Half a million (0.5m) tribal people mostly women and children fled the area
The Pakistani military finally launched the much awaited full scale military operation in North Waziristan, the stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants. This is a big news but failed to get much attention of the international media because of the situation in Iraq. The US and NATO was demanding to launch this offensive long ago. The US considered this place as the main sanctuary and launching pad for the Taliban militants to attack the NATO and US forces inside Afghanistan.
But the gains made by the ISIS fighters in Iraq have capture the eye of the international media. The rugged terrain of North Waziristan is considered as one of the toughest battleground in the world. Some valleys in this tribal area have no road access and some remote areas are inaccessible. The military authorities have imposed curfew in the area. The air force jets and helicopters are also carrying out the air strikes against the militants. According to the defence ministry sources more than 400 militants belonging to the different groups have so far been killed. Many militants have crossed over to Afghanistan before the beginning of the operation. It is believed that the leadership of these groups was already in Afghanistan to avoid the military offensive.
Half a million tribal people have already left the area and moving to the relatively safer settled areas of KPK province. The government has set up camps outside the Bannu city. The government is expecting two hundred thousand more people in these camps. But the very conservative and religious people are not ready to go to these camps because of privacy issues and also security reasons. These camps are not far away from the North Waziristan and people fear of possible militant attacks. These camps also lack of basic facilities such as water, tents, toilets, medical care and sufficient food.
The majority of these people consist of women and children. The hot weather is also a problem for these people as they live on the moderate temperatures of the mountains. If the government failed to improve the situation in these camps immediately, there might a humanitarian disaster. There is a class issue too. The rich people are moving to the cities and renting houses because they can afford the rents. They also have money and resources to buy food and other utilities. But the poor people are completely dependent on the government support. They have no money to rent houses and buy food. So they are suffering the most.
For some years now there had been talk of launching a military operation against the local and foreign militants well-entrenched in North Waziristan, but it got delayed due to one reason or the other.
In fact, for quite some time, such an action was considered inevitable on account of the provocative terrorist attacks claimed by the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its foreign allies.
There had been limited military operation in North Waziristan in the past, but a peace accord between the government and the Utmanzai tribes, including both the Wazirs and Dawars, and also incorporating the militants led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur in September 2006 and its renewal in subsequent years, ensured that there would be no major operation as long as this agreement remained in place.
Except in the early years, the government refrained from publicly defending the peace deal as it was signed from a position of weakness and gave away too much to the militants. The militants, on their part, often accused the government of violating the agreement and on occasions threatened to scrap it in protest against the airstrikes conducted by the military in North Waziristan from time to time.
However, they didn’t act on the threats and, instead, used this as a pressure tactics because an end to the peace agreement would have inevitably led to a military action and, in the process, too much suffering as it is happening now.
In recent years, the peace accord lost its meaning as local and foreign militants of all hue and colour made North Waziristan the hub of their activities and used its territory to launch-violent attacks not only in Pakistan but also in neighboring Afghanistan.
Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who stayed away from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) despite being offered the position of its deputy head in 2007-2008, often appeared helpless and, on occasions, unwilling to take action against the militants who came from outside North Waziristan and set up their bases to challenge the writ of the state.
The US had been applying pressure on Pakistan all these years to undertake military operation in North Waziristan. It had publicly criticised the September 2006 peace accord in North Waziristan and President General Pervez Musharraf had to take along its architect, Lt Gen (retd) Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai, who was then the Governor of NWFP (later renamed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) to the US to explain to President George W Bush the finer points of the agreement and its likely benefits.
The US remained unconvinced as one heard several American officials questioning and criticising such peace accords with the militants. It is another matter that the US has been negotiating with the Afghan Taliban and only recently made a deal to swap five Taliban prisoners held for more than 12 years at the Guantanamo Bay prison to secure the release of an American soldier, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.
In 2012, the Pakistani military came close to moving into North Waziristan in a big way to undertake an operation against the militants, but a premature statement by the US defense secretary, Robert Gates, announcing the imminent launching of the action seems to have prompted the army high command to abort the plan. Pakistan didn’t want to be seen to be undertaking military operation at the behest of the US in view of the strong anti-US sentiment in the country and also on account of the Taliban narrative that Islamabad was fighting America’s ‘war on terror’.
Though the blueprints of the plan for the military operation in North Waziristan appear to have been ready for a while now, these were updated as the time went by. The brazen terrorist attack on the Karachi airport and the separate claims of responsibility by the TTP and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) forced the government’s hand to go for the kill. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s patience ran out and he had to abandon his policy to secure peace in the country through talks with the TTP.
The government was in such a hurry to launch the military operation, codenamed “Zarb-e-Azb” after the name of a sword used by Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), that it didn’t even wait for the end of the 15-day deadline given by the Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan and Corps Commander Peshawar Lt Gen Khalid Rabbani, to a 64-member tribal jirga from North Waziristan. The jirga had been asked to expel foreign militants hiding in North Waziristan and ensure proper implementation of the old peace accord.
The jirga members had advised the people not to leave their homes and villages as they expected a breakthrough in the talks with the government and the militants in the hope of averting the military operation. In fact, this delayed the evacuation of the people to safer places outside North Waziristan as, subsequently, curfew was imposed, roadside security checkpoints were strengthened, supply of food items became scarce and airstrikes intensified.
