Operation Rah-e-Rast (Swat)

[batmannow]

ANP denies any large-scale collateral damage in Buner​

Saturday, June 06, 2009
By our correspondent

PESHAWAR: The Buner chapter of the Awami National Party (ANP) has dispelled the impression being created by certain quarters that large-scale civilian casualties and serious harm to public and private property has been reported in the district in the ongoing military operation.

However, elected representatives from Buner and members of ANP said the civilian population did not suffer huge losses as claimed by some quarters.

They said the party representatives recently conducted a survey in the district and it was found that the operation was targeted and precise, which resulted in less damage to non-combatants.

The revelation came during a meeting of the party office-bearers and legislators from the troubled district at the party’s central headquarters of Bacha Khan Markaz. Expressing satisfaction over the progress of the swoop, the office-bearers of the ANP demanded of the security forces to achieve the targets in the shortest possible period and clear the area of terrorists so that the uprooted families return home.

ANP denies any large-scale collateral damage in Buner

Shahi says operation Rah-e-Rast anti-Pakhtun

 

[SecularHumanist]

So they are doing what they always do. If they face a big offensive (like this time) they run away and give up the territory. The real war starts after that, when they ambush and send suicide bombers after the troops holding the new territory. Waziristan and those areas need to be cleaned up first. The Swat Taliban are a relatively lesser problem compared to those guys. All the arms and stuff comes in through those places.

 

[PAFAce]

So they are doing what they always do. If they face a big offensive (like this time) they run away and give up the territory. The real war starts after that, when they ambush and send suicide bombers after the troops holding the new territory. Waziristan and those areas need to be cleaned up first. The Swat Taliban are a relatively lesser problem compared to those guys. All the arms and stuff comes in through those places.

Yes, sir. I believe that Waziristan is the direction the Army is headed in now, not only due to mounting activities of Taleban in that region, but also because they realise Swat is just a limb, the heart of Taleban lies in FATA and Afghanistan. In any case, I think everyone on this forum understands by now that the Military Op is just Phase I of the long and arduous task ahead of us, if we are serious about ridding Pakistan of this particular disease. Phase II would be return and resettlement of IDPs, Phase III will be repair and reconstruction of infrastructure and life, Phase IV redevelopment of local economies etc. etc. etc. There's a long way to go, but as they say in the Navy SEALs, "one evolution at a time".

 

[SecularHumanist]

BTW don't you guys think we should take some more troops from the eastern border and place them on the western border? We sure could do with a bigger presence on the western side.....

 

[fatman17]

when the enemy loses large swathes of land in which they were operating freely, they will adopt the hit & run tactics to ambush military convoys - the Advance Combat Units (ACU) is an excellent idea which will reduce the frequency of these ambushes - folks! this is going to be the situation on the ground for some time to come, until the GoP decides to take on the TTP in N/S Waziristan and Bajaur - the civilian population, if and when it returns to the Malakand division and its adjoining thehsils will want the surety of 100% security for their eventual return - and they deserve nothing less!

 

[Patriot]

I think Army needs to allocate more resources.

 

[ajpirzada]

these talibans have started doin wat was done in afghanistan. they have retreated but will keep on strikin time and again. and if gov doesnt step fwd and re-build economic and social infrastructure, we will be seein really bad days in comin months.

 

[fatman17]

I think Army needs to allocate more resources.

my friend - there are enough resources there (if you mean manpower) - what is required is effective utilization of the resources under IMO a unified command, so that there is no un-necessary rivalry between commanders on how to operate.

 

[Patriot]

my friend - there are enough resources there (if you mean manpower) - what is required is effective utilization of the resources under IMO a unified command, so that there is no un-necessary rivalry between commanders on how to operate.

No i mean they should have full control of these areas.The militants are able to easily bomb schools in Swat and then ambush convoys and kill soldiers.

 

[PAFAce]

Four perish as scores attack militants’ hideouts in Dir Bala
Updated at: 0151 PST, Sunday, June 07, 2009

Scores of people attacked the sanctuaries of militants in Dir Bala area on Saturday, killing four militants while six homes were also obliterated in the attacks, Geo news said.

According to local sources, the people hailing from Hayagai Sharqi and adjoining areas launched attacks on the militants hideouts which resulted in the deaths of four militants while six homes were also destroyed.

Source: Geo TV

 

[ajpirzada]

‘Command & control structure of militants dismantled’

Sunday, June 07, 2009

By Daud Khattak

PESHAWAR: Troops battling the Taliban in Swat are sure that the command and control structure of the militants has been dismantled and their junior and mid-level commanders have either been killed or were on the run, a Pakistan Army general said here on Saturday.

Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed, who is the chairman of the Special Support Group, however, conceded that the top Taliban leadership was still at large. He believed the Swat Taliban leadership’s contacts with low-ranking commanders had been disrupted and the recruitment and training centres were no more operational. He claimed the militants’ logistic dumps and ammunition had been destroyed and the flow of finances to the militants halted.

