ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has finally succumbed to US pressure and has
given commitment to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit
last week to move against pockets of militants in North Waziristan.
According
to well-placed sources, the military already present in North
Waziristan the alleged home of so-called Haqqani network would carry
out selective actions covered by Pakistan Air Force’s surgical strikes.
Spokespersons of both Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) and PAF
were not available for comments despite daylong efforts on part of
Online.
The sources told this agency on Sunday that the PAF has
already started preemptive measures to ward off retaliatory suicide
attacks by the militants once it begins surgical strikes assisting
troops on ground in North Waziristan. “The Air Force already started
reducing unnecessary non-operational staff at its bases which are
considered possible target of retaliatory attacks by the militants,”
the sources said.
According to the sources the civilian
government is tasked to manage the media in the wake of operation by
portraying it as selective actions against only those that challenge
its write whether in North Waziristan or elsewhere.
When asked
Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan declined to comment on this
issue saying, “it was not her subject and Foreign Affairs Ministry was
the right forum to ask such questions.”
Foreign Office
spokesperson Tehmina Janjua when asked the same question the other day
during her weekly briefing also hoodwinked the questioner. “We are
committed to continue to fight against terrorism and to take any step
required in this regard,” was her answer to question of specific steps
Clinton stated in her Presser Pakistani leadership had assured her to
take on immediate basis.
The sources on the other hand had
insisted that Pakistani leadership, civilian and military, in unison
had bartered the undertaking to operate against militants in North
Waziristan with the clean chit Clinton granted to them in Osama Ben
Laden’s case.
A full-fledged military operation clean up has
been a long standing demand of the US that it considered as one of the
safe havens for militants. The political government had left it to
military leadership to decide whether or not to carry out an operation
in North Waziristan. Pakistan’s military leadership at the same time
has been saying that it was unable to open anymore fronts of war while
operating against militants in most of Federally Administered Tribal
Areas besides guarding the Eastern borders with archrival India.
It
is also pertinent to note here that American drones have been focusing
targets in North Waziristan during last many months despite an
unequivocal protest registered by Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Pervez
Kayani. Even during her last briefing the FO spokesperson has described
drones as persistent irritant in the bilateral relations between the
two countries. “Differences remain over the issue drone attacks but the
two sides agreed to continue discussing the matter at every level,” she
had added.
According to the sources, the civilian as well as
military leadership believed that surgical strikes in North Waziristan
would possibly minimize drone attacks that fuel anti-American sentiment
across the country besides putting another question mark of Pakistan’s
sovereignty with each predator strike. Online
