Anti-terror fight enters new phase despite rights fears
ARMY PREPARING FOR FINAL PUSH AMID CONCERNS OVER REFORMS AND DEVELOPMENT PLANS
Pakistan’s army is preparing for a final push in the coming weeks in its fight against militants, but there are concerns that rights are being rolled back in the name of defeating terror.
A year on from the launch of a major offensive to eradicate strongholds of Taliban and other militants in North Waziristan tribal area, the military says the job is 90 per cent done.
It is now positioning troops around the Shawal Valley, a key location close to the Afghan border that is home to some of the last redoubts of the Tehreek-eTaliban Pakistan (TTP), according to locals and security sources.
The army says it has killed more than 2,700 militants since the launch of the offensive — dubbed Zarb-e-Azb — last June, and destroyed more than 800 of their hideouts.
A senior military official directly linked to the offensive said the army was gearing up for the final push and using air strikes before moving in ground troops.
“We are turning hard targets into soft through aerial bombing because forces expect a resistance in Shawal,” he said.
The troop movements were confirmed by locals, though some tribal elders warned militants were slipping across the porous border into Afghanistan.
“Up to two dozen militants are leaving the area every day and around 200 militants recently moved into part of Afghan territory,” elder Ajab Khan said. He warned the remaining areas where TTP fighters are holed up will be difficult fighting terrain — mountainous and forested.
But security analysts caution that military gains will serve little purpose unless and until the lawless, semi-autonomous tribal areas see administrative reform and economic development.
“The longevity of the ‘final push’ would largely depend on the constitutional status of the region,” said Imtiaz Gul, executive director at Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS). “Until the FATA region is mainstreamed and brought under the law of the land, keeping it clear of militants and criminals would be difficult.”
Doubts have been raised about the transparency of the operation and the identities of those killed. There have been repeated reports of civilian deaths, but the military tightly controls to the conflict zone.
I.A. Rahman of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said there was no way to know for sure who the army had killed.
“We don’t know the truth about the casualties — what is the actual number of casualties, how many of them are terrorists and how many of them innocents?” he said.
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