Showing posts with label All-out operation against TTP unlikely. Show all posts
Showing posts with label All-out operation against TTP unlikely. Show all posts
It may have taken a few rounds of surgical assaults on part of the state security apparatus to get Taliban feel the heat, but it is probably too late for the terrorist outfit to mend faces and make up with the state after more than enough of the innocent blood has been spilled.
A subtle air of mistrust and disorientation characterises Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) freshly discovered penchant for peace (only for thirty days). Pakistan’s strategic gurus, be they security officials, defence experts or the civilian government functionaries, all look aptly justified to see through this entire affair from the spectacles of scepticism.
As the orthodox lot of ‘Taliban lovers’ jumps into motion to shower endless praises on the TTP’s newly revived love for dialogue, the public, security establishment, politicians, civil society, journalists and the different cross-sections of Pakistani society in general are not ready to buy this, especially at a time when surgical missions in the north-western tribal areas have had more than 140 terrorists including some top TTP commanders eliminated from the face of the earth.
“They talk sense only when they are made to face the music,” said Lieutenant General (Retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch in an obvious reference to the TTP’s ceasefire announcement for 30 days. “This clearly indicates we have taught them a real good lesson.”
Baloch, an incumbent federal minister, did not seem much moved. “They talked like that in the past and they were the ones to have breached the peace agreements and resorted to violence. We really have to look if this is yet another eyewash only to buy time for regrouping or they really mean business,” the former general referred to the peace dialogues initiated in the past all of which died an ultimately obvious death.
“Even just recently, the Taliban were the ones who offered peace talks and they were the ones who spilled our innocent blood. Our brave security men and civilians were so ruthlessly targeted in dozens of attacks. So, if this is just another time-buying tactic only to regroup to unleash more havoc, we are not going to buy it and the TTP will have to pay for it the hard way.”
The TTP’s offer, the minister said, would be taken up for discussion by the prime minister and the cabinet members. “We will see if the TTP is serious enough to mend its ways or they’re just playing games. Our future policy line would be determined after we exchange notes,” he told this correspondent.
Dr Hassan Askari Rizvi did not think differently. “Taliban cannot be trusted,” he said while describing this fresh offer from the notorious terrorist outfit as a gimmick for saving its skin. “More than 14 peace agreements were struck in the past and see what was the result. We cannot and must not act in such a naïve and gullible way so as to trust these terrorists again and again.”
Wishing to stay unnamed for obvious reasons, a security Czar, in a meeting with this correspondent in the recent past, did not mince words to term the TTP and its allied militant groups as “mercenaries who have lust for blood.”
The official, a highly placed one, could see it coming what the TTP had to offer on Saturday. “Their chain of command is broken. Now they’ll talk about peace. They’ll talk about the country and Islam and there would be certain elements that would stand up to support this demand. Such kind of melodramas creates discontent within the rank and file of the military.”
The security official believed it is not about weeks or months, but a matter of a few days to wipe out the militants from the planet. “It’s all about will. The political will. The security forces are ready to make the terrorists pay through the nose, the way we have had, recently. It’s the politicians who always back off.”
Lieutenant General (Retd) Talat Masood shared his views in a similar vein. “The Pakistani nation should not be made to suffer for the misdeeds of the militants. The TTP does not call the shots anymore. The security forces have neutralised the militants in several parts. After achieving a high level of success, the option to reverse the ongoing action would have adverse consequences. The public, political parties and the security establishment are all on same page to take on terrorism. The government should honour the wishes of the people.”
The Nation
The administration of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who came to power last year promising to find a negotiated peace with the Taliban, has been trying to engage the militants in talks but these efforts have faltered in past weeks.
The Pakistan Army on Wednesday said more than 100 soldiers had been killed by Taliban militants in the last five months: a rare admission of mass casualties since the start of government efforts to engage the insurgents in peace talks. Although the total number of soldiers who have been martyred in terror attacks since 2007 – or since the GWOT began in Pakistan – are considered to be over 10,000, the Pakistan Army has never released a periodic tally of its human losses against Taliban insurgents, a group operating separately from its Afghan namesake, and striving to overthrow the Islamabad government and install an Islamic state. The Army provides information and data to news sources and outlets whenever a terror attack occurs and military personnel are wounded or killed, but this data is revealed to the public by the media, and not announced by the military spokesperson’s office. Tallies of this data on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis are kept by various research institutions as well as state organizations and bureaus, but the release of the tally of the Pakistan Army’s martyrs during the timespan between the APC (when the Army’s unilateral ceasefire was completely set) till date – especially in terms of its troops, whose identity and association with the military is completely documented from time of entry to time of last assignment – is alarming and has come at a crucial time during Pakistan’s wavering (and now perhaps moribund) peace initiative with the belligerent TTP.
