Thats a bummer !
I think the operation was launched because of a number of reasons. The Army was initially letting the Government negotiate with them but when the TTP executed 23 of our Frontier Corp (paramilitary organization) men who had been captured in 2010. The Army launched the Operation and ditched the negotiations.
The Army was thinking of going in NW for a long time but the previous Army Chief wasn't too keen; the current one was more the keen. Hes responsible for writing our Army's counter-terrorism manual and he comes from a family of heroes. His brother was a '65 and '71 War Hero who was also the most decorated soldier in the history of the Pakistan Army and was martyred in '71 War and was given the highest military award - the Nisha-e-Haider. The current Army Chief is also the nephew of another '65 War Hero who too was given the highest military award - the Nishan-e-Haider. The rarity of the Nishan-e-Haider can be gauged by the fact that despite Pakistan fighting so many wars and skirmishes over the years only 11 people have ever received it and all were posthumous.
So the Army Chief not only comes from a military family which has proven their mettle in war for Pakistan but is also keen on riding terrorism from Pakistani soil. Recently he said in an interview that '
he has not forgotten the terrorists who played football with the heads of our soldiers'.
So far Operation Zarb-e-Azb has cleared most of NW where the Army has fought against terrorists from all ideologies and organizations. We've lost about 87 of our soldiers while the enemy has lost more than a 1100 terrorists.
You can read more of it here:
Operation Zarb-e-Azb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
People are divided on this issue; most agree that there has been widespread rigging in the elections and that the current Government is not delivering on the promises that they haven't made.
But because thousands of people have come to the Protests than it shows that Imran Khan has public support and these Protests are by-the-way uninterrupted in that they've going on every single day.