Pakistan To End Operation In Swat
Abdulhadi Hairan
June 23, 2009
A Pakistan army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said on Monday that the military operation in Swat was entering its final phase. Meanwhile, on Tuesday morning, according to reliable sources, a pro-army militant commander Qari Zainuddin Mehsud was shot dead by his close aide, Gulbadin Mehsud, in Dera Ismail Khan.
Qari Zainuddin was a rival of Baitullah Mehsud, the central commander of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He recently came to fame after interviewing different media outlets saying that he had developed differences with Baitullah Mehsud on their policy of fighting in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Qari Zainuddin was on the view that they should fight only in Afghanistan and that fighting against the Pakistan army was against Islamīs teachings. A Taliban commander immediately rejected his views and said that he was not a commander of the Taliban but an agent of the Pakistan army.
In Rawalpindi, Mr Abbas said that 1592 militants were killed in the ongoing operation in Swat region. One day earlier the country's Prime Minister, Syed Yousuf Reza Gilani claimed that the entire top leadership of the militants was either killed or arrested. But he could not give a satisfactory answer to the question about whereabouts of Mullah Fazlullah, the Emir of the militants in Swat whose father-in-law, Mullah Sufi Mohammad, himself a leader of another extremist group called Tehrik-e-Nifaz-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) was released by the government just after it came into power after the landslide elections.
Swat has suffered the most violent activities of the extremist elements in recent years. About 3 million people were displaced and thousands killed. Now the actual question is that the militants were in thousands - supposedly at least ten thousand. There is no proof that their leader, Mullah Fazlullah, is either killed or wounded. So where did they go? The government of Pakistan may have succeeded in displacing them, but they are surely not eliminated. So why does the government of Pakistan just want to end the operation? Is it not possible that the militants get organize in another area and then start their activities there like they have done in past? The same process will begin from the start again.
If the government of Pakistan and its army is really serious in eliminating the threat of terrorism and extremism, they must follow the terrorists everywhere they go, a general demand of the people.
Qari Zainuddin was a rival of Baitullah Mehsud, the central commander of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He recently came to fame after interviewing different media outlets saying that he had developed differences with Baitullah Mehsud on their policy of fighting in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Qari Zainuddin was on the view that they should fight only in Afghanistan and that fighting against the Pakistan army was against Islamīs teachings. A Taliban commander immediately rejected his views and said that he was not a commander of the Taliban but an agent of the Pakistan army.
In Rawalpindi, Mr Abbas said that 1592 militants were killed in the ongoing operation in Swat region. One day earlier the country's Prime Minister, Syed Yousuf Reza Gilani claimed that the entire top leadership of the militants was either killed or arrested. But he could not give a satisfactory answer to the question about whereabouts of Mullah Fazlullah, the Emir of the militants in Swat whose father-in-law, Mullah Sufi Mohammad, himself a leader of another extremist group called Tehrik-e-Nifaz-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) was released by the government just after it came into power after the landslide elections.
Swat has suffered the most violent activities of the extremist elements in recent years. About 3 million people were displaced and thousands killed. Now the actual question is that the militants were in thousands - supposedly at least ten thousand. There is no proof that their leader, Mullah Fazlullah, is either killed or wounded. So where did they go? The government of Pakistan may have succeeded in displacing them, but they are surely not eliminated. So why does the government of Pakistan just want to end the operation? Is it not possible that the militants get organize in another area and then start their activities there like they have done in past? The same process will begin from the start again.
If the government of Pakistan and its army is really serious in eliminating the threat of terrorism and extremism, they must follow the terrorists everywhere they go, a general demand of the people.