‘Probable’ operation against N Waziristan militants a significant step by Pak Army: Editorial

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Islamabad, Aug 12: Referring to media reports talking about a probable Army operation in North Waziristan against militants, an editorial in a Pakistani daily has said if the attack really happens, it will be after a major revision of the Pakistan Army’s stance on the elements located in the area.

On August 11, Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani chaired the monthly Corps Commanders Conference, which reportedly discussed a forthcoming operation in North Waziristan. It will be a targeted operation, kept as a low intensity conflict, to be gradually scaled up after better target-identification of the militants and after augmenting the troops’ operational preparedness. The Pakistan Air Force will be part of the operation and the “ISAF authorities would be consulted for intelligence sharing”, the editorial in The Express Tribune said.

North Waziristan is where the most dangerous elements of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have mixed with the local and foreign outfits fighting against Pakistan, the international presence in Afghanistan, as well as engaging in global jihad against the West. All of them owe allegiance to Al-Qaeda, and to the Afghan Taliban, whose mid-tier leaders have been killed repeatedly by American drones, it added.

The operation, if it takes place, is going to mark a big turning point in the thinking of the Pakistan Army, which has, heretofore, pursued what is called the policy of ‘strategic depth’, mainly targeting India directly, but also targeting anyone who favours Indian presence in Afghanistan, the editorial said.

While one can argue with the theory that the operation is complicated by the possibility of the terrorists fanning out from North Waziristan threatening adjacent regions where the Pakistan Army has hardly cleaned up the mischief-makers, one can’t help pointing out that it may already be too late for this theory to hold because of the ability of the Taliban to strike in all major cities of Pakistan, it concluded. (ANI)