Instead, it has decided to adopt a carrot and stick policy towards the Tehrik-e-Taliban.According to knowledgeable government circles in Islamabad, the federal government has decided to adopt the same strategy with the Taliban which they had been pursuing with the government since the beginning of the talks.
The Pakistani Taliban had been holding peace talks with the government since January 29, but without stopping their terrorist activities and rather intensifying them. Therefore, the federal government has decided to pay them back in the same coin by resorting to pre-emptive surgical strikes in the tribal areas and keeping the option of table talks with them open at the same time.
According to the government sources, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had himself given a go ahead to the army chief General Raheel Sharif to carry out these targeted air strikes in a bid to make the Taliban realise that the government was quite serious about exercising the military option if the militants refused to behave.
According to the official sources in Islamabad, the government is hoping against hope that the Taliban would review their course of action and mend their ways in the wake of these surgical strikes. However, if they don’t, the sources say, the military leadership would be given a go ahead to launch a full-fledged operation in North Waziristan by March.
The sources say these air strikes should be seen in the context of the beheading of 23 Frontier Constabulary Jawans in captivity of the Taliban, which has dealt a severe blow to the already wavering peace talks between the two sides. By slaughtering the FC men, the Taliban had actually attempted to further erode the state authority and force it into signing a peace pact on their own terms and conditions. But the sources say the Taliban were mistaken this time because they were overestimating themselves and underestimating the power of the state.
However, the sources insist that the February 20 air strikes should not be seen as the start of a military operation, yet they were meant to convey a strong message to the Taliban that the army was poised for a sustained operation if and when needed.
The overnight raids, which started on Wednesday night and lasted an hour, were directed at several villages in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan. At least three dozen TTP-linked militants were killed in these strikes, including several commanders.
Some of the key terrorists killed in the air strikes in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan [whose headquarters were erased completely] included commander Tajiki from Tajikistan, commander Abu Zubair and commander Huzaifa from Turkmenistan.
But those who were lucky enough to have survived included commander Hissa from Uzbekistan and commander Jihad Yaar, commander Abdul Sattar and commander Abdul Razzaq from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
The air strikes were conducted with precision to target the militants’ hideouts and, therefore, there was no collateral damage. A huge cache of arms and ammunition was destroyed as the jets targeted the headquarters of commander Abdul Sattar.
According to the Khaki sources, the strikes in North Waziristan were in fact surgical ones and aimed at protecting the lives of the people of Pakistan as the militants holed up in these safe havens were planning to unleash a fresh reign of terror in various part of the country.
The fighter jets of the PAF came into action a few hours after the Pakistan Army said more than 100 soldiers had been killed by the Taliban militants in the last five months, a rare admission of mass casualties.
In an extraordinarily hard-hitting statement, Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said the same day that the army was capable of crushing all enemies and it should not be underestimated. “The prime minister wants to resolve these issues without bloodshed but if the Taliban continue killing innocents, we will be left with no other choice but to keep our citizens safe from terrorism through any means possible,” he had said in televised comments.
Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said on Thursday that the government had authorised the armed forces to carry out defensive operations against the militants in the tribal belt. Therefore, the government circles do not rule out the possibility of more such air strikes in the tribal areas if the Taliban do not stop their terrorist activities.
However, it seems that the Taliban are not in a mood to mend their ways. This became clear on Thursday after the Lahore Police arrested a Taliban militant from the Raiwind area near the private residence of Nawaz Sharif. Belonging to the Tehrik-e-Taliban and identified as Sajid Mushtaq, the police have recovered from his possession weapons, grenades and scores of bullets.
As things stand, the official circles say, the prime minister is under intense pressure to order a full-fledged military action in North Waziristan against the Taliban safe havens as it has already become clear that they were never serious in meaningful peace talks. The govt-TTP talks are deadlocked after the grisly killing of 23 FC Jawans by the Taliban. The government’s negotiating team has refused to proceed with the dialogue unless the Tehrik-e-Taliban renounces violence and announces a unilateral ceasefire.
