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Military action put off in Bajaur, Swat

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s security forces will suspend military operations against Taliban militants in Bajaur tribal agency starting midnight on Sunday until after Eid, the government has announced. A similar suspension is expected in Swat Valley of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Rehman Malik, who functions as Interior Minister, told journalists this was not a ceasefire. If militants tried to take advantage of the lull, the government would not hesitate to respond, he said. “If they fire a single bullet, we will respond with 10 bullets,” said Mr. Malik.

The suspension, called for Ramzan, which is due to begin later this week, would remain in force until the second day of Eid, he said.

Military operations in Bajaur and Swat began in early August. This time, after a series of reversals and personnel losses all of last year and the first half of this year, the security forces relied not so much on ground troops as on air power.

The military for the first time in the “war against terror” brought out its premier fighter jets, reportedly including F-16s, to pound militant targets. Helicopter gun-ships were also used.

Bajaur is one of the Federally Administered Tribal Agencies (FATA), while Swat is in the NWFP. The operations are reported to be among the most successful by the security forces against militants in recent times. They are said to have killed hundreds of militants and dispersed several hundreds more. On Saturday, the Army said it had killed 40 militants in an airstrike on a militant stronghold in Peochar Valley in Swat. Among the dead, an Army spokesman told journalists, were two senior commanders of Mullah Fazlullah.

One indicator of the tightening corner for the militants was the Tehreek-e-Taliban offer of a ceasefire, which the government rejected. Instead, the government announced a ban on the organisation, and the much touted peace talks with the head of the Pakistani Taliban, Beithullah Mehsud, who is based in South Wazirisitan, have all but ended, as they have with the Taliban in Swat.

But the aerial bombardment led to a massive human displacement, with an estimated 3,00,000 people fleeing Bajaur for the safety of cities in the NWFP. Mr. Malik said 23,000 people had returned to their homes, and urged others to do so as well, assuring them that the security forces would look after them. One of the most significant aspects of these operations is that for the first time, there have been few protests against the military action despite the decision to use jets to bomb these areas.

The Pakistan Muslim League (N) and religious parties only routinely condemned the operations, brought attention to the plight of the refugees, and called on the government to find a political solution, but there were no strong expressions of outrage, even in the National Assembly or Senate. Even the ban on the Tehreek-e-Taliban did not evoke any reactions.

The military operations have not prevented Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islami, from supporting the candidature of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari in the September 6 presidential elections.

Analysts say public opinion has undergone a major change, especially after the recent suicide attacks that were owned up the Tehreek-e-Taliban. Earlier, most people saw the Taliban as “our own people” who were “misguided” and could be brought back to the mainstream through talks. But that has changed to anger in recent weeks after two gruesome attacks in which the victims were mostly civilians.

Mr. Malik said in the tribal areas, the locals have started playing a role against militants, stopping them from entering their areas and fighting them if they resisted. He said satellites were being used to monitor militants’ activities and 562 militants had been arrested in recent days.

The government was pursuing a “no leniency policy” towards militants, he said. But in a somewhat contradictory move, the government on Saturday allowed the reopening of Jamia Fareedia, the boys’ madrasa that was being run by the Lal Masjid clerics. The reopening of the seminary and suspension of military operations in Bajaur for Ramzan were both cited by Mr. Rehman on Saturday as among his reasons for supporting Mr. Zardari for the presidential polls.

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