Army’s bogus operation in North Waziristan – by Laleen Ahmad
The Army spokesman has said, “We are launching operation Zarb-e-Azb to “eliminate these terrorists regardless of hue and colour, along with their sanctuaries” and laudatory voices have filled every space in Pakistan. The voices are noticeable for their monotony, but their sources are not. There are media men who have always cheered the Army even when it kills, as it has routinely done, kits own people and takes over prime-location properties anywhere in the country. And there are not-seeing-is-believing gullible of the Islamic republic. Yes, the ever hopeful, the ever silver-lining-in-the-cloud type are excited once again. Whether they will later be disabused of their gullibility or not is not an issue. The issue is that the Army, the true ruling elite of Pakistan, continues to make fool of the people of Pakistan. After spending years under General Kiyani on “good Taliban” and “our brothers,” the Army has now wants the people to believe that the hour of reckoning has finally arrived. The Army under the capable leadership of General Kiyani befooled people for six years. Now that the Taliban-are-good ploy has run out of steam, it is time to take a counter position and keep the nation busy speculating for a few years more. Needless to say, the morally corrupt political elite comprised of the likes of Imran Khan and the Sharif brothers continue to obfuscate the terrorism issue. The picture of socio-political misery of the Islamic republic is complete.
The Pakistani Army claims to have launched an anti-Taliban campaign “Zarb-e-Azb,” which is no more than an Orwellian construct like so many other constructs it has launched in the past. There are a few points one can make to expose the fraudulent campaign. First, the Army in its own words has not said a thing about the Taliban. It says that the operation has been launched to destroy the foreign terrorists. By this is meant Uzbek and Chechen terrorists living in North Waziristan, and not the Taliban. Second, let’s suppose the campaign is targeted at the Taliban too. The question is: How many Taliban are hiding in North Waziristan? How many high-level Taliban leaders are hiding in North Waziristan? Certainly, there are no data on it.
ARE THE TALIBAN SIMPLY WAITING FOR F-16’s TO SHOW UP?
The most important question which is never asked by the partisan media and commentators: Where are the Taliban? When you vociferously harp on ‘action,’ do you think the Taliban will wait for the jets to come and bomb them? If the Army really wants to take on terrorism, it should attack the terrorism instead of bomb empty spaces and killing a few hundred ‘foreign’ terrorists. Taliban in their various garbs such as Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat and a host of Deobandi outfits are not based in North Waziristan. They freely operate and kill Shias, Barelvis, Hindus, Ahmadis, and Christians all over Pakistan. They are based in the thousands of Deobandi seminaries which the Saudi money has established. Unless these seminaries are attacked and destroyed, the terrorists will continue to flourish under the patronage of the Army as they have till now.
Once again the Army has lied through its teeth. There is not going to be any action against the Deobandi terrorists. It is the Army which claims it is going to launch the anti-terrorist operation. It is the Army which will be giving ‘facts’ on the details of the operation. And it will be the Army which will continue to kill non-existent terrorists in empty spaces and celebrate ‘yet another’ victory over the terrorists. The judge, the jury, and the executioner all rolled into one, and you have the Pakistan Army and its pseudo-operations. The rest is in God’s hands who lives beyond the skies.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and Jamaat-i-Islami are up to their old tricks and trying to create a safe space for the mass murdering Deobandi Taliban Terrorists. Both parties have provided political cover to Deobandi Taliban and tried their best to use dirty tricks to protect their fellow Deobandis
POLITICAL UMBRELLA AND SAVING “GOOD” TALIBAN FOR THE FUTURE :
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) complained of not being taken on board, the operation is selective and poorly planned:
http://www.nation.com.pk/islamabad/17-Jun-2014/selective-operation-in-nwa-not-to-end-terrorism-jui-f
Jamat e Islami played the smart political card of appealing to Taliban to disarm and join the JI in the political process.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1113185
While this operation has been on the cards for a long time why are they bringing up these issues?
When Pakistan Army was fighting Al Queda after 9/11, street demonstrations by JUI and JI commenced against our armed forces. They disparaged the Pakistan Army as an American agent, while completely ignoring the fact that the national Army was fighting terrorist for national interests.