Nevertheless, the TTP, which has already imposed a naked war on the state and the society, continues to enjoy the status of a potent actor in Pakistan despite being a non-state actor, which simply wants to buy more time to regroup before the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan.
Source: Hindi News
The Pakistani Taliban had been holding peace talks with the government since January 29, but without stopping their terrorist activities and rather intensifying them. Therefore, the federal government has decided to pay them back in the same coin by resorting to pre-emptive surgical strikes in the tribal areas and keeping the option of table talks with them open at the same time.
According to the government sources, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had himself given a go ahead to the army chief General Raheel Sharif to carry out these targeted air strikes in a bid to make the Taliban realise that the government was quite serious about exercising the military option if the militants refused to behave.
According to the official sources in Islamabad, the government is hoping against hope that the Taliban would review their course of action and mend their ways in the wake of these surgical strikes. However, if they don’t, the sources say, the military leadership would be given a go ahead to launch a full-fledged operation in North Waziristan by March.
The sources say these air strikes should be seen in the context of the beheading of 23 Frontier Constabulary Jawans in captivity of the Taliban, which has dealt a severe blow to the already wavering peace talks between the two sides. By slaughtering the FC men, the Taliban had actually attempted to further erode the state authority and force it into signing a peace pact on their own terms and conditions. But the sources say the Taliban were mistaken this time because they were overestimating themselves and underestimating the power of the state.
However, the sources insist that the February 20 air strikes should not be seen as the start of a military operation, yet they were meant to convey a strong message to the Taliban that the army was poised for a sustained operation if and when needed.
The overnight raids, which started on Wednesday night and lasted an hour, were directed at several villages in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan. At least three dozen TTP-linked militants were killed in these strikes, including several commanders.
Some of the key terrorists killed in the air strikes in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan [whose headquarters were erased completely] included commander Tajiki from Tajikistan, commander Abu Zubair and commander Huzaifa from Turkmenistan.
But those who were lucky enough to have survived included commander Hissa from Uzbekistan and commander Jihad Yaar, commander Abdul Sattar and commander Abdul Razzaq from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
The air strikes were conducted with precision to target the militants’ hideouts and, therefore, there was no collateral damage. A huge cache of arms and ammunition was destroyed as the jets targeted the headquarters of commander Abdul Sattar.
According to the Khaki sources, the strikes in North Waziristan were in fact surgical ones and aimed at protecting the lives of the people of Pakistan as the militants holed up in these safe havens were planning to unleash a fresh reign of terror in various part of the country.
The fighter jets of the PAF came into action a few hours after the Pakistan Army said more than 100 soldiers had been killed by the Taliban militants in the last five months, a rare admission of mass casualties.
In an extraordinarily hard-hitting statement, Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said the same day that the army was capable of crushing all enemies and it should not be underestimated. “The prime minister wants to resolve these issues without bloodshed but if the Taliban continue killing innocents, we will be left with no other choice but to keep our citizens safe from terrorism through any means possible,” he had said in televised comments.
Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said on Thursday that the government had authorised the armed forces to carry out defensive operations against the militants in the tribal belt. Therefore, the government circles do not rule out the possibility of more such air strikes in the tribal areas if the Taliban do not stop their terrorist activities.
However, it seems that the Taliban are not in a mood to mend their ways. This became clear on Thursday after the Lahore Police arrested a Taliban militant from the Raiwind area near the private residence of Nawaz Sharif. Belonging to the Tehrik-e-Taliban and identified as Sajid Mushtaq, the police have recovered from his possession weapons, grenades and scores of bullets.
As things stand, the official circles say, the prime minister is under intense pressure to order a full-fledged military action in North Waziristan against the Taliban safe havens as it has already become clear that they were never serious in meaningful peace talks. The govt-TTP talks are deadlocked after the grisly killing of 23 FC Jawans by the Taliban. The government’s negotiating team has refused to proceed with the dialogue unless the Tehrik-e-Taliban renounces violence and announces a unilateral ceasefire.
Nevertheless, the TTP, which has already imposed a naked war on the state and the society, continues to enjoy the status of a potent actor in Pakistan despite being a non-state actor, which simply wants to buy more time to regroup before the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan.
Source: Hindi News
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