Amid reports in both the U.S. and local media of a possible operation in North Waziristan against terrorist havens, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday night said the government was ready to hold dialogue with “militants'' provided they decommissioned and surrendered their weapons before the political agents of the tribal agencies adjoining Afghanistan.
Mr. Gilani's olive branch to terrorists came even as Taliban insurgents from Afghanistan were engaged in a pitched gun-battle with security forces in the Upper Dir area of Khyber-Pukhtoonkhwa along the Durand Line that left 28 people — including five civilians — dead by Thursday morning. Over 40 insurgents were also killed in the operation that continued well into Thursday.
Taliban fighters attacked a check post along the border with Afghanistan early Wednesday morning. Members of the Pakistani Taliban provided the attackers back-up prolonging the bid to push them back with not just ground troops but air assistance. In April, Afghan insurgents had attacked a check post in the Lower Dir area entering through the porus border that adjoins Kunar province of Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, during a televised programme in which he fielded questions from callers, the Prime Minister said the government would go after terrorists if they continued to challenge the writ of the state and targeted the country. However, he remained non-committal on the much-talked about operation in North Waziristan indicating that the government was still weighing its options.
“We will think whether there is any need for it.” He said the government was not taking dictation from anybody on an operation in North Waziristan. Hinting that military action was not particularly favoured, he said Pakistan was looking for an exit strategy. In this regard the government was following a strategy of dialogue to bring the “militants'' back into the national mainstream.
While U.S. Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen had said earlier this week that Pakistan was planning a military offensive in North Waziristan and similar indications were given in Islamabad, a senior Pakistani military commander based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) ruled out an imminent operation in the tribal agency.
Pakistan has always been reluctant to launch an operation in North Waziristan partly for fear of stretching its military — in operation mode elsewhere in FATA — and also because it does not view U.S.-baiting Afghan Taliban groups like the Haqqani network as its enemy. Pakistan's fear is that pounding these Afghan Taliban groups would create a new headache something it wants to avoid at a time when the Afghan reconciliation process is gaining some momentum.
