ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani Army launched a ground operation late Friday against Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants in their South Waziristan stronghold, using heavy artillery and armored corps, the military announced Saturday.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas and Information Minister Qamaruz Zaman Kaira said at a joint news conference that the army had encircled the area from three directions.
Abbas said the operation involving some 30,000 ground troops would last between six and eight weeks.
After months of aerial bombing to soften the targets, troops moved into the region, heading to the insurgent bases of Ladha and Makeen among others, intelligence and military officials said on condition of anonymity.
Abbas said the total population of the Mehsud tribe — the majority of the people of South Waziristan — is about 250,000. “But militants constitute a small portion of that number,” he said without offering a definite figure. But intelligence sources said the army is pitted against an estimated 10,000 hard-core Taleban, including about 1,000 tough Uzbek fighters and some Arab Al-Qaeda members.
Abbas said the “funding of militants is being done from some Gulf states.” He did not elaborate.
He said the military was making sure civilian casualties were kept to the minimum. “We are also using jets of the Pakistan Air Force.”
As the operation began, thousands of people fled the area. Officials estimate over 200,000 people are likely to be displaced during the offensive.
Information Minister Kaira said the government of North West Frontier Province had made arrangements to provide food, shelter and medicine to the internally displace people.
So far some 3,000 families have left their homes and taken shelter in Dera Ismail Khan, said Dera resident Saeedullah Khan Marwat.
He said most roads leading to Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, had been sealed off by the military and army engineers were engaged in clearing mines ahead of troop movement.
Marwat said many schools and hospitals had been vacated to make room for the refugees.
The operation was approved by the country’s political leadership hours before it was launched.
Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani briefed the political leadership at the prime minister’s house. The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and attended among others by Pakistan Muslim League’s Shahbaz Sharif, leader of opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, leader of parliamentarians from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas Munir Aurakzai, former Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao, NWFP Gov. Awais Ghani, Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmud Qureshi.
Since 2001, the army’s three attempts to dislodge Taleban fighters from South Waziristan have ended in truces that left the Taleban in control. This time the military has said there will be no deals, partly to avoid jeopardizing gains won earlier this year when Pakistani soldiers overpowered the Taleban in the Swat Valley, another northwestern region. Taleban spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment Saturday. Communications in and around the region appeared jammed, making it difficult to reach local residents or other witnesses.
— With input from agencies