Briefing journalists about the relief activities in the IDP camps, reconstruction and rehabilitation in the affected areas and success against the militants, Lt Gen Nadeem said troops would stay in Swat till the revival of the civil administration.

To ensure that the militants do not stage a comeback, he said young men from villages would be recruited in police and the process would be completed in a year following the conclusion of the military operation.

At the same time, committees of village people would also be constituted to take the responsibility of their respective villages, said the general.

He said the first thing they considered necessary for those returning to their areas was security, so that they might not face the same problem again which had forced them to leave their areas.

Following security, civic services like electricity, provision of food and water, health facilities and restoration of telecommunications network were also the most urgent tasks.

Gen Nadeem Ahmed said a brigade of Army engineers had been mobilised to repair the roads, small bridges and culverts on crash basis in Swat.

He said officials of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) had assured them that the damaged electricity polls would be repaired and reconstructed in two weeks.

The returning people would be given ration for one month.

He said an efficient system of cash disbursement had been devised to ensure easy availability of the compensation amount pledged for the IDPs. He said a list of 268,000 families had been provided to the United Bank Limited for preparation of cards to withdraw the amount.

About the registration process, General Nadeem said the data would be handed over to the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) for scrutiny. He said so far 268,000 families among the 511,000 had been found genuine. “Lists of those found genuine would be provided to the World Food Programme (WFP) for distribution of food and ration.”

About the total number of the internally displaced persons from Buner, Swat and Dir Lower, the officer said it did not exceed 1.9 million. (there have been a lot of cases in which families unintentionally registed themselves more than once)

To a question, he said a mechanism was already in place to net the militants who had managed to sneak into the camps. He rejected the impression that any Jihadi organisation was involved in relief activities inside or outside the camps.

He said Lower Dir had already been cleared. With the exception of Karakar Pass, the rest of Buner was safe for the people to return, he added.

‘Command & control structure of militants dismantled’

 

[muse]

Capital suggestion



‘Clear, hold, build’

Sunday, June 07, 2009
Dr Farrukh Saleem

Insurgents -- both domestic and imported -- are bent upon capturing Pakistani territory. Our soldiers are now laying down their lives to keep Pakistan intact. Many powerful armies have in the past taken years to beat back much weaker insurgents. The Huk Rebellion -- the communist insurgency against the Philippine government -- lasted for eight years. The British army (147,000 strong) along with the territorial and special police forces fought Irish insurgents for 30 long years. The Bolshevik Red Army fought for six long years. The Angolan Civil War went on for 27 years. The Somali Civil War has been going on since 1991.

Why is Pakistan facing an insurgency? In a nutshell, consecutive leadership failures created ‘gaps’, both security gaps and capacity gaps. In Swat, for instance, the state of Pakistan failed to provide security -- personal security, economic security and political security -- to Swat’s residents. Then there were capacity gaps -- dispensation of justice, food, health and education gaps. The Taliban slipped into these gaps and marginalised the state.

How can Pakistan fight this insurgency? Abraham Lincoln fought -- and won -- the American Civil War by making the presence of his troops so "pervasive that there simply was no place left for insurgents to hide." General Franco repeated the Lincoln-model and brought down the Spanish Republic.

In Pakistan’s case, Swat, Chitral, Dir, Shangla, Hangu, Lakki Marwat, Bannu, Tank, Khyber, Kurram, Bajaur, Mohamand, Orakzai, North Waziristan and South Waziristan all put together come to over 56,000 sq km -- and with 7 Indian Corps on our eastern border -- we don’t have the surplus troops to replicate either the Lincoln or the Franco model.

How can Pakistan then fight this insurgency? The American Enterprise Institute’s Iraq Planning Group developed a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy. The strategy calls for ‘clear, hold and build’. Here are the five phases of the strategy: Phase 1: preparations -- putting all the "necessary forces and equipment on the ground." Phase 2: intelligence building -- gathering intelligence on the size, strength and the command and control (C&C) structure of the enemy. Phase 3: clearing -- the actual military operation, disrupting supply lines, dismantling C&C and seizing munitions. Phase 4: holding -- troops to "take up residence in temporary military headquarters" and the police to be re-equipped. Phase 5: building -- the civilian administration to inject large amounts of capital to restore basic services like water, electricity, sewer, dispensation of justice, etc.

Mao Tse-tung once wrote "the guerrilla must swim in the people as the fish swims in the sea." The current operation in Swat, in counterinsurgency lingo, is referred to as "draining the swamp"; forced relocation of Swatis in order to isolate the insurgents. The insurgent infrastructure is now being disrupted, dismantled and defeated (or ‘triple D’) -- separating the ‘fish’ from the ‘people’. In that sense the Pakistan army is going by the book. This separation process, however, requires superb intelligence. And, intelligence is what the Pakistan army is short on.

