Zarb-e-Azb is a welcome news to everyone who is tired of waiting for a response to the plague of terrorism and wondering just how many innocents must be killed before decisive action is taken against the jihadi networks that have taken root in our country. Our hopes have been renewed by Nawaz Sharif’s promise that operation would continue ‘until terrorism is eliminated from the country’. It is worth noting that even PTI has given its blessing after years of dragging its heels and claiming that the military can never succeed against Taliban.
Even with this renewed hope, still there is some small worry that clings to my mind however, which is whether these new military operations represent a new direction or merely a bigger version of the same incomplete strategy that has been the tale so far.
The worries are based in some details of reports from the operations. For example, many of the first reports emphasised targeting of foreign terrorists.
Local security officials put the death toll far higher, saying that about 150 militants died in the air strikes, which primarily targeted Uzbek militants in a remote area of the tribal agency.
Following these reports, ISPR issued statements that also suggested that despite being larger and louder, the new operations were still targeting only certain militants.
The operation is not targeted against our valiant tribes of North Waziristan but against those terrorists who are holed up in the Agency and have picked up arms against the state of Pakistan.
Such ambiguity raises the question in my mind whether PTI has endorsed the operation after receiving assurances over their concerns about the protection of so-called ‘Good Taliban’.
He also said that groups such as the Haqqani network have no war with Pakistan and are being isolated without reason. “Does the government want to burn all cards for the incoming government in Afghanistan?”
Trying to remove only the ‘anti-Pakistan’ jihadis while protecting the ‘pro-Pakistan’ jihadis is like trying to swat only the mosquitoes that bite your self while protecting those that bite your neighbors.
Pakistan can no longer afford to accept this false belief in ‘Good Taliban’ and ‘Bad Taliban’, and no operations based in this lie can be successful. Inshallah our military has finally begun decisive action that will finally remove the plague of terrorism from our borders. Otherwise, no matter how impressively named the operation, it will only be delaying the inevitable…