It is clear from their historical political ploys that JUI and JI are more interested in securing their Deoabandi Taliban allies than Pakistani National interest. These parties have a history of providing Umbrella political support for Deobandi Terror groups.
General Raheel Ashraf and the Pakistan Army should be aware that the cowardly Taliban have a history of escaping in “burqa” . The will not hesitate to escape among IDPs or any other disguise. They have already announced that they will seek revenge by attacking innocent Sunni Brelvi, Shia and other Pakistanis in Urban areas. Their support bases for launching such attacks will be Deobandi Madrassas in the metropolitan areas.
LUBP identified alleged support center for the Karachi Airport attack at a ASWJ Deobandi Madrassa in Pehlwan Ghot near the Karachi Airport. This was also the source of firing on the following day after the Karachi Airport Attack. Dawn news has produced a comprehensive report about similar support by Madrassas in Islamabad for terrorist attacks in the Federal Capital.
Deobandi Madrassa Ashraf ul Madaris is the logical support center for Karachi Airport attacks
The media is hiding the fact that logistical support came form ASWJ LEJ TTP stonghold of Pehlwan Ghot. As in the case of Islamabad Dawn Joint Police Report: Deobandi Terrorists get material support from Deobandi Madrassas, the role of Ashraf ul Madaris in Pehlwan Ghot need to be thoroughly discussed and highlighted in the media. The right wing Pakistan media is continuing to spin apologies for Deobandi terror support centers or Madrassas despite the fact that the second Karachi airport attack came from Pehlwan Ghot as well. Social media is reporting a possible a third attack not reported on Pakistani media.
– See more at: https://lubpak.com/archives/314580
TAKFIRI DEOBANDI FASCIST ROAM FREE IN SENSITIVE AREAS:
While the real terrorists are walking around armed to the teeth in urban Pakistan leaving a trail of death wherever they go:
Aurangzeb Farooqi of Deobandi Fascist AWSJ Sipah Sahaba TTP LEJ spreading hat and killing Sunni Brelvi Shia and minorities
Is it a coincidence that eight Shia Pashtun IDP’s are massacred,while the notorious Deobandi Taliban Terrorist leader Aurangzeb Farooqi casts his evil shadow in KPK?
Zarb-e-Azb: Deobandi ASWJ terrorists massacre eight Shia Pashtun IDPs in Hangu
ARMY NEED TO CLARIFY WHO THEY ARE FIGHTING & TAKE HOLISTIC ACTION
Renowned ring leaders of a #TTP allied declared terrorist outfit were allowed to roam freely and pass through Kohat tunnel today. It is a legitimate question to ask why and if Army is not operating against these people then who you is the Army fighting? #ASS #LeJ #ZARBeAZAB
Logical conclusion is to empower rangers and police to clean out Deobandi Madrassas. Hate speaking Mullahs should be immediately arrested and replaced with moderate scholars. There cannot be an effective operation without a holistic approach to taking out all fascist Deobandi groups. The groups that pretend to be moderate are simply there to provide political cover or hideouts.
LEJ is the KING-MAKERS in Pakistan.
Main Weapon is 9 m.m. Handguns with support from Punjab Police & Judiciary.
(BUT THE GAME IS BEING PLAYED UNDER THE SHELTER SAHABA KIRAAM)
WRONG KILLINGS IN THE NAME OF SAHABA KIRAAM IS CONTINOUSLY INCREASING GREAT HATES FOR THE SAHABA KIRAAM.
According to the press release by the ISPR on last Sunday, “our valiant armed forces have been tasked to eliminate these terrorists regardless of hue and color, along with their sanctuaries”. The statement further says, “ With the support of the entire nation, and in coordination with other state institutions and Law Enforcement Agencies, these enemies of the state will be denied space anywhere across the country”.
