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A war for survival, says Gilani

ISLAMABAD: As the Army continued operations on Saturday in the Swat Valley of the North-West Frontier Province to wrest it from Taliban militants, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani asked the country to support the “war for the future of the nation”.

Military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas claimed 55 more militants had been killed in the fighting in Swat. Operations are also on in the adjoining districts of Dir and Buner.

Displaced people are pouring into refugee camps in the NWFP’s Mardan district from these three districts and other parts of the Malakand region. The Pakistan government has formed a special fund for the displaced, but with the numbers expected to rise to half a million, the NWFP government has appealed to the international community for financial help.

Mr. Gilani announced that Cabinet Ministers had donated more than Rs. 200 million to the special fund, besides giving a month’s salary.

At a press conference after a meeting of his Ministers, Mr. Gilani said the Cabinet had declared the militants as “anti-state elements” and fully endorsed the government’s decision to carry out a full-scale operation against them.

He declined to set a time-frame for the operations, but said it was necessary for people to give their full backing to the Army.

“This is not a normal war. It is a guerilla war. It is our resolve and the Army’s resolve that there should be minimum collateral damage and that the operation should finish as early as possible.” He said the militants opposed Pakistan’s constitution and the institutions of the state, and the government had no option but to take on the “open rebellion” militarily.

“This is our war, it is a war for the country’s survival, it is a war for the future of our people,” he said. “I appeal to the people to support the Army as they are fighting for the country’s future”.

All provincial governments have been directed to be vigilant against a possible terror backlash to the military operation in Swat.

The National Assembly will meet on Monday to discuss the operation. Mr. Gilani said he had already taken the leaders of all political parties into confidence about the operations, and had their support for it.

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