Pakistan and the US are at odds over the nature of likely military operation in North Waziristan Agency, as Islamabad is for a ‘targeted offensive’ in specific areas inhabited by the ‘terrorists’, for which the air force and land forces could be used together, but Washington wants an all out army action encompassing the whole tribal agency. Pakistan agrees that there is a need to take out the terrorists in North Waziristan, foreign militants affiliated with al Qaeda and the Hakeemullah Mehsud led Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has been involved in a number of deadly acts of subversion, including recent terrorist attack on Pakistan Air Force (PAF) base ‘Minhas’ in Kamra. Pakistani security forces are of the view that areas of North Waziristan where the TTP militants have been operating since they were evicted from the adjoining South Waziristan Agency would be targeted. The same principle goes for areas where foreign militants are present, but Islamabad believes the remaining part of the agency was peaceful and stable and any action there would result in the dislocation of tribesmen in large numbers and create serious problems. “Pakistani security circles believe that a targeted offensive in North Waziristan could serve the purpose for which land forces in limited numbers along with fighter planes could be used instead of an all out military operation in the tribal region,” a diplomatic source said on condition of anonymity. However, he said contrary to what Islamabad believed, the US authorities wanted an all out and full-fledged army operation in North Waziristan, as they were more interested in action against the Haqqani network, which they claim is based in North Waziristan. The US officials have been blaming Pakistani security circles of being soft on the Haqqani network and they have been urging Islamabad for months now to take action against the militant outfit, which they hold responsible for most of the recent attacks on American and Afghan forces in Afghanistan. The source said the US administration was also urging Pakistan to launch a military operation in North Waziristan without any further delay and eliminate all alleged sanctuaries of terrorists there. Pakistan has always denied the US allegations of taking sides in the war on terror and supporting the Haqqani network, saying it had no favorites when it came to militant organizations operating on both sides of the Afghan border.