Requesting anonymity, security officials have released figures according to which 308 civilians, 114 military personnel and 38 police officers had been killed since September 2013. From January 1 to February 18 – in the first 47 days of this year – 47 terror attacks took place (literally at the rate of one per day) and while the number of deaths range from 100 to 250 to 300, the number of injured is well above 500.
According to the Daily Times:
Some 460 innocent people have been killed in terrorist attacks across the country since the government held an all-parties conference (APC) on September 10 last year…“The dead include 308 civilians, 114 military personnel and 38 policemen,” the official said. He said that some 1,264 people were injured in the terrorist attacks by Taliban in the same period. “The injured include 684 civilians, 531 military personnel and 49 policemen,” he added. A total of 70 people have been killed since the reconciliation effort was launched on January 29.
It was September 2013 when Sharif convened a much-delayed all-party conference on the one-point agenda of peace in Pakistan: that meeting of Pakistan’s political and religious leaders – a forum that is unofficial and not recognized in any formal capacity by the state but apparently has more power than any House of Parliament – was reported to have unanimously opted for peace talks. Since then, talks between representatives of the Taliban and government officials started a few weeks ago, and signals of good news to be shared soon were frequently given using the media, but the talks process broke down earlier this week after a series of attacks on security forces claimed by fringe Taliban groups. These groups are part of the TTP but have greater autonomy than other cadres, and are continuing their attacks on Pakistan despite the fact that their leadership – which sometimes denies and other times defends and claims responsibility for these events – is negotiating on specific terms with the government for ceasefire and peace. The news about the execution of 27 Frontier Corps soldiers, coming a day after a TTP-claimed suicide bombing in Karachi killed 13 police commandoes and wounded dozens of others, increased pressure on the government to back out of peace talks till the TTP agrees to a ceasefire and enforces on all of its subordinate groups to adhere to it.
The Army publicly supports Sharif’s call for talks, but in private, senior officers have spoke strongly against it, giving rise to talk that the military are waiting for an excuse to mount a major operation – in various locations, but with targeted precision and calibrated requirements – against militant strongholds to achieve measurable goals against terrorists. A successful effort of that sort would convince the people as well as the policymakers that the stance of “no negotiations with terrorists” is an option that can be exercised both morally and militarily. And an excuse is already present with continuing attacks: proof the Army does not need to give to the government that while the military is observing a unilateral ceasefire so that the government’s peace talks initiative can plod towards an uncertain peace, the enemies of the public continue to attack Pakistan, make life hell for everyone, and cause casualties that sometimes cost a lot of money and at other times are irreplaceable and invaluable.
The lack of progress on peace talks has also given rise to speculation that the government, backed by the powerful army, is preparing for a ground and air offensive against Taliban strongholds in the tribal belt on the Afghan border. Since parts of the new National Security Policy remain classified, there are chances that the military might undertake “hot pursuit” military actions while chasing retreating terrorists and TTP networks across the Durand Line in Afghanistan – actions that, if made public, will sour relations with Afghanistan, and would need to be co-ordinated with the U.S. if they ever need to be implemented.
“An all-out operation is highly unlikely but a targeted operation is unavoidable,” a senior military official told this correspondent, requesting anonymity. “There is a very strong realisation among all stakeholders that the Taliban will just never give up the use of force and so they will have to be dealt with the use of force. We’ve already wasted a lot of time over this charade of peace talks”. The federal and Sindh governments are already engaged in a targeted operation against criminal elements and terrorist cells in Karachi: this has stabilized the security situation to some extent, even though threats remain and major attacks continue to take place.
Another intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss military operational matters with journalists, said a military operation was in the works. “It will not be carpet bombing,” he said. “But the army is ready for a full onslaught to flush them out”. Given past experiences, the intelligence official also said that plans were in place to clear and hold adjoining areas for civilians fleeing the warzones to encamp in safety and receive medical attention if they required so.
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