Army ups the ante on Taliban

ISLAMABAD

A meeting of the corps commanders, chaired by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif, on Friday decided that airstrikes on terrorist hideouts would continue in case of attacks on military installations.
The meeting was briefed on goals achieved by surgical strikes against terrorist hideouts in North Waziristan. It also expressed satisfaction over successful airstrikes on the hideouts in retaliation to a spate of brazen attacks in the country.
According to military sources, the meeting also focused on the country’s internal security issues as well as on professional matters relating to the military.
The meeting is also scheduled to discuss the selection of military representatives for negotiations with the banned terrorist outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), sources added.
Gen Sharif is also expected to take the corps commanders into confidence over his visit to the United Arab Emirates.
Separately, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that the government could launch a military operation against the TTP in the tribal areas as early as this month.
On Monday, terrorists burst into a courtroom in Islamabad and killed 11 people, including a judge, dashing chances of a peace deal with the TTP. The TTP, however, denied any role in the assault, with a splinter group claiming responsibility.
Asif said that the government would not hesitate to bomb terrorist hideouts or send forces into the Federally Administered Tribal Areas if the Taliban did not abide by the ceasefire announced last weekend.
“It will not take months now. We’ll have to march in the month of March,” Asif said of the government’s response if terrorist attacks continued. “If there is a ceasefire, it has to be complete. Without that, we just can’t afford to have talks with the Taliban.”
Asif, long considered a pro-talks politician, is one of a growing number of members of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s cabinet who believe it is time for tougher military action against TTP strongholds.
The PM has been under pressure from the US and hawks within the Pakistan Army to send troops into North Waziristan, a tribal region along the Afghan border that is home to a complex web of terrorist groups linked to al Qaeda.
Since 2007, the military has mounted a number of offensives against terrorist strongholds in the north-west, largely clearing several areas, including their bastion of South Waziristan. But North Waziristan has not been tackled, even though the TTP has taken refuge there along with allied Afghan factions not fighting the Pakistani state.
In February, Pakistan launched talks with the Taliban to find a negotiated settlement. But hopes of a peace deal have been crushed by a series of attacks and counter-attacks by both sides.
“We won’t just take this lying down,” Asif said. “If we are attacked, the state is attacked, civilians are attacked, military personal are attacked, we will retaliate. We will retaliate in kind.”
Despite the government pursuing peace talks, Asif said there were very few takers for the argument that the Taliban are truly committed to dialogue.
“The Taliban have not even condemned this so-called splinter group four days after the attack. They are saying, ‘We have not violated a ceasefire, these are peripheral groups, they are not under our control,'” he said. “But we cannot believe this.”
When asked about reports that talks may be relaunched, this time with Pakistan Army in the driving seat, Asif said, “The army’s input is very valuable. They are the people on the frontlines. They have to execute our decisions.”
The push for talks with the TTP is driven to a large extent by government fears that the end of the US combat mission in Afghanistan this year could energise a resilient insurgency straddling the shared frontier.
“If in the post-withdrawal period, the Afghan Taliban become stronger and carve out an area of influence in the south and east of Afghanistan, which is next to our border – that’s a scenario we should even avoid thinking of. Because then the Pakistani Taliban will have a powerhouse behind them, to support them. This option is there and everyone should try to avoid it,” the minister said.
For sceptics, there is another scenario Pakistan wants to avoid at all costs: an unfriendly Afghanistan backed by India. Pakistan and India, nuclear-armed neighbours, have long suspected each other’s motives in Afghanistan.
As NATO’s presence fades, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has turned to India. The countries have signed a wide-ranging strategic partnership and Delhi has pledged billions in development aid. Pakistan has for years been suspicious of the help, going as far as to say Indian consulates are surveillance posts.
But Asif said Pakistan, and particularly its army, which has for decades jealously guarded the right to dictate policy on Afghanistan, had evolved.
“We have evidence that India is meddling in Afghanistan, no doubt,” he said. “But I’m a believer that if the conditions in the four walls of your own house are stable, nobody from outside will try to enter. We give India the opportunity.”