The issue is not that Army should conduct a province-wide operation, anyone who knows the province knows that it will end up in being a stalemate. The place is too darn big, with an extremely inhospitable terrain (where a single mountain can absorb 1000 men and not even tell) that favors small guerilla forces.
What I truly fail to understand is how in God's name they have not standardized response procedures to such attacks now? This is not the first time but almost 6-7th such attack in 2 years. Where we're witnessing multi-hour gun battles, while air support present literally 20-50 miles away does not move. This is beyond sheer incompetency, it's not as if there's a different version of Army deployed in KP and some other version is in Quetta. Why are their tactics not changing as per the situation? This is a policy decision. Not incompetency, hence the buck lies with the Chief.