That roughly puts the operation objectives as follows. One: all terrorist organizations having sanctuaries in NW would be eliminated regardless of what nationality and tribe they belong to, which means, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Afghan militants, Uzbeks and Chechens along with all other shades of sectarian outfits etc. whosoever is present in NW. Two: The sanctuaries of all kinds of terrorists would be eliminated. Three: The target will be the groups who are against the state of Pakistan (just to remind, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and other such outfits are not against the state of Pakistan). Four: The ‘enemies of the state’ would be targeted wherever they are over the length and breadth of the country.
Now that describes a rather tall order. If one is getting the objectives right, the operation has to extend to the settled areas of Pakistan sooner or later. The ones our army seems to be well intentioned to eliminate – the TTP and Uzbek/Chechen mix – have strong support from the groups operating in settled areas of urban Pakistan with impunity. There has been strong circumstantial evidence to suggest ideological, tactical, operational and logistic ties between LeJ, Ahl-eSunnah-Wal-Jamaat (ASWJ), Lashkar-e-Toyeba (LeT), TTP, Punjabi Taliban and other Al-Qaida affiliated groups.
In 2009, Pakistan Army’s GHQ was attacked and several officers were held hostage by the militants. The LeJ chief Malik Ishaq who was serving jail term in Lahore, was flown in a military plane to Islamabad and was ‘requested’ to mediate between military authorities and the militants. The attack was later claimed bythe AmjadFaruqi group of TTP.
In April this year, former Interior Minister Rehman Malik verified strong links between TTP and LeJciting reports of investigation agencies. He said that the two groupshad been frequently claiming the responsibility of each other’s terror activities. Earlier, three terrorists were identified who were killed in a case of mistakenly exploded bomb in ManghoPir in Karachi in October 2013.UmerKhattab, a senior CID officer had told the media at that time that two deceased terrorists identified as Rafiullah Baloch and Abdul Majid Baloch were from TTP while the third one,Saqib alias Saqib Punjabi was fromLashkar-e-Jhangvi.
There has been some very disturbing news about alleged ties of LeJ with elements within the military establishment, which the new army leadership is expected to fix on priority basis. According to an excerpt from The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001-2014 by Carlotta Gall, some of her sources inside Pakistan Army reported to her about the conversation between the then-Army Chief Gen (R) Pervez Kayani and LeJ chief Malik Ishaq during the post-GHQ attack negotiations. When Gen Kayani asked Malik Ishaq to stop sectarian killings, Malik Ishaq reportedly replied, “We are your children but we will not follow this”. On which General Kayani, Gall writes, preferred to remain silent.
There are umpteen other instances where ferocious militants like Usman Saifullah Kurd (LeJ operational head of Balochistan), DawoodBadini (Second-in-Command of LeJBalocistan), Shakirullah Jan (LeJGilgit/Baltistan) and Arifuddin (LeJGilgit/Baltistan) among others, were allowed to escape from high security detention facilities controlled by army and FC in Quetta and Gilgit-Baltistan.
It is, thus, very important for the army leadership to look into these holes within its own establishment if a strategy of seeing militants as their strategic assets and proxies is no more being followed.
Rehman Malik’s statement of last April also claimed the presence of 500 ‘terrorists’ of Ghazi Force in Kohat and in seminaries of Islamabad. He further claimed, which has also been independently reported by various journalists that pery-urban areas in Islamabad’s vicinity especially Bara Kahu had become strongholds of terrorists.Meaning thereby, that the blowback of Zarb-e-Azb would be an un-manageable Zarb-e-Azeem (the great strike) from militants if countrywide terrorist sanctuaries are not decimated.
In short, Zarb-e-Azb would be a litmus test of whether Pakistan has had any change of mind on the use of proxies to serve its geo-political agenda. If the strategic depth doctrine still exists in the shape it existed in 1990s and most of 2000s, the hope of these terrorist groups being shunned completely, is rather misplaced. The progressive forces in Pakistan, while extending all out support to our Armed Forces for Zarb-e-Azb, are keeping their fingers crossed for a real change in the right direction.
The writer is an Islamabad based defender of human rights and works on democratic governance.
[email protected]
http://www.nation.com.pk/columns/17-Jun-2014/zarb-e-azb-good-luck-pak-army
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