We are battling terrorists: Pakistan Army

Long under fire for backing the Taliban and the Haqqani network, the Pakistan Army is pitching the North Waziristan tribal agency, which borders Afghanistan, as a showcase of success for its anti-terror operations.

A spanking new complex with 1,300 shops in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, is waiting to be handed over as new hospitals, water supply schemes and micro-hydel projects have been built in the region.

Internally displaced persons are being facilitated to return to their homes in Miranshah, Brigadier Jawad, acting commander of the 7th division of the Pakistan Army’s Frontier Corps, told visiting South Asian journalists in his underground operations room.

There have been several American drone strikes in and around Miranshah, but none in the last few years since the Pakistan Army began conducting its own anti-terrorist operations.

The Pakistan Army has even built a special facility or “terrorist markaz (centre)” in Miranshah, putting on display seized arms and ammunition, suicide jackets, myriad types of improvised explosive devices and underground tunnels, similar to the ones the terrorists used.

There is also a room apparently used to “prepare” suicide bombers replete with pictures of young women, including a photograph of popular Bollywood star Rani Mukerji, that were to be available in “heaven” to the jihadi strikers.

In giving this unusual access on Monday to visiting journalists, including four Indians, the Pakistan Army wanted to send out a signal that it was battling hard against the terrorists.

“There is no organised terrorist sanctuary inside Pakistan,” military spokesman Asif Ghafoor told visiting correspondents on Sunday. “We have learnt it the hard way…whatever we will do, we will do in our national interest. We had no option but to fight terrorism. There was no foreign boot on the ground.”

It took our group one-and-a-half hours to fly in two choppers from Islamabad first to Ghulam Khan Kilay, a fort close to the Afghan border, and then 15-odd minutes to Miranshah. The Pakistani side is also busy fencing large portions of this unruly terrain, dotted with rolling hills.

“We plan to construct 443 forts in the area by December 2019. Also, a total of 830 km along the Afghan border in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are being fenced,” Brig. Jawad informs us in his swanky operations room.

A number of live screens in his operations room are from different parts of Miranshah, allowing the security forces to keep a remote watch on locations without having boots on the ground. The pictures are clear and locations change as Brig. Jawad briefs us.

Asked if terrorists continued to mount attacks, Brig. Jawad maintained there were some instances of IEDs being planted. Some infiltration from the Afghan side was also going on, he stated.

Unknown to the visiting journalists, who were taken on a conducted tour without giving access to locals, many tribesmen staged a protest on Monday in Mir Ali, a town some 14 km from Miranshah, demanding an end to “targeted killings”, reports in the Pakistani press said.