Daily Times

It has been a year since the launch of the joint military offensive, Operation Zarb-e-Azb by Pakistan’s armed forces against various miscreants in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA), a constituent of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Zarb-e-Azb is being executed by fighter and reconnaissance elements of the Pakistan Air Force, ground troops, air surveillance and tactical air platforms of the Pakistan Army and Special Forces from the army and navy. The operation is being conducted against criminals comprising of diverse militant groups, including the Tehreek-i- Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jundullah, al Qaeda, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Haqqani Network.
Following a spate of various military operations and a temporary truce, Swat and the South Waziristan Agency (SWA) were cleared of these elements. However, the military was reluctant to engage the militants in NWA, despite being pressurised by the US and Afghanistan because the miscreants were wreaking havoc on both sides of the Durand Line. The army’s reluctance to launch a fresh operation was based on a number of constraints. The Pakistan Army’s resources were overstretched in maintaining law and order in Swat and SWA, besides remaining vigilant against the threat of possible adventurism along the Line of Control and sparing resources to seek out terrorists in the major cities of Pakistan.
In 2013, after assuming the mantle of power as Prime Minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif engaged the TTP in peace talks. The talks failed because the TTP was only trying to gain time to organise its logistics. Although peace was given a chance, while a month-long ceasefire between the state of Pakistan and the TTP was still in place, the latter beheaded 23 soldiers of the Pakistan Army that it had abducted earlier and posted a gruesome video of this heinous act on February 17, 2014.
The Pakistan Army was enraged but worse was yet to come. On June 8, 2014, an atrocious attack with automatic weapons, rocket launchers and suicide jackets was launched on the Jinnah Terminal of Karachi Airport, 32 people were killed and it took several hours before the assailants were eliminated. The attackers, as claimed by a TTP spokesperson, were from the IMU and the assault was a joint effort of the TTP and IMU. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back and Zarb-e-Azb was launched in full fury on June 15, 2014, in the wake of the incessant pounding of militant hideouts from the air.
The TTP retaliated with a few bomb blasts and two major assaults, in particular, shook the nation. On November 2, 2014, an intrepid attack on the Wagah check post was thwarted, where thousands of people gather daily to witness the flag lowering ceremony by Pakistani and Indian troops. The suicide bomber was stopped at the gates, where he blew himself up and killed 55 people. Had he penetrated the gates, the casualties would have been much higher. The second carnage happened on December 16, 2014 when TTP targeted the Army Public School at Peshawar and brutally executed 142 persons, including 132 innocent children and their female principal.
Both these assaults, especially the latter, united the nation in its resolve to combat terror. The government of Pakistan has lifted the moratorium on capital punishment and the TTP militants, who had been languishing in Pakistani jails, have begun to be executed and intelligence and vigilance activities have been enhanced to take proactive action against terrorism.
A year in, Operation Zarb-e-Azb has inflicted heavy casualties on the militants and, according to ISPR, 2,763 militants have been killed by June 13 in 9,000 intelligence-based operations, including 218 terrorist commanders. Some 837 terrorist hideouts have been destroyed and 253 tonnes of explosives recovered so far during the operation, along with 18,087 weapons. It has also been claimed that 90 percent of NWA has been cleared of militants. More importantly, the overall security situation has improved and terrorist attacks in Pakistan have dropped to the lowest number since 2008.
The task ahead is more ominous. The senior leadership of the TTP, including its leader, Mullah Fazlullah is still at large, reportedly in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Afghan intelligence outfit, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) have signed an agreement to bolster coordination and intelligence sharing in the fight against terrorism. Time will prove the efficacy of the accord.
An important aspect of Zarb-e-Azb is to clear Pakistan’s cities of the terrorists hiding in populated areas and tracking and plugging the sources of financial backing to the terror mongers. The executors of the military operation have reached a snag in these efforts because of political misgivings. For Zarb-e-Azb to reach its logical conclusion, every Pakistani must wholeheartedly support the nation’s endeavour to eradicate terrorism while the armed forces must operate within the mandate of the civilian dispensation and parliament.

The writer is a former group captain of PAF, who also served as air and naval attaché at Riyadh. Currently, he is a columnist, analyst and a television show host