud tribe of South Waziristan decided to mediate between the Mehsud faction, formerly of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), headed by Khan Said Sajna, and the government. The decision was taken at a meeting in the city of Tank, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with the consent of the Mehsud faction and the government. According to a Mehsud elder, an 11-member tribal jirga will attempt to evolve a formula for reconciliation after holding talks with both sides. The Mehsud faction reportedly split from the TTP just before the launch of the military offensive in North Waziristan, Operation Zarb-e-Azb.[3]
  • On October 25, the Mehsud Taliban faction’s spokesman, Azam Tariq, declared that the U.S. State Department’s recent decision to designate Khan Said Sajna as a global terrorist signifies the recognition of the group’s jihad against Jews and Christians. He was also reportedly proud of bounties being offered for the group’s leaders.[4]
  • On October 25, Azam Tariq condemned the failed October 23 suicide attack on Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman and denied his faction’s links to the attack. He added that his group did not support the targeting of innocent people, mosques and religious clerics. He also declared that his faction was a separate group that did not have any links with the Fazlullah-led TTP.[5]
  • According to a report in The News on October 25, militant group Jundallah claimed responsibility for the Quetta suicide attack on Maulana Fazlur Rehman. According to Jundallah spokesman Ahmed Marwat, Rehman was targeted because of his pro-democracy views and for speaking and acting against the group. According to a confidential letter by the Sindh Home Department, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto also faces threats to his life from Jundallah.[6]
  • On October 25, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter jets killed at least 18 militants and destroyed a cache of arms and munitions in an airstrike in the Shalobar and Nala areas of Bara sub-district, Khyber Agency. Those killed included an important commander of Lashkar-e-Islam. Airstrikes in the Shalobar area targeted Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants and the airstrike in Nala targeted Laskhar-e-Islam (LI) militants. Artillery and mortar fire supported the air strikes.[7]
  • On October 25, unidentified gunmen kidnapped a Levies soldier in the Shalobar area of Bara sub-district in Khyber Agency.[8]
  • On October 26, militants blew up a girl’s primary school in Kakim Khan Keley village, Aka Khel area, Bara sub-district, Khyber Agency.[9]
  • On October 26, security forces arrested four Afghan Taliban members along the Zhob to Dera Ismail Khan Road near Zhob district, Balochistan. The Afghan Taliban members were reportedly injured and heading to Peshawar for medical treatment.[10]
  • On October 26, police killed nine militants, including members of the Punjabi Taliban, in a firefight after surrounding a militant compound in Mian Jokhio Goth near Razzaqabad oil terminal, Steel Town, Karachi. Over half a dozen militants, including the TTP’s Sindh Chapter leader, Irshadullah Waziri, escaped the encounter. Police stated that the militants had been involved in several terrorist attacks in Karachi, including the failed Karachi Central Prison jailbreak attempt. The Karachi police chief, Abdul Qadir Thebo stated that one of the militants killed is believed to have been the TTP’s leader in the Sohrab Goth area of Karachi. The Police additionally stated that the militants had been plotting to conduct terrorist attacks during the Shia holy month of Muharramul Haram.[11]
  • On October 25, intelligence personnel arrested a suspect and seized a cache of arms and explosives, thwarting a militant plot in the Kanak area of Mastung district, Balochistan. An unidentified security official told Dawn that the arms and explosives had been intended for use in attacks to be carried out in Quetta during the holy month of Muharram.[12]
  • On October 24, security forces conducted raids in Pashtunabad, Klli Kamalo, Killi Qambrani, Killi Geo and Sariab areas of Quetta and detained 24 suspects in connection with attacks on the JUI-F chief, Hazara Shia community members and Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle in Quetta.[13]
  • On October 27, an improvised explosive device (IED) injured seven Frontier Corps personnel and two Levies force personnel in Charmang sub-district, Bajaur Agency.[14]

I wouldn't be surprised if most of it or part of it is true,they probably failed with heavy counter fire while trying to take over, the truth is probably somewhere in between. Pak Mil establishment is very good at covering things up, even other major attacks such as in Karma/ Mehran etc. were heavily covered up and most likely had internal security breaches, they had key intel only someone from the inside can provide. I am not surpised and I am sure most of Pak's Army, Navy and AF bases and key command nodes are breached to some extent.

right.....u seem to have the pulse of the situation in your hand.
 
