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| Army rules out operation in NWA |
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Thursday, July 02, 2009
By Mushtaq Yusufzai & Malik Mumtaz Khan
PESHAWAR/MIRAMSHAH: The Pakistan Army on Wednesday ruled out launching military operation against the Taliban militants in North Waziristan and pledged to honour the February 17, 2008 peace accord signed with the tribes despite the unprovoked attacks against its troops.
However, violence continued in the area as three persons, including two women and a child, were killed and six others sustained injuries when military helicopters pounded Madakhel village on Wednesday morning.
The bombing was in retaliation for the recent attack by the militants on a military convoy in which 30 soldiers were killed and 35 injured. Six other villagers, including four women and two children, sustained serious injuries in the shelling by the helicopters and were later admitted to the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Miramshah.
Taking note of the fears among the terrified tribesmen about an imminent military operation in North Waziristan, the Pakistan Army dropped leaflets written in Pashto and Urdu from helicopters to assure them that it had no intention of launching action in their militancy-stricken region.
The leaflets pointed out that some ‘miscreants’ were trying their best to destroy peace and damage ties between the government and Utmanzai Wazir tribes.Tribal sources told The News from Miramshah, headquarters of North Waziristan, that the tribal people who feared military operation following the recent attacks on troops’ convoys were relieved after going through the leaflets.
“The leaflets and assurance by the government not to launch any operation restored signs of life to the region,” said Muhammad Kaleem, a tribesman living at the Danday Darpakhel village near Miramshah.
People ran to get hold of the leaflets. Some of the overjoyed tribesmen paid Rs50 for buying a copy of the leaflet so that they could personally read its contents. Most of the tribesmen until now were convinced that the military action would be launched and some families had started leaving for safer places in Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Peshawar. After having suffered human and material losses in the previous two military operations, they wanted to shift their families out of North Waziristan in time to avoid harm.
The residents of Madakhel village, to which the North Waziristan Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur belonged, were particularly worried and majority of them had already abandoned their homes and shifted elsewhere. Some of them crossed the border to seek refuge in Afghanistan.
Their fear was justified as Gul Bahadur after scrapping his peace accord with the government had decided to launch attacks on security forces from his own village.In the leaflet, the government assured the tribesmen of full cooperation in maintenance of peace and completion of ongoing development projects in the region.
It said some disgruntled elements could not tolerate development in various sectors in the under-developed tribal region and, therefore, started terrorist attacks on government installations and security forces.
Despite frequent terrorist attacks and suicide bombings against security forces, the government showed restraint in the larger interest of the poor tribesmen, it explained.The leaflet said the recent attacks on the government installations and armed forces in the presence of peace agreement had proved that foreign agencies were involved in creating law and order issues in the peaceful region as no sensible citizen would like to put his own house on fire.
It mentioned that on the one hand the anti-state elements were misguiding the tribes to drag them into fighting against their own armed forces and on the other such elements were spreading rumours about launching of a military operation. It pointed out that the tribal people in North Waziristan had suffered heavy losses as a result of the military operation and their area had been pushed back by 10 years in terms of development.
The government had appealed to the people to extend cooperation in the maintenance of peace in the region. They were urged to inform security forces on three telephone numbers mentioned in the pamphlet if they knew about any planning of the terrorists to attack government installations or security forces. However, the government did warn through the leaflet that the armed forces would attack the area from where the troops were fired at.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
