The NWA operation

The prospects of peace in the border regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan are being evaluated in the backdrop of reopening of the NATO supply routes from Pakistan’s side, the visible surge in green-on-blue attacks and the reported pressure on Islamabad to launch an all encompassing military operation in the North Waziristan Agency. Gen John Allen, the chief of NATO forces in Afghanistan, has already said in his recent article that Mullah Omar and his deputies are in Pakistan, from where they are sending the Taliban for attacks on the forces in Afghanistan. This is added with the beheading of 15 Pakistani soldiers at the hands of brutal Taliban with a clear message to act. The pressure is being built to launch a ‘decisive’ operation, which means the one-time ‘strategic assets’ of the government in Waziristan, Haji Gul Bahadur and Sirajuddin Haqqani should now be considered as the enemy. The question is if Pakistan can do it?
The forces long engaged in destabilizing Pakistan have raised the ante as if going for the decisive push against this country.
That’s why General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, the Chief of Army Staff, in his landmark August 14 speech at PMA Kakul said that Pakistan is faced with its own internal threats that endanger its solidarity and survival; and that the ongoing war on terror is now Pakistan’s own war. Now Pakistan has to decide whether this operation is necessary as it fights for survival against the militants.
Peace cannot return to Afghanistan and Pakistan, particularly to the troubled border region, unless both the countries, and all the stakeholders, play their part of role in genuinely bringing this deadly war to an end with an aim to let the people of Afghanistan themselves decide for the future of their own.