How the ‘Code’ was broken in Mirali in NWA
Uzbeks were killed, but this is not beginning of an operation, says ISPR
Wajahat S KhanSunday, December 22, 2013
From Print Edition
ISLAMABAD: Amidst allegations that the army targeted civilians in fierce clashes with militants in the last 72 hours in Mirali, North Waziristan, operational details are now emerging from the scene of the intense fighting as curfew was lifted partially on Friday by security forces in the tribal agency’s second largest town.
“It’s high time these guys were paid back in their own coin,” said a senior military source with firsthand knowledge of the operation conducted overnight on Wednesday and Thursday in Mirali Bazar and its adjoining Ipi, Hasukhel and Mosaki villages by Quick Reaction Force (QRF) and regular infantry contingents belonging to the Mirali Brigade of the 7th Infantry Division, headquartered in Miranshah.
“Contrary to popular opinion, the fighting didn’t start because of the attack on the Khajori CP’s mosque,” said the source, referring to the suicide truck bombing Wednesday on a check post in Khajori, a suburb southeast of Mirali that is jointly manned by Army and Frontier Corps personnel.
The army claimed that five soldiers were killed and 28 others injured in that attack; many of the troops were praying in a makeshift mosque when the bomber struck the vital post. Khajori is called the “Gateway to Waziristan” as it is at the mouth of the Bannu-Miranshah road, and the troops stationed there are tasked with guarding trajectories of the highway that lead on to Hangu, Parachinar, Razmak, South Waziristan and even Ghulam Khan on the Pak-Afghan border.
“Tensions were already building up before Khajori, when a series of IED [improvised explosive device] attempts were made on forces which were patrolling the area for road-construction purposes,” said the officer.
“After the attack on the CP, the rescue party and a contingent of the QRF accompanying them were ambushed as they were returning with the shaheeds and conducting medevac of the injured,” said the source.
“That’s when the engagement started from our end,” said the officer.
“We got command clearance to implement a counter-ambush action and chased the ambushers into a hotel, just off the road. They took cover there and then continued to hit us, using snipers even rockets. So we hit back.”
“We had to retaliate or face more losses,” said the officer.
According to Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa, the chief spokesman of the army and the Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate, “23 militants were killed in a carefully conducted counter-offensive clearance engagement which was implemented in strict self-defence” at the roadside hotel just outside Mirali.
But due to a lack off access to the area, details of the fighting that followed are vague and contradictory. Local and international press reports give varying descriptions of the hotel/s (differently named as ‘Sherin Bagh’, ‘Dawlat Khan’ and/or ‘Honeymoon’), and there are also conflicting accounts of what happened; point blank executions of over 20 truck drivers staying there, according to one report; indiscriminate deployment of heavy-weapons in follow-up fighting that killed others at the hotel/s and adjoining areas besides the insurgents themselves, according to another source, and even reports about some local women and children killed along with civilians from Bannu and Lakki Marwat in the cross-fire.
“There were civilians killed, but the area is too closed off because of the curfew right now, as well as the phones being down,” said a Fata parliamentarian in Peshawar, who asked not to be named.
“For a few hours on Friday, curfew was relaxed, and no fighting has been reported,” said the parliamentarian. “But some families have moved out. The fighting was so bad that it has caused a mini-IDP crisis.”
However, amidst allegations that the army ‘punished’ the locals in an ‘angry response’ to the Khajori attack, the senior military source with knowledge of the operation’s details said that the fighting on Wednesday and Thursday was phased.
“First, we lay siege to the hotel and the engagement continued throughout the night, into the early morning,” said the officer.
”After fire-suppression and clearance of the hotel, we began a sanitization op[eration] of the larger area, and that’s when the scope of the fighting increased.”
The ISPR stated that intelligence reports had indicated that foreign militants, mostly Uzbeks, were stationed in a “markaz”, in and around Mirali Bazar’s adjoining areas of Hasukhel and Mosaki that were to become the scene of heavier fighting after the engagement at the hotel.
Major General Bajwa told The News that “an intelligence-driven sting operation in Mirali Bazar followed the initial counter-offensive and counter-ambush engagement, led by the same, small contingent that was initially attacked.”
However, the clashes that followed the engagement at the hotel lasted several hours, and AH-1 Cobra gunship and light (mortars) and field artillery were also deployed to provide cover to the forces.
“We had confirmed intelligence that VBIEDs [vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, or car bombs] were being prepared, and that the area was infested with Uzbek and Turkmen militants, who were dug in separately from the civilian population,” said Major General Bajwa.
“Their positions and status were confirmed,” said Bajwa. “This fighting that happened in the Bazar was not an indiscriminate assault but a well thought out sting operation that was target-specific. All weapons platforms deployed were used under standard conditions and rules.”
The ISPR stated that “a dozen” militants, mostly Central Asians, were killed in the ‘sting-operation’. However, responding to reports about collateral damage and the killing of civilians due to heavy artillery shelling, Major General Bajwa said: “Operational commanders at every level have strict orders, from the very top, to avoid collateral casualties.”
According to the senior military source operationally involved with the sting-operation, three-shops full of explosives were also burnt down to dispose of the heavy amount of explosives that were being stored and processed there.
“They were fully stacked, almost a ‘karkhana’ of IEDs. We couldn’t risk moving or leaving the explosives there,” said the source.
But the source also added that aiding the militants could have put some civilians in danger: “Though there was no indiscriminate targeting of civilians, nor did we retaliate to punish any civilians, unless they were actually embedded with and providing cover for these terrorists, none were killed.”
Long criticized for not conducting full-scale military operations in North Waziristan, despite having thousands of troops stationed in the tribal agency, the army’s actions on Wednesday and Thursday spiked a debate about whether the post-Khajori reaction was the beginning of a larger assault.
“This is not, and I repeat, not the beginning of a larger military operation in North Waziristan,” said Major General Bajwa of the ISPR.
But an intelligence source in Miranshah had a more detailed opinion: “This is what happens when you break the code. The agreement with [Taliban commander] Gul Bahadur has been standing since 2006. It clearly stipulates upon the locals that either they take care of the foreigners, or we do. That’s why it’s reasonable for us to deploy just one division [with roughly 10,000 men] in an area where there are over 20,000 hardened fighters…because there’s a code.”
The source continued: “Our deployment is enough for us to establish a writ. Without a go-ahead from the civilian government for a final mop-up operation, we are in a ‘holding position’: not doing too much and not doing too little. But the foreigners have exploited that agreement. They’ve settled here. And now, they’ve broken the code.”
How the ‘Code’ was broken in Mirali in NWA - thenews.com.pk
