OPERATