ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Army on Thursday launched ground operations in North Waziristan, the last bastion of terrorists in the North Waziristan Agency, the military said
The operation was launched in Shawal valley of North Waziristan hours after airstrikes in the Gharlamai and Shawal areas killed 43 suspected militants. “Ground operations in Shawal, Waziristan, begin,” chief military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa announced via Twitter on Thursday night.
He said that army chief General Raheel Sharif was looking to complete operations as soon as possible. “He (Sharif) believes coordination between air and ground force teams will be most effective,” Bajwa said.
The announcement comes after the military pounded militant hideouts in Shawal through air force jets for almost a week, taking out dozens of terrorists and destroying ammunition dumps and hideouts.
PAF jets pounded targets in Shawal area as part of series of air sorties carried out since Sunday to soften targets ahead of launching the ground offensive.
“Twenty-eight terrorists were killed in Gharlamai area and another 15 were killed in Shawal in precise aerial strikes,” the military said in a statement. On Wednesday, at least 25 suspected militants in North Waziristan were killed in military air strikes taking to 133 the army’s toll of insurgents in the region this week. According to the ISPR, the airstrikes were carried out in Shawal area of North Waziristan.
On Tuesday, at least 18 suspected militants were killed as Pakistan Air Force jets bombed hideouts of terrorists. Tuesday’s strikes followed on from strikes in the same region on Monday, when airstrikes left as many as 55 militants dead in North Waziristan.
Since May, the military has stepped up operations in Shawal valley, which straddles the region of North and South Waziristan along the border with Afghanistan, and is dotted with militant bases. The Pakistan Army began a major campaign in North Waziristan in June last year and authorities have now vowed to intensify operations both in the border regions and across the country.
According Pakistan Army nearly 3,000 militants have been killed since the launch of Zarb-e- Azb in June last year. According to a statement issued by the military on the first anniversary of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, over 2,700 militants have been killed in combat while more than 350 security personnel also lost their lives while fighting terrorists.
The military claims to have cleansed most parts of the troubled agency of terrorists and successfully destroyed ‘terrorist sanctuaries’ and their command and control structure, while targeted operations are under way to eliminate some pockets of resistance near the border with Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of tribesmen displaced by fighting have also started returning to their homes.
Fleeing terrorists is said to be holed up in Shawal Valley, a thickly-forested mountainous region near the Pak-Afghan border dotted with militant bases used as launch pads for attacks on Pakistani forces.
The deeply forested ravines of Shawal Valley and Datta Khel are also popular smuggling routes between Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan.
In his weekly press briefing earlier today, Foreign Office spokesperson told reporters that military operation Zarbe Azb against terrorists and their hideouts is going successful.