OPERATION ZARB-E-AZB: STIFLING THE MONSTER The Pakistani military have set out with the military operation , “Zarbe Azb “ at a time which they deemed appropriate and suitable. The operation started last Sunday , without much, so called, political unanimity , because of the reason that in this way the process would lose its most important element of surprise . Moreover , GoP has been briefed about the situation in NW since 2009 when operation in NW was postponed despite operation against the militant hideouts was underway under the code name “Operation Rahe Nijat “ in Oct 2009 in SW agency.During this operation TTP and its allies were driven away from SW amongst tremendous loss of life and strategic positioning in that area on part of TTP and its allied foreign militants like Uzbeks and Arabs etc.It appears that NW operation already began at the same time since its academic work already started at that time to wait for the proper time to come. The TTP , bit by bit lost its major main and sub command centres at Malakand, Bajaur, Mohmand, Orakzai and Darra Adamkhel .Some major elements of the TTP took refuge in Afghan provinces of Kunar , Nuristan and Ningarhar.But , the Mehusd faction of the TTP which remains most influential of all left SW to inhabit NW areas of Mir Ali , Machees , Dosali , some areas near Miramshah , and areas near Tochi river , inhabited by sub tribe of wazirs Torikhel and Daur .Now , NW is inhabited by Wazirs and Daur tribes both have a large number of commanders working under the command of Hafiz Gul bahadur and Mullah Mazir.Influential commanders like Maulana Sadiq Noor , and Maulana Abdul Khaliq Haqqani belong to Daur tribe and have links with Afghan Taliban on one side and Hafiz Gul bahadur on the other.Hafiz Gul bahadur , never fired a bullet against Pakistani military and works independently for the cause of the afghan Taliban .He realized at some point in time that the large influx of mehsud tribesmen might jeopardize his position in the area. Interestingly , after the death of Hakimullah Mehsud , when the leadership of TTP went into the hands of Maulvi Fazlullah , a non mehsud and a badly wanted fugitive by the Pakistani government , the TTP faction broke away , with the major faction led by Said Sajna fell into conflict with the TTP .Hafiz Gulbahadur always wanted to expel the foreign elements inside NW out of the agency back into neighbouring Afghanistan . He knew , that a perpetual conflict between military and foreign terrorists might challenge the territorial security position and could destabilize the command control center from where the afghan Taliban draw major support in terms of men and material. Similarly, Kurram Agency chapter of TTP broke away, after its leader Commander Fazal Saeed Utazai announced the formation of Tehrik-e-Taliban Islami Pakistan (TTIP). For those who oppose military operation at this moment , the Pakistan army and security forces , prepared themselves for this operation for several years .In fact they were preparing for the ultimate strike against the militants since operation Rahe Nijat took its final and decisive course in early 2010.But those were the tactical operations , undertaken at small scale with the sole purpose to eliminate the militant hideouts in neighboring agencies like muhmand , aurakzai , Khyber , kurram etc. The PAF had been bombing Bajaur, Khyber, Swat and Orakzai without much notice by Pakistani media and politicians with the purpose of softening out the strong enemy positions. And at the same time army units erected camps and bases to guard and protect in any possible future recapture of these positions by the militants. Actually , and the core idea which was being formulated was a major strategic action against TTP and IMU and other hostile Taliban factions to decisively eliminate them once and for all. At the same time a general impression was generated , deliberately by the military strategist that the army was never going to undertake military operation in NW.Such an idea , encouraged militant groups , both local and foreign to inhabit NW under a false conviction that they are safe here .At the same time the doors of negotiations were opened suddenly by the GoP in order to break the momentum of the Taliban sabotage activities and strength of unity of command and control .The umbrella of the negotiations , provided ample crevices among Taliban ranks to be infiltrated by the intelligence agencies and fueled and awakened the sleeping hostilities among Taliban groups and many groups fell into conflict with each other. More recently , while operation Zarbe Azb is under way , bloody clashes between IMU , and local Taliban have taken furious course , because the wazirs and daurs and local maliks believe that IMU and foreign elements hiding in the agency are the key reasons for the military operations in which thousands of Pakistani soldiers , and a huge number of military hard ware is participating aided by the airpower and robust intelligence. Because the soldiers are fighting under rotations , they are in fairly good position to finish the matters soon. The terrain in NW is tank able and the military started operation in three phases. First , they cut off the supply routes from Afghanistan , in order to push Taliban for the negotiations , second they started the process of encircling militant dens in the area , under the garb of curfew and “ Targeted operations” and third they occupied the high ground in the area like in Mir Ali , Datta khel and parts of Machees and miramshah after use of heavy air power. Mir Ali , Dosali ,machess, Drapa Khel, Chashma Danday, Garyaum , Ghulam Khan Spinwam , are those areas where , the IMU , Punjabi Taliban and TTP fazlullah group will provide stern resistance and till now most of these areas have been cleared by the army and key positions have been captured by the military. The militant command and control center in Mir Ali has been neutralized .The Haqqanis are mostly in Datta Khel and they themselves don’t want the presence of the Uzbeks , Arabs and Chechens who are indulged in conflict with Pakistan army .Ample evidence has fallen into the hands of the intelligence agencies and military that they were funded by RAW and CIA. Hence movement of the American /Indian consulate personnel has been carefully restricted owing to their potential backlash through their terrorist cells scattered throughout Pakistan. One proof of TTP acting on behalf of them is that ,they killed most of the tribal notables like maliks to render the political agent and governor ineffective hence writ of the central government .TTP ‘s Fazlullah and hakimullah mehsud always wanted the clash between security forces and Gulbahadur so that they could replace his den in NW . But , Mullah Nazir and Gulbahadur knowing the strategy of the TTP always avoided clashes with army. In fact Hafiz Gulbahadur and Mullah Nazir never tried to create a new order in the agency against the writ of the GoP and maintained the old tribal traditions of maliks and tribal notables. The presence of such a group does not pose a threat to the security forces and in fact both of them Mullah nazir and Gulabahadur , pushed foreign elements from Afghanistan including NATO /ISAF forces back into that country. After that operation Zarbe Azb will stand successful , the forces and intelligence agencies have to cleanse cities off the terror cells and assets of the foreign hostile agencies .Pakistani intelligentsia should seize to exchange hot deliberations on the notion of ‘Good Taliban and bad Taliban “ because we need strong military presence in NW for the moment and those groups which boost the interests of the state of Pakistan .Pakistan doesn’t want a vacuum in NW at a moment when Americans are leaving and we have to guard the interests of our friends like china and potential friend Russia and off course Iran. One of the most important dimensions of the operation is handling the IDP’s with great care since winning the hearts of more than half a million IDP’s will have tremendous positive impact on outcome of the operation .And last but not the least , Pakistani nations should embrace their displaced brethren with open hearts to share their anguish.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 03:37:00 +0000
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