The federal government didn’t call any all-parties conference or take the parliament into confidence before launching the offensive, but almost all political parties, except the Jamaat-e-Islami, the JUI-F, and JUI-S, backed the decision. Imran Khan’s PTI also came on board after complaining that it wasn’t consulted. The apparent targets of the “Zarb-e-Azb” are the TTP, the IMU, and al-Qaeda because they have been waging war against Pakistan.
The airstrikes launched in the first phase of the operation have targeted the positions of militants affiliated to the three groups and the army has claimed to have killed more than 400 terrorists. As usual, the claims couldn’t be verified. The name of only one slain IMU commander, Abu Abdur Rahman al-Mani, was mentioned but he wasn’t a known figure. The IMU is presently headed by Usman Ghani, who had replaced Usman Adil, who was killed in a US drone strike. Usman Adil had replaced Tahir Yuldashev, the best known IMU leader who, too, was killed in a drone attack.
Reports from North Waziristan indicated that Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s men haven’t been attacked yet and that they have gathered in the Dattakhel sub-division near the border with Afghanistan. The Haqqani network, too, has been spared until now. This was the reason that the US resumed its drone strikes after a nearly six-month break and launched three attacks recently to target the suspected members of the Haqqani network.
The US and Pakistan have different priorities in North Waziristan and it seems the drone strikes weren’t coordinated as Islamabad would have liked the Americans to use the drones to target the TTP and IMU cadres. Finally, the Khan Said Sajna faction that broke away from the TTP recently and is apparently not involved in the recent wave of terrorist attacks too isn’t a target yet in the “Zarb-e-Azb” operation. Its fighters seem to have moved out of North Waziristan.
The Sajna group could hold peace talks with the government in future in case the latter opts to do so again. It is not clear at the moment whether the military has abandoned its long time policy of good and bad Taliban. The most important question is whether the military will allow the Haqqani network to use this area in the future to launch attacks on Afghan forces. The situation is not clear at the moment.
There is hardly any body that has any doubt about the capability of the army to flush out the militants from North Waziristan but the real issue is if we have the capacity to check the blow-back of the operation in cities and towns of Pakistan. The answer is no.
The most serious concern of the civilian leadership has been how we would be able to protect the life and property of people with the available resources, skills and capacity of the law enforcing and security agencies.
With the country’s counterterrorism capacity having been badly exposed many times in the recent years, the Karachi airport attack being the latest example, the policy of dialogue has been pursued. It is said that despite clear warnings and repeated intelligence reports, if the incidents like the Karachi airport attack and DI Khan jailbreak could not be averted, how the people could face the full-scale blowback of militants after the all-out military operation in North Waziristan.
Since the menace of militancy and extremism is scattered all over, it is believed even if the military operation in the NWA becomes 100 percent successful, it would not mean elimination of terrorism and militancy in the country. During the recent years, several military operations were launched in areas like Swat and in most of the tribal agencies following which the militant activities in those particular areas were also checked to a great extent but terrorist activities never stopped. Such activities instead gathered more pace and severity.
According to the Interior Ministry documents, there are 60 proscribed organisations, including hardened terrorist outfits operating in Pakistan. In many cases, they are interlinked and spread all over the country. Thinking as if everyone is in North Waziristan is nothing but self-deception.
As we know that religious extremist forces are not only waging an armed offensive but also engaged in ideological war. The military might be able to defeat them militarily but it cannot fight the ideological propaganda war. The ruling classes including the army have shown so far that they are capable of defeating them in ideological and political battle.
As both these forces represent the reactionary ideas and views and oppose progressive, secular and enlightened ideas. The working class is the only force in the country with the support of the radical layers of the middle class can defeat the reactionary ideology of the religious extremist forces. But unfortunately the working class has yet not moved into the political action and radical middle class layers are also absent from the scene.
There is a mass support for this military offensive in the masses. The working masses and poor people have sick tired of violence, bombings, suicide attacks and threats. The support for militant organizations is at the lowest levels. There are only three religious political parties opposing the military offensive. The rest of the mainstream capitalist political parties are supporting this military operation.
The support for the military has also increased in the masses after the launch of this military offensive. The military will come out of this action much stronger and popular. The military was already the most respected and popular state institution among the people. The Pakistani army lost much of its respect and support among the masses during the military rule of General Musharaf. It was forced to retreat and concede some of its powers to the civilian institutions of the state.
The superior judiciary took advantage of the situation and gain more authority and power. But military was and still the most dominant power in Pakistan. In recent years it has taken back its lost support and respect. It is very clear that it is taking back all the powers and authority which it concedes few years back. The rising military power means more dominant role of the military in all spheres of life which will further weaken the civilian government.
It seems that the military is not interested to oust the government and take direct control of the power in the short term but it wants to dictate terms to the present government which is trying to consolidate its position and wants to bring the military under the civilian control.
The Pakistani working class and poor is not only the victims of religious extremism and violence but also the victims of capitalist and feudal system. The toiling masses have been exploited by the ruling classes to enrich themselves and left them in slave like conditions. The toiling masses are suffering and continue to suffer under this rotten, repressive and exploitative capitalist system.