Pakistani Army Fighting The Taliban (VIDEO): Amazing Footage From PBS

[TaimiKhan]

Loe Sam in Bajaur was completely bulldozed over after the militants were defeated there in October 2008. That included a lot of homes belonging to IDPs displaced to NWFP camps.

Taimikhan,

If an area is fully secured, it doesn't need to be cleared. You'll note that these men threw grenades and fired into rooms before entering. Old-style room clearance that shows no regard for civilians.

My guess is that those men expect no civilians but it doesn't mean that they don't expect SOMEBODY behind those doors. I think it more likely that your initial units may not have completely cleared all the village or that it requires periodic sanitation to remain cleared. In point of fact, that location will likely need to be garrisoned if the intent is to "clear, hold, and build".

If simply sweeping through, that property will be again reoccupied by the taliban upon the P.A.'s departure.

Thanks.

For those who are jumping to the comparison of atrocities being committed by Israeli Forces and the actions being taken by PA, plz first know about the ground realities and the actions being committed, then say something.

How many times have you heard homes being demolished of militants or their helpers in the settled area of Pakistan, in Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi etc etc ??? None.

There is a FCR, Frontier Crime Regulation which governs the Tribal areas/FATA under which there is a cumulative punishment clause and then the homes of those involved in any serious crime can be demolished. This is a tribal law in effect since British times, not even Pakistan made it, it the Occupied Westerners who brought this law and is still in effect. Anyone found involved in killing, kidnapping or any such serious crime can get his house demolished and it happened way before the WoT started and still happens. So the demolishing of the houses is as per that crime regulation which governs this area, if it isn't done, then tomorrow those involved in killings, kidnappings etc etc would argue the same to not get their homes demolished. And also read if a culprit or culprits are hiding and don't show up infront of the political agent administration, then tribal elders make lashkars and do the demolishing job so that blame doesn't comes on one tribe even.

And Loe Sam got the cumulative punishment under this same clause, as authorities had repeatedly warned them to not help militants or join them, rather majority of the tribes in those areas willingly joined the militants and waged war against the govt, so they got the punishment. Areas where tribes were not willingly helping or joined the militants, their homes got left standing. And homes of all relatives don't get demolished, rather those get demolished who had helped the culprit or the male family members of that militant/culprit helped him in committing the crime.

Hope this clarifies the misconception of comparing the atrocities of IDF to the tribal law governing these tribes.

S-2,

What i meant was that army is capturing the heights, making sure the enter/exit routes get monitored to the max, once surrounding areas get captured, then the compounds get start clearing. The capturing of the surrounding heights give them the edge to monitor these villages/towns day & night thus if any movement is detected they will know if any enemy is hiding there. Plus, this was a what we call "topi drama" for the PR showing the perfect or text book room clearing exercise, and PA is taking good care that civilians are not in those areas, in few cases they did find smoke coming out of houses, on contact it came to light that people couldn't move their families due to some dire issues, which the PA then shift to safer places using its airlifting assets.

And the units which are kind of spear heading the offensive, did not entered the villages, their job was to capture ridges & heights to get a view of the movement around and engage the enemy, that was the first objective, once heights got captured, valleys got checked, the surrounding area cleared, then troops have started moving into these villages, if you see the ISPR releases, they nowadays contain maximum compound clearing news.

And yeah PA is gonna keep holding this area till normalcy is restored.

Swat offensive is the perfect case scenario.

 

[pakdefender]

I find the comparsion of the actions of Pakistan Army and the israeli army deeply offensive. Its and affront to every Pakistani to be comapred to *** holes like these!

In the end all this **** about WOT has its roots in the arab-israeli conflict and the evalgelist americans are bigotted christain soldiers of zion.

 

[Awesome]

Our generation of Pakistanis really owe one big one to these soldiers who are risking their lives for us.

Can't wait for the rest of the show.

 

[nightrider_saulat]

No he is just making it up. Its a regular infantry unit among many others. All infantry units being rotated are FIBUA trained.

thanks for information sir!

 

[PAFAce]

Comparison with IDF is ridiculous. The land is not illegally occupied, the locals are not being forced to evacuate areas forever, settlements for foreigners are not being built and the people are not being systematically replaced. In short, there is no ethnic cleansing going on and no apartheid being carried out by the Pakistan Army.

Not to mention, these homes are then being re-built by the government and the people are being relocated and re-imbursed. I see no comparisons between any of this and what's going on in Palestine.

Loe Sam in Bajaur was completely bulldozed over after the militants were defeated there in October 2008. That included a lot of homes belonging to IDPs displaced to NWFP camps.

Taimikhan,

If an area is fully secured, it doesn't need to be cleared. You'll note that these men threw grenades and fired into rooms before entering. Old-style room clearance that shows no regard for civilians.

My guess is that those men expect no civilians but it doesn't mean that they don't expect SOMEBODY behind those doors. I think it more likely that your initial units may not have completely cleared all the village or that it requires periodic sanitation to remain cleared. In point of fact, that location will likely need to be garrisoned if the intent is to "clear, hold, and build".

Sir, this video shows just one house being cleared. We do not know the details, it would be foolish to assume all house-clearings are conducted this way.

Here's a video that shows a different kind of house searching. No grenades thrown here:

Civilians are priority number one, it has been clear from day one of operations. The large scale displacement, despite being a huge headache, is proof. This is why, unlike in Afghanistan, hearts and minds are being won over. Public support, especially amongst those within the affected areas, is higher than ever before and increasing.

 

[S-2]

I'm aware that SWA was evacuated to the greatest extent possible before this operation commenced. My description of the room-clearing procedures isn't meant as a criticism. I'm sorry if it's been taken that way.

I'm also aware that Loe Sam was bulldozed only after resistance was firm and the militants had to be destroyed. I wasn't aware that only the strip of homes along the road were bulldozed. My understanding is that it was the entire town.

I stand corrected if wrong but this article includes video footage of Loe Sam and I didn't see any structure standing in any direction scanned by the camera. I imagine the destruction and bulldozing goes a bit further than simply those houses immediately adjacent to the road.

Crucial Battle On Pakistan's Frontlines-Oct. 31, 2008 BBC

 

[Solomon2]

don't troll on threads where you don't belong or can't input positively or you can take a one way ticket to swat i welcome you if your a man...bring your camera with a red jacket for hunting -

Maybe I'm not you're idea of a man, but I'm not a potted plant, either! Let's see what more people think about this thread - if they care deign to comment about it, that is.

 

[FreekiN]

Epic videos are epic.

 

[Javed3]

It is a professional insult for Pakistan Army to be shown waging "victories" on its own soil against poorly armed rag tag zealots.

Pakistan Army is a national institution, that is currently being misused by our corrupt leadership to score a few borwnie points with Americans for peanuts, or virtually free of charge.

Our armed forces have been raised and nurtured by our miserably poor people to protect the national boundaries. They cannot stop the attacks by slow fling drones on Pakistani soil. They are either incapable, or actually facilitating a foreign power in launching the strikes. In both cases it is a cause of great concern for the nation.

 

[Slides]

It is a professional insult for Pakistan Army to be shown waging "victories" on its own soil against poorly armed rag tag zealots.

So you're saying that these poorly armed rag tag zealots did not drive the Soviets out and cannot defeat the US either, right?

 

[TaimiKhan]

It is a professional insult for Pakistan Army to be shown waging "victories" on its own soil against poorly armed rag tag zealots.

Pakistan Army is a national institution, that is currently being misused by our corrupt leadership to score a few borwnie points with Americans for peanuts, or virtually free of charge.

Our armed forces have been raised and nurtured by our miserably poor people to protect the national boundaries. They cannot stop the attacks by slow fling drones on Pakistani soil. They are either incapable, or actually facilitating a foreign power in launching the strikes. In both cases it is a cause of great concern for the nation.

Why are you sitting in UK then ??? Why don't you come here and talk to the Taliban and ask them what is their problem ?? If they wanna fight the US in Afghanistan, then instead of using thousands of kilograms of explosives to kill innocent human beings, why don't they use that same explosives in Afghanistan to kill Americans occupiers ?? They control much of Afghanistan, why don't you ask them to go there and fight the US from within, why using Pakistan's land.

Everyone like you have the courage to blame, curse PA in this, but don't have the courage to go and ask Taliban that what the fcuk is the problem with you, why are you making Pakistan weak and making rather helping the world go after its nukes.

 

[fatman17]

"The footage was captured by a reporting team embedded with a Pakistani army group working along the country's volatile border with Afghanistan."

looks like reporters are embedded but the army is not highlighting it for their own reasons (what ever they may be)

the reporter is an american born indian - rohit gandhi

 

[TaimiKhan]

"The footage was captured by a reporting team embedded with a Pakistani army group working along the country's volatile border with Afghanistan."

looks like reporters are embedded but the army is not highlighting it for their own reasons (what ever they may be)

the reporter is an american born indian - rohit gandhi

I believe Sir, these reporters are not with the Army 24/7, otherwise we would have been seeing many videos of such nature.

Recently a Turkish team also filmed similar room clearing and advancing actions in Swat and showed it on their TV network. Dawn News guys also used to run a program Battle for Bajaur, where the reporter was with the forward units for a very long time and ran a series of programs on weekly basis.

 

[waraich66]

pa gee zara hath hola rakhu

 

[SekrutYakhni]

We owe a big time to Pakistan Army soldiers!!!!