PAKISTAN’S ARMY is preparing to launch an assault on the Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold of South Waziristan as the military fights a rearguard political action against the civilian government over a contentious $7.5 billion US aid package.
The Waziristan operation is expected to target the Taliban network of Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone strike last August, as well as thousands of Uzbek fighters who have been sheltering in the tribal belt since 2001.
The military said it could be Pakistan’s most important battle since clashes with India in the mountains of Kashmir a decade ago. “It will be the toughest of fighting,” said one senior official.
The operation comes against a background of civil-military tension over a proposed American aid package that imposes strict conditions on the army. In an unusually strong statement yesterday, Pakistan’s military leadership expressed “serious concern” over the Kerry-Lugar bill, which triples non-military assistance to $1.5 billion a year over five years.
The military spokesman, Athar Abbas, was not available for comment after the meeting of generals, but earlier he said troops attacking Waziristan expected to encounter “stiff resistance”. Abbas did not give a start date for the operation.
The army is expected to encircle Mehsud’s mountain lair in South Waziristan. On Monday a suicide bomber disguised as a soldier killed five people inside a United Nations office in Islamabad. Mehsud’s TTP claimed responsibility.
An assault on Waziristan has been looming since the army’s successful operation in Swat this summer. The army chief, Gen Ashfaq Kayani, told Pakistani journalists that dislodging Uzbek fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden, estimated at between 2,000 and 5,000 men, was at the heart of his strategy.
However the new national sense of resolve against the Taliban has been diluted by the acrimonious national debate over the US aid package.
The Kerry-Lugar bill, which recently passed through Congress, triples non-military aid to $1.5 billion a year over the next five years.
The bill, which has not yet been signed by President Barack Obama, also requires Pakistan to co-operate in dismantling illegal nuclear proliferation networks, forbids the army from subverting the judicial process and includes provisions to stop civilian aid being diverted to the military. – ( Guardian service)