Pakistan: Operation Zarb-e-Azb cripples TTP capabilities

By Hasan Khan

Although militants have threatened retaliation against the military offensive, the threats have thus far been all talk, analysts say, and the sustained effort is keeping the Pakistani Taliban off balance.

Militant threats of retaliation for the Pakistani offensive in North Waziristan are proving to be nothing more than words.

The continued pounding in North Waziristan has given the militants little time to organise and carry out reprisals, Mehran Wazir, a native of Waziristan and a research analyst at the Islamabad-based think tank FATA Research Centre (FRC), said.

"The government is all-out serious on finishing the job" of eliminating the militants in this operation, Wazir said.

The offensive caught militants off guard, allowing the military to kill more than 340 militants and to destroy the insurgents' command-and-control centres, observers told Central Asia Online.

Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan is not the only government action against the militants, but it is a focal point because the agency is seen as the nerve centre of the militants, Peshawar-based senior journalist Muhammad Riaz said.

"The majority of the militants gather in North Waziristan, as it is the headquarters for local and foreign militant groups," he said.

Concern over potential retaliation

The action, as expected, has raised the hackles of the militants, and they have made dire threats, but so far they have been all bluster.

"Nawaz Sharif's government … is responsible for the loss of life and property of tribal Muslims in this military operation," Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told Central Asia Online by email June 23, vowing to burn down Islamabad and Lahore.

The government has not taken the TTP's threats lightly. In response to such messages, officials took extra security measures, calling on troops to patrol big-city streets, Riaz said.

What has helped dampen such talk is that the government took pre-emptive security measures before the military operation hit high gear, some surmise.

"Before the operation was launched, there were reports of [civilian authorities] handing over Islamabad and other big cities to the military," Islamabad-based journalist, Anwar Ali Bangash said. The government, he said, carried out intelligence-based search operations and arrested a large number of suspected militants in Peshawar, Islamabad and Lahore before Operation Zarb-e-Azb started June 15.

Status of sleeper cells

Operation Zarb-e-Azb surprised many observers who considered Pakistani Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif loath to risk militant backlash from such an offensive, military analyst Brig. Said Nazeer said. Indeed, he suspects the militants will strike back later.

"I believe [militants] are in waiting. The moment the government relaxes, they will strike," Nazeer said. "Sleeper cells are there, waiting for an opportune moment."

But Bangash said it was unlikely that militants would be able to launch a heavy blow.

No relaxation on offensive

Meanwhile, with militants scrambling, the government is committed to taking full advantage.

Besides bombing terrorists in the valleys of Waziristan, government forces are chasing them down in the streets of major cities, such as Karachi, where security operations have broken the backs of the militants, Ismail Mehsud, a Karachi-based political worker, said.

"After the attack on the Karachi airport, the government has turned its whole attention to militants and has shown no mercy," Mehsud said.