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Footprints: Dispatches from North Waziristan

babajees

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Footprints: Dispatches from North Waziristan


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IT has not gone unnoticed that ever since Operation Zarb-i-Azb was launched, details emerging about the operation are completely one-sided. Few details are appearing from the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and those trapped in the area. The ISPR has been constantly issuing press releases making various claims, such as killing scores of militants, on a daily basis. But my clandestine trips to Mirali and Miramshah and the ordinary people that I met in Bannu show a different picture.

I met 65-year-old Zahir Shah from Miramshah in Bannu who was with his family in a truck. He had one of the most heart-rending stories to narrate about his difficult journey. “It feels like the Day of Judgment. I may seem alive to you but inside I am dead. No warnings were given about the impending operation. The bomb attacks started suddenly and I had to leave two of my sick children behind. I handed them over to Shawwal Scouts belonging to the Afridi tribe requesting them to bury my children should they die.”

Shah’s version appears to have some basis because some local journalists and I had managed to slip into Dattakhel, a village west of Miramshah in North Waziristan Agency, and were present on June 15 when a curfew was imposed unexpectedly and the operation was launched without a proper announcement. The aman jirga and the tribal maliks had been meeting officials for nearly a month to delay the operation. However, this did not happen.

According to Shah and other IDPs, Miramshah Bazaar, a source of livelihood for many, has been completely destroyed. “Air strikes have killed many civilians including women and children and hardly any terrorists. Ordinary civilians have also been shot at sight,” claimed Shah. Though Shah said this with authority, his claim — like those of the military — cannot be independently verified.

I was in Mirali nearly 20 days ago. There I saw a house reduced to rubble and I could smell decomposing human flesh. A bystander claimed that the house was bombarded at 1:30am in which 24 members of a family were killed. A girl of about seven to eight years of age survived. Noor Behram, a journalist friend, also undertook an arduous 26-hour journey from Miramshah to Bannu with his family when the operation began unannounced. “There was no way to get out. Roads were closed. We walked all the way to the Sadgai checkpoint on the Bannu-Miramshah Road. My wife and children traversed hidden paths; climbed mountainous tracks all day and night to somehow reach the checkpoint, which is a mere 25-minute drive by car from Miramshah. But it took us 26 hours to reach the checkpoint.”

Behram also spoke about the ordeal he and the other IDPs have faced at the hands of security forces during registration. First is the seemingly never-ending wait with thousands of men, women, children, senior citizens and invalids waiting for their turn. Then, everyone goes through a body search, their CNICs are checked, they are cross-questioned and are handed chits which basically say that they are not Taliban and are going to Bannu.

And there are numerous such tales. Mohammad Saiyyid said that air strikes nearly flattened his house. “I was picking bits of rubble when my wife screamed at me and said leave all this, let’s take whatever remains of our essential belongings, grab the children and get out of here. We thought we were the only ones but when I turned to look at my house for the last time I saw a sea of people behind me with their belongings and their families. We went uphill and covered a path of many kilometres. Women in our households observe strict purdah, to see them like this in the open…,” Saiyyid couldn’t speak further.

After hearing everyone’s stories, I cannot help but recall Operation Rah-i-Nijaat launched in 2009 in South Waziristan. At the time, the army claimed that within two months the operation would end. It has been five years and the operation is ongoing. Thousands of Mehsuds were displaced and are now living a difficult life in Tank, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan with some of them subsisting on leftover rotis. The Taliban are present in South Waziristan where they are engaged in an insurgency against the state.

A Taliban commander Gilamand Mehsud called me up and admitted that their men have been killed and injured but not in the hundreds as claimed by the army. “So far nine men have been killed and five injured,” asserted Mehsud.

However, my sources tell me that four days ago, six bodies were found lying in Mirali Bazaar and by their appearance they seem to be Taliban. So far neither the army nor the Taliban have claimed them.

—As narrated to Maleeha Hamid Siddiqui

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2014
 
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Isn't North Waziristan all evacuated of civilians by now? And whoever is staying behind is more than likely questionable and suspicious to be a militant. There was an air strike today with 15 casualties, no doubt those were talibs.