Time is on the side of the guerrillas. They mean to demoralise our troops through sneak attacks. As long as insurgents have popular support they have the advantages of "mobility, invisibility and legitimacy". The Pakistan army will have to show some tangible proof of success in the immediate future.

As per Captain Liddell Hart Model, the "key to a successful counterinsurgency is the winning-over of the occupied territory’s population. If that can be achieved, then the rebellion will be deprived of its supplies, shelter, and, more importantly, its moral legitimacy."

One of the most successful of counterinsurgency campaigns was undertaken by the Syrian army and air force. When Syria had become overly committed in Lebanon’s Civil War (20,000 troops deployed) the Muslim Brotherhood -- sensing a weak state apparatus -- launched an insurgency. In 1979, insurgents killed seven dozen military cadets followed by a series of car bomb attacks in Damascus. In 1980, insurgents made a near-successful attempt to assassinate President Assad. The Muslim Brotherhood then took over Hama, the provincial capital, and began massacring residents. In 1982, the Syrian air force indiscriminately bombarded the town of Hama. According to Amnesty International, the "Syrian military bombed the old streets of the city from the air to facilitate the introduction of military forces and tanks through the narrow streets, where homes were crushed by tanks during the first four days of fighting. They also claim that the Syrian military pumped poison gas into buildings where insurgents were said to be hiding."

The good news is that the whole world is on the side of our troops. The government now needs to set up a Provisional Reconstruction Authority and massively beef up the Swat police (to prepare them to hold the cleared territories).

PS: According to David Kilcullen, one of the world’s top counterinsurgency experts, America spent 99.9 per cent on Pakistan’s military and 0.4 per cent on the police.



The writer is the executive director of the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS). Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com

 

[muse]

Why is Pakistan facing an insurgency?

In a nutshell, consecutive leadership failures created ‘gaps’, both security gaps and capacity gaps. In Swat, for instance, the state of Pakistan failed to provide security -- personal security, economic security and political security -- to Swat’s residents. Then there were capacity gaps -- dispensation of justice, food, health and education gaps. The Taliban slipped into these gaps and marginalised the state

Pakistan cannot effectively counter terror of either a domestic or an international nature until it demonstrates the qualities of an effective state.

Not only does Pakistan lack the basic capabilities that modern nation states must posses. It lacks them because it doesn't know why it should possess them. Pakistan's bureaucracy and parliament are crawling with LSE, Cambridge and Harvard graduates. This is not country that lacks generic capacity. It is a country that lacks a specific and overarching will. What use are the world's best classrooms, and most revered texts in the absence of a moral compulsion to use them? And how could they ever be used effectively in the absence of an institutional framework to regulate their use?

Mosharraf Zaidi

Another conspiracy? Maybe? Pakistan, one step forward, two steps back:

Editorial from The News
Medieval madness



Sunday, June 07, 2009
Life in our country moves along two roads – one leading towards progress and development, the other back into medieval times. We now hear that Mir Aali Bugti, the newly-elected chief of the Bugti tribe, plans to keep alive a ‘tradition’ in which people accused of crime must walk across burning coals to prove their innocence. Forty people are to be made the latest victims of this archaic practice. It is shocking that a young, educated leader should opt for such madness rather than challenging it.

The hold of tradition one lives is in many cases a damaging one. It is this realization that led to traditions such as the binding of the feet of women in China being barred. This is what progress and enlightenment is all about. Yet we see ‘honour’ killings and equally barbaric practices continue in the name of tradition. These must be ended. The government needs to play a part in doing so. The same rights, the same access to justice, the same norms of conduct must be available to all citizens in the country. It is frequently the poorest, the most vulnerable individuals who are made victims of practices such as the coal-walking trial planned in Dera Bugti. If these practices are not challenged, development and a move beyond our past will continue to elude us. Instead we will see only more acts of cruelty such as the burial alive of women that we saw last year. Leaders, such as the youthful head of the Bugti tribe, must also play a part. They themselves have enjoyed the benefits of education and exposure to modern thinking of all kinds. They must also, in their role as tribal chiefs, bring the same advantages to their people so that they can truly move into the 21st century and leave their past behind.

 

[MastanKhan]

Hi,

Indeed---they do believe in the FIRE GOD---. Ain't that a shame.

 

[Patriot]

my friend - there are enough resources there (if you mean manpower) - what is required is effective utilization of the resources under IMO a unified command, so that there is no un-necessary rivalry between commanders on how to operate.

Army should send in more man power and stop using artillery.There is too much colletreal damage because of this.A lot of innocent swatis are being killed by Army.This is just wrong.The operation needs to be finished and ended soon or we will have angry Swat population turned into Talibans.