Opinion
‘Splitist’ policies
Owen Bennett-Jones
Tuesday, October 28, 2014


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Earlier this year, when the government was talking to the Taliban, the argument used to justify the dialogue went like this: ‘If we can split the Taliban, then it will mean it is much easier for the army to deal with the remaining irreconcilables.’

And, for once, everything seems to have gone according to plan. Khalid Mehsud, formerly the TTP South Waziristan chief, took the money. With copious quantities of ‘compensation’ funds, he marched out of the TTP describing it as a criminal cartel killing innocent people. Makes you wonder why he joined up in the first place.

His decision to break away left the army in a much stronger position to win back control of North Waziristan. Fazlullah, exposed to be incapable of keeping the Taliban united, was distracted by the need to tackle internal divisions. And as he did so Pakistan enjoyed a period of relative quiet in the big cities.

And yet some Pakistanis have watched these developments with a raised eyebrow. As they are all too well aware, there is a history of the Pakistani state failing to crush its enemies but instead trying to weaken them by a policy of creating splits.

How much easier, the official thinking goes, to get our opponents to fight each other rather than doing the job ourselves. How much better to use guile and cunning to achieve our objectives rather than brute force.

The most of obvious example comes from the 1990s in Karachi. Faced with the growing power of the MQM, the state sponsored a breakaway rival faction, MQM Haqiqi. As intended, the Haqiqis went about their given task of confronting their former comrades with force.

But there was, in fact, a price to be paid for the policy. All those weapons supplied to the Haqiqis only made the situation for Karachiites even worse as the violence in the city became ever more intense. And of course the state didn’t go as far as to allow the Haqiqis to entirely destroy the MQM. After all, the calculation went, Altaf Hussain might come in handy one day.

Take another example: Kashmir. At first the ISI backed the JKLF seeing it as a way of putting pressure on India. But when Pakistan’s securicrats realised that the JKLF was in fact struggling not for union with Pakistan but for Kashmiri independence, the ISI went in for a bit of splitism. Within a few years there was an alphabet soup of Kashmiri militant outfits, some under direct state sponsorship and others being supported through various proxies.

As in Karachi, there was a price – and not just for the Kashmiris who had to put up with violence all around them. True, the insurgency became more focused on union with Pakistan. But at the same time many militant leaders took their eye off the Indian security forces and started fighting each other. In theory the various groups’ shared opposition to Indian rule in Kashmir should have united them. In practice their need – or at least their desire – to secure official Pakistani support undermined their cause.

It is a pattern that has been repeated in other spheres of Pakistani life. Sectarian groups have found their efforts to kill those they object to confused by their desire to secure official backing and the funds that come with it. It’s happened in mainstream politics too: remember the PML-N and PML-Q.

Breakaway factions can disappear into relative obscurity – as MQM Haqiqi and the JKLF have done. But some – such as Harakat al Ansar – can end up having a life of their own.

Divide and rule is a time-honoured method of governance, once much loved by the British. And it does have its advantages. It is perhaps too easy to overlook the times when the policy works. After all in recent months the Pakistani Army has managed to win back control of North Waziristan. This time last year many Pakistanis believed that would never happen. Creating the split in the Waziri Taliban, it turns out, was an effective piece of statecraft.

But that is not the whole story. The reliance on splits also exposes an underlying state weakness. By effectively paying part of the Taliban not to fight, the state not only rewarded one of its enemies but also allowed would be militants to conclude that if they want to make serious money the best way to do it is to become such a problem that the government will pay you to go away.

The splitist policy in the tribal areas sent a signal that, by force alone, the state is incapable of enforcing its writ. Indeed with Khalid Mehsud likely to be given a very free hand in the parts of South Waziristan he controls, the army might end up giving up some of its recent hard-won gains there. So, the short-term gains may lead to some some longer-term losses.

And looking further ahead, history suggests that splits lead to factions which will at some point use the state patronage they enjoy to pursue their own objectives and not those of Pakistan as a whole. And then, no doubt, they will be helped by the state’s tendency to take a distinctly indulgent approach towards errant allies. And all the while the state will have failed to do the one thing that it needs to do above all else: establish rule of law.

The writer is a freelance British journalist, one of the hosts of BBC’s Newshour and the author of the new political thriller, Target Britain.

Twitter: @OwenBennettJone

Email: bennettjones@hotmail.com
 
if what they say is true, why didnt they do things they were claiming...

Ah you know. Angels didn't come against the materialistic might of the infidel Pakistan Army. Still they got "martyred" as if trying to harm your country, gets you that title.
 
Militancy
  • On October 28, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials arrested four suspects from the Malir and Tariq road areas of Karachi for alleged involvement in the Karachi airport attack on June 8 that killed 37 people. According to officials, the suspects belong to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and al Qaeda.[1]
  • On October 28, Pakistani gunship helicopters destroyed several militant hideouts in the Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency.[2]
  • On October 28, unidentified gunmen killed a former anti-Taliban militia member in the village of Sher Palam in Swat, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.[3]
 
As per news coming in.
During ongoing OP ZeA, In Khyber agency more then 15 militants have been killed. During encounter three Soldiers martyred while 4 others sustained injuries. Unconfirmed reports says that one son of militant commander Mangal Bagh might also been killed. Terrorists killed in encounter may cross 35 mark.
 
Drone Strike
  • On October 30, a U.S. drone strike killed seven militants in Nargas village of the Birmal area in Azam Warsak sub-district of South Waziristan Agency. According to military sources, a top Haqqani commander named Abdullah Haqqani and four foreign fighters were among those killed. A Reuters report claims that a senior Arab commander was one of the foreign fighters. The drone strike also destroyed a vehicle loaded with arms and ammunition. Meanwhile, Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam condemned the drone strike for violating Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.[1]
Militancy
  • On October 29, security forces killed 21 suspected militants and injured several others in a clearance operation in the Spin Qamar area of Bara sub-district in Khyber Agency. This operation was reportedly part of the second phase of a new offensive in Khyber named Operation Khyber II. Further, eight soldiers were reportedly killed and four soldiers injured in clashes with militants. Local sources claim that a son of Mangal Bagh, the chief of Lashkar-e-Islam militant group, was also killed in the clashes. According to National disaster officials, the fighting in Khyber has forced more than 18,000 people to flee from the area.[2]
  • On October 30, Frontier Corps (FC) personnel seized about 4,000 kilograms of explosive materials and other weapons during a search operation in Gulistan sub-district, Qila Abdullah district, Balochistan, reportedly foiling a major terror attempt. An Afghan national named Mohammed Aslam was also arrested. According to FC officials, Muharram processions in Quetta were possibly the intended targets of militants. Meanwhile, Balochistan’s Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti accused India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) of creating unrest in the province.[3]
  • On October 30, unknown men fired at a Rangers’ vehicle, killing one personnel and injuring another, in Nawa Lane of Lyari, Karachi.[4]
  • On October 30, an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated in the Shalkot area of Quetta while a security forces’ vehicle was crossing through the area. No casualties were reported.[5]
 
Militancy
  • On October 28, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials arrested four suspects from the Malir and Tariq road areas of Karachi for alleged involvement in the Karachi airport attack on June 8 that killed 37 people. According to officials, the suspects belong to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and al Qaeda.[1]
  • On October 28, Pakistani gunship helicopters destroyed several militant hideouts in the Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency.[2]
  • On October 28, unidentified gunmen killed a former anti-Taliban militia member in the village of Sher Palam in Swat, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.[3]
we need to take out the Taliban informants in the areas of operation
 
What's the situation in bajaur? Are we starting an operation there? Can't recall where I heard this but what I heard is TTP have escaped to Bajaur among other places.
 
Drone Strikes
  • In an update on the U.S. drone strike reported on October 30, a New York Times report claims that four of the militants killed were foreign fighters including two from Saudi Arabia, one from Yemen and one from Sudan. However, a local Taliban commander also reportedly claimed that those killed and injured in the attack were Arabs and fighters belonging to the Ahmadzai Wazir Taliban.[1]
Militancy
  • On October 30, Pakistani Air Force fighter jets killed 20 militants and destroyed five militant hideouts in the Akakhel and Tirah areas of Khyber Agency as a part of the ongoing military offensive, Operation Khyber. [2]
  • On October 31, police forces reportedly killed three Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants in an encounter in the Sohrab Goth area of Karachi. According to a police official, a suicide bomber and the leader of TTP Karachi chapter named Sultan were among those killed.[3]
  • On October 30, a Frontier Corps convoy narrowly missed a blast from an improvised explosive device (IED) on Link Road in the Hazarganji area, Quetta. No one was injured in the blast.[4]
  • On October 30, Canadian police arrested a Pakistani resident of Ontario who, they alleged, has ties to militants in Pakistan and possesses an arsenal of firearms. According to Canadian officials, the suspect had expressed extremist views on Twitter.[5]
Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations
  • On October 31, Pakistani security forces handed over to Afghan authorities 29 Afghan nationals who had been arrested by Pakistan security forces during military offensive Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan.[6]

What's the situation in bajaur? Are we starting an operation there? Can't recall where I heard this but what I heard is TTP have escaped to Bajaur among other places.

its possible but unlikely as there is a battalion HQ in bajaur.
 
Top spy agencies told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that Pakistan has lost 49,000 lives since the apocalyptic attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon in the United States on September 11, 2001. Interestingly, government agencies had put the fatality figure at 40,000 in earlier reports.

More than 24,000 people – both civilians and troops – were killed in terrorist attacks during the period between 2001 and 2008. The last five years have proved costlier, in human terms. Another 25,000-plus people died during military offensives against Taliban insurgents in the restive tribal regions since 2008, the attorney for the intelligence agencies told the court in a report.

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The apex court was hearing a petition challenging the constitutional status of the Action in Aid of Civil Powers Regulations (AACPR) 2011 which relates to deployment of armed forces to help the civil administration restore law and order.

The petition was filed by former Jamaat-i-Islami senator Professor Ibrahim through his counsel Ghulam Nabi. The petitioner has accused the army of violating human rights in the provincially administered tribal areas (PATA).

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According to the report, the armed forces have suffered 15,681 casualties while fighting Taliban militants in the tribal areas since 2008 – with 2009 being the deadliest year for them.

The court was informed that the armed forces were called in aid of the civil administration as the law enforcers, including the police, were unable to tackle the challenge in most of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

As many as 5,152 civilians have been killed and 5,678 injured in bomb blasts and suicide attacks since 2008, says the report. Similarly, 3,051 insurgents were killed and 1,228 wounded in security operations during the same period.

According to the report, there have been 235 suicide hits, 9,257 rocket attacks and 4,256 bomb explosions in the last five years. More than 200 members of tribal peace committees, or Lashkars, including volunteers and chieftains, were also killed and 275 wounded in targeted attacks in the last three years.

The report also revealed that 1,030 schools and colleges were destroyed by Taliban insurgents in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa from 2009 to 2013.

The spy agencies also claimed that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the outlawed conglomerate of militant groups blamed for most violence in the country, has weakened due to infighting and fragmentation. Some of its splinter groups have morphed into sectarian extremist groups – which are mounting attacks on the Shia community in Quetta and Karachi.

Now, the TTP is not as effective as it was before 2008 when it challenged the writ of the state, the report said adding that people’s support for militants is waning.

According to the report, the Afghan government was colluding with the Swat chapter of TTP. And this collusion could lead to a surge in cross-border attacks by Taliban militants in the bordering districts of Chitral, Dir, Swat and tribal regions of Bajaur and Momand. This is the first time Pakistani security forces openly blamed the Afghan government for colluding with the TTP.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27th, 2013.
 

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Tariq Saeed
Thursday, October 30, 2014 - Peshawar—The Director General, Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa says Pak Army led security forces are making substantial advancements in the ongoing operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan agency and Operation Khyber 1 in the Khyber agency and that the forces have cleared most of the areas in NWA from the militants. However he declined to give any time frame for the conclusion of the Operations saying the gains made by the security forces in the operations against the miscreants have gone long way in curbing terrorism.

“The Operations Zarb-e-Azb in NWA and Khyber-I in parts of Khyber agency are going on successfully and the major triumph Achieved by the security forces in these surgeries has greatly helped reduce incidents of terrorism and kidnapping for ransom cases”. The DG ISPR was briefing media in Peshawar.

He announced that responding to the KP government request to deploy Pakistan Army troops in 134 sensitive localities in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, the Pak Army would facilitate beefing up security during the holy month of Moharram. “We will send military personnel wherever needed as per the government’s request,” Bajwa said.

Giving statistics the head of the publicity wing of the Army said over 1100 terrorists have been killed in Operation Zarb-e-Azb while 44 terrorists were eliminated and 10 surrendered to security forces in Operation Khyber-I in Khyber Agency respectively adding the main tributaries and population centers in Razmak, Mir Ali, Miranshah have already been cleared while peripheries around Mir Ali, Ghulam Khan and Shewa have also been cleared by the forces. He said, areas onward Datakhel in North Waziristan Agency were being cleared presently.

Gen Bajwa said 132.5tons explosive have been seized while over million ammunition rounds have been confiscated in North Waziristan Agency. A total of 12359 weapons of all categories have also been seized during the operation

Zarb-e-Azb, he said, adding the seized unsafe explosives have been exploded as it could not be dumped or defused. He maintained. He informed that what necessitated the operation Khyber-I was to contain the activities of the fleeing terrorists in NWA and to stop their spell over to the neighbouring Khyber Agency where their regrouping was possible. The DG ISPR said hideouts of terrorists would be targeted where found and intelligence based operations would continue without any discrimination.

He said Pakistan would not allow anyone to use its soil for terrorist’s activities. To a question, he said, Taliban leadership including Maulana Fazlullah was operating from Kunar province of Afghanistan and we have conveyed our concerns to Afghan Govt to this effect.

The DG ISPR said the Pakistan Govt sought the cooperation of Afghan Government in countering terrorism from the region, however, he said, “we are not receiving as much support as we required from the Afghan Govt,”. He lamented. To a query about roaming Afghan SIMs on border area, he said, the same has been communicated to the Afghan Govt to check this matter, adding unless this matter was solved by the Afghan Govt itself, the problem would continue to pose threats of terrorism. He declared that frequent unprovoked violations by Indian Forces on LoC and Working Boundary could not divide our attention from the western border, adding the Indians will be getting befitting reply if India continued to resort to unprovoked firing at the LoC and Working Boundary.

“We have taken notice of the reports of incidents of target killing in Swat very seriously and action would be taken against the responsible”. He replied to a query. To a question about firing incidents on airplanes around Peshawar Airport, the DG ISPR said certain gangs have been nabbed to this effect and are being investigated. Gen Bajwa said 2500 intelligence based operations were continuing against the suspects all over the country. He said a comprehensive resettlement plan of temporarily displaced people of North Waziristan Agency was prepared and we want that after their return they live in a better, safe and peaceful environment in their respective villages and towns. He said an Engineering Division of the army headed by a Major General has been engaged for the reconstruction and resettlement activities in the operation hit areas in NWA and the process of rebuilding has started. FWO has also been mobilized with focus on reconstruction of the damaged structures. The DG ISPR also appealed to people to identify suspects and expressed the resolve that Pakistan’s soil will not be allowed to be used for terrorism.

No time frame to end Zarb-e-Azb: ISPR
 
"Meanwhile, Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam condemned the drone strike for violating Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Am i the only one who chuckles at this now?
 
"Meanwhile, Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam condemned the drone strike for violating Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Am i the only one who chuckles at this now?
I really feel sorry for the poor woman. :D
 
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