Pak Army Jawans interacting with local population in North Waziristan.

[shah1398]

A big slap to the people who were saying that the army was bombing and killing the locals not the terrorists .

I still remember how one of my friend from FATA called me in hurry after Salala incident and i can never forget his words in our subsequent conversation and I quote:

"Though we must have differences with Pak Army's operations in our area but we would never let such incident happen and would stand by Pak Army in any eventuality and whenever needed".

And I could feel that he really meant what he said.

 

[Counterpunch]

What i know is that NLI guys are through with their stay in NW. I may be wrong.

PA is not a huge force in numbers given the fronts it has to cover. There are frequent re-postings. And units with previous knowledge of the area are given preference over altogether newer units

When the hostilities were ripe in NW a post was over run by locals on the Eid day while the post commander had ensured excellent relations with the adjoining population area by arranging regular football matches and other activities.
Times have changed may be, and we have also learnt (the hard way) quite a few things that are coming in handy when we are handling the locals now

 

[shah1398]

When the hostilities were ripe in NW a post was over run by locals on the Eid day while the post commander had ensured excellent relations with the adjoining population area by arranging regular football matches and other activities.

There were 1001 groups operating in NW and it was virtually impossible to know which one has influence in which area. Locals would be incited by those groups either by money or by some other means and they would get their work done in garb of them. There are many such instances from the past but with those groups evicted from the area, there is virtually no inciting forces in NW now. So yeah locals are now responding as their ears n minds are no more filled with poison.

 

[ghazi52]

Great to see such developments...............

 

[Counterpunch]

There were 1001 groups operating in NW and it was virtually impossible to know which one has influence in which area. Locals would be incited by those groups either by money or by some other means and they would get their work done in garb of them. There are many such instances from the past but with those groups evicted from the area, there is virtually no inciting forces in NW now. So yeah locals are now responding as their ears n minds are no more filled with poison.

Not quite

You change the makeup but makeup is not make over from scratch. There are many hard-wireds ones (not hardcore) who would just shed all your teachings of years for a few minutes of garbage from someone who matches their hard wired philosophies. I have seen it is only Education and stronger economic interest that makes one give second thoughts to violence. I have seen religion and family being ignored plainly in the favor of violence. Anyways

So my point. Locals are (or were) as much responsible for the mess as were some outsider groups (particularly during the time when PA operated in their areas and they could have sided with PA). Some call it a bad judgement on part of locals while I call it the result of how their psychologies are made up of. Give them a similar situation again, and they will act similarly again. Solution : Spread education at whatever price. This is what will soften them. Ensure strong military presence in the area. Be lenient in dealing but never put down your guard

 

[shah1398]

Not quite

You change the makeup but makeup is not make over from scratch. There are many hard-wireds ones (not hardcore) who would just shed all your teachings of years for a few minutes of garbage from someone who matches their hard wired philosophies. I have seen it is only Education and stronger economic interest that makes one give second thoughts to violence. I have seen religion and family being ignored plainly in the favor of violence. Anyways

So my point. Locals are (or were) as much responsible for the mess as were some outsider groups (particularly during the time when PA operated in their areas and they could have sided with PA). Some call it a bad judgement on part of locals while I call it the result of how their psychologies are made up of. Give them a similar situation again, and they will act similarly again. Solution : Spread education at whatever price. This is what will soften them. Ensure strong military presence in the area. Be lenient in dealing but never put down your guard

Thats what i said that either the locals were incited by money or some other means but in no way i gave a clean chit to locals as yes they did side with those stooges. Main reasons for this were quite variables. At some instances locals were fooled as the stooges portrayed themselves as Islamic Movement, sometimes it was purely money driven, but at most of instances it was lack of leadership bcz of which the locals got confused as to my info more than 400 Maliks were taken out by those stooges as they refused to take sides while many fearing for their lives either fled the area or joined those stooges either bcz of fear for life or lust for money and in all these tribal areas each tribe does what its Malik says or take sides with.

Having said that I would totally agree with U that yes education is key to success in these areas and thats what PA is focusing on one of many areas being Health, Infrastructure, Connectivity along with Education and capacity building.

Having said that i would bed to disagree with U if only education is the part opening the minds, as we had seen how in case of Safoora incident, highly educated guys even from well off families commit the barbaric act. I would rather point at fact that absence of factors that pollute the minds is one that would act as anti radicalization in Pakistan in general and in Tribal areas in particular.