Also, talibs have cut their beards and hair and some are among the IDPs spreading false propaganda against the army. A perfect and effective strategy on ttp's part. Introduce yourself as the father of 7 dead children in the recent PAF air strike, or the merchant who's business and livelihood has been destroyed by the army operation.
 
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If you don't leave the area as an IDP then prepare to die because you are either an idiot or a terrorist or a terrorist sympathizer
 
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@babajees good for u if such stories satisfy's you...

the truth will never satisfy you. sleep peacefully.

If you don't leave the area as an IDP then prepare to die because you are either an idiot or a terrorist or a terrorist sympathizer

Nationalism makes one blind? Compare your statement and attitude to the Israeli jews. They say the same thing about Palestinians

If the army is so good, why doesn't it let journalists go in that area? (dont tell me safety... they can go to Iraq/Syria/Palestine/Somalia/Afghanistan but not FATA)
 
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Might be propaganda or false news but if this was the same case in Kashmir then it is the universal truth.
 
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the truth will never satisfy you. sleep peacefully.



Nationalism makes one blind? Compare your statement and attitude to the Israeli jews. They say the same thing about Palestinians

If the army is so good, why doesn't it let journalists go in that area? (dont tell me safety... they can go to Iraq/Syria/Palestine/Somalia/Afghanistan but not FATA)

Its not Palestine, its Pak territory.

There is media blackout because Indians love sucking their own dick and twisting truth.

I want complete and utter media control and blackout for at least a year.

In war both good and bad die. That is the price for peace. In the end the people living there will be better off.

You should spare us your morality and go cry about the plight of the Kashmiris your army has been raping for half a century.
 
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No doubt it maybe some causalities in forward areas but army warned and asked them to evacuate. Army neither take risk to evacuate the peoples from their area one by one. It will take so much time for operation and also it will supportive to talibs.
 
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Its not Palestine, its Pak territory.

There is media blackout because Indians love sucking their own dick and twisting truth.

I want complete and utter media control and blackout for at least a year.

In war both good and bad die. That is the price for peace. In the end the people living there will be better off.

You should spare us your morality and go cry about the plight of the Kashmiris your army has been raping for half a century.

First of all, My Army raped millions in Bengladesh while your kind was doing a media blackout. My Army is killing muslims for USA in FATA and Afghanistan. My army is Pakistan Army. Your Army must be India's

BTW, Pakistan Army has killed more people in FATA and Pakistan than Indian army has in Kashmir
Pakistan Army has blacker laws in FATA (FCR and now PPO) then Indian laws in Kashmir (POTA)
 
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Nothing but Taliban propaganda, let's see, it claims the indiscriminate killings of civillians, the affront to 'Purdah' of women to appeal to the ghairat of the Pushtun, claims IDPs are treated like criminals. Yep, it covers all the angles as much as it can.

Don't stop the operation, if a 'journalist' like this is deliberately attempting to enter the warzone, than they are terrorist sympathisers, who else will publish this one sided garbage which only presents the view of the Taliban (as mentioned in the article, the Taliban commander phoned up to say his crap while no such statement from the army is presented.)
 
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First of all, My Army raped millions in Bengladesh while your kind was doing a media blackout. My Army is killing muslims for USA in FATA and Afghanistan. My army is Pakistan Army. Your Army must be India's

BTW, Pakistan Army has killed more people in FATA and Pakistan than Indian army has in Kashmir
Pakistan Army has blacker laws in FATA (FCR and now PPO) then Indian laws in Kashmir (POTA)

It wasn't the army that committed the majority of the atrocities n Bangladesh ( even though all the crimes and indefensible) but the 'Islamist' oriented crap sprouts like yourselves in organisations such al badr etc. Take your cheap Taliban propaganda somewhere else.

The Taliban themselves have killed more Pakistanis than all the wars against India put together, so there goes your higher moral claim. The Taliban rape, maim, and kill indiscriminately. Where was your ghairat then? Why have you only now crawled out of your hole? Is it cause it's getting a little heated in there, with all the bombs falling?

What other propaganda have you got, Mr Taliban?
 
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