Chief of Army Staff Gen Kayani has called for ‘precision strikes to avoid collateral damage even at the expense of taking risks’ in Swat. But will this strategy work?
Air raids, especially those conducted by coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan almost always cause widespread civilian casualties. Given the chequered history of precision strikes, can it be said that the Pakistan army will do any better? Also, the army chief has said that the overall success of the operations in Swat and adjoining regions depend on three areas: ‘conduct of military operations, minimizing collateral damage and correctly managing IDPs’.
So far the armed forces have claimed killing more than 750 militants, though the figure is yet to be independently verified. The Taliban claim that only 15 of its fighters have lost their lives. Meanwhile, thousands of refugees have been pouring out of the areas affected by the full-scale military operation. According to some estimates, the figure of the Internally Displaced Persons has already crossed a staggering one million.
Dawn.com invites readers to debate the Swat strategy and suggest what’s right or wrong with the ongoing action.
I fully support the Pak army in its operation. we should get rid of these so called religious fanatics, who wants to impose their kind of Islam?
I would also like to refer to Our Chief Justice, who had granted bail to Aziz. Doesnt’ he know that it was his actions that triggered the fight.
We should be ashamed of our deeds. Mairaj Mohammad Khan was right in quoting to Imran that Cricket is a game of chance, not the politics.
God bless Pakistan and Pak Army.
it needs intelligent approach by locating the leaders and commanders of militants by intelligence and spy networks and then eliminating them by precision attacks. killing bunch of talibans will not achieve the objective. learn from israel’s strategy of targeting palestinian leaders and commanders and effectvely ending intifada. old ways of doing business need to be revised .
I think the strategy is right on the track,we cannot let these savages escape,becuse if they escape right now,they will create terror by slughtering people somewhere else in Pakistan.As far as the strategy of targetting the Taliban from the close is concerned it is better ,atleast the armedforces will be able to control the cllatral damage if not completely stop it.It has to be understood that when ever there is a battle and shell of arty explode they will hit any one coming in the way of the splinters.We should also keep in mind that the talibans have stopped people from the troubled areas from going to the refugee camps and especially in Mingora thay are also petrollong the street and they are using the civil population as human shield also.
The talibans or should I say the enemies of our beloved Pakistan are daying in number there in swat and we should keep one more tthing in mind that they decieve there own people and teh world toi make every one belive that Allah is with them.For example by refusing to accept the casualties they may be trying to keep the remaing force intact and to keep to keep the moral of trhe taliban militants high.
I would suggest that we have to belive the armed forces and publish what ever is said by or official spokepersons and keep the interst of our country supreme ,And the interst of our country is in defeating the Taliban who are defaming our beautiful religion by leterally slaughtering the humanity just to consolidate there rule over the masses,and not to mention dismember Pakistan.
Unfortunately the army treats Pakistani citizens as children who need to be seen not heard – from an information standpoint.
Benazir Bhutto pointed blame at Musharraf for denying that we lost 2000 of our best and brightest in Kargil and he did not acknowledge it.
The US refused to help us 65 despite our CENTO membership because they knew we had initiated the conflict. We had almost depleted our reserves in that war when we were saved by the armistice and we celebrate it as a victory.
During the Musharraf Era, all the political parties used Pakistan position on WoT to bring Musharraf government down and to score pitty political points without even realizing the dire situation Pakistan was in. ANP was against military operations and committed to resolve all the issues without using force during their election compaign. The started with some sort of peace deals and retreated(partially) ARMY from key Taliban strong holds in SWAT. But soon they realized that things werent as simple as they looked from opposition benches. So Army was called in and it tried to clean the mess but half heartedly because of zero political support and with politicians like Imran Khan coming on private channels every day and bashing Pakistan military. But unfortunately he never speaks a single word against Taliban who have destroyed school, slaughtered people and crippled the Jirga system in FATA.
But after the sign of Sharia deal and subsequent movement of Taliban into other areas and the failure of Taliban to comply with the agreement of laying down weapons, it seemed that these so called Talibans have actually lost their key propoganda item(i.e. shariah). All these factors played an important role to build some sort of concensus for military operation. The way amry has started the operation on ground it seems that they are pretty much serious this time to nib the evil in the bud.
Lets hope that this time the operation is not stopped without its logical conclusion, otherwise outcomes in coming future will be disasterous to say the least.
In my opinion the military operation should be the last option. The government should be serious on the issue of IDPs as the number is increasing day by day…. The military field officers should be careful and cautious to minimize the civilian casualties during the operation…
That is lie spread by propagandists. the operation is effective. we just need to manage the IDPs properly. And need to shun all propaganda.
The issue at present is that Taliban; have gained extreme strength that they are placing a stiff resistance to our infantry. The question that comes to mind is that who is suppling them with arms and ammunition. Being the case the Talibans are in colaboration with our enemy with malicious intents on Pakistan. They must be dealth with an iron fist and be immediatly be eliminated from within.
I support the Pakistan army and hope for their imminent success. Taliban will and must be defeated at any and every cost.
This is the only chance to defeat militants onces in for all.. i wish wars could be fought on papers where their would be no civilian casualties..
we should support our army, put all the political difference behind and for once think about pakistan and its future..
If Pakistan have to use 15000 soldiers and all the military hardware against only 4000 Taliban, then this proves that the Taliban are a fighting force to be reckoned with. It would be more beneficial for Pakistan and the Muslim Ummah at large to negotiate with the Taliban and seek some common ground. By fighting with the Taliban, Pakistan will have no peace, the present government will soon disappear and the Muslim Ummah will just become more weaker by fighting amongst themselves for selfish interests of politicains. Pakistanis WAKE UP!!!
There is nothing like ‘precision strikes’ from the air. There will always be civilian casualties in the air strikes. This will create more Talibans than that are killed. This fight will be never-ending because even the ground troops will not be able to identify all enemy fighters. The fighting therefore should be confined to rooting out confirmed talibans by ground troops.
But the main strategy should be to reshape the hearts and minds of the population. The country’s constitution should be revised to make it secular and democratic. Education in madarsas should include respect for all human beings and all religions. If these steps are taken Pakistan can still be saved otherwise an unending period of turmoil is ahead.
Better suffer some casulaties now, and suffer collatral damage, then see the whole country become talibans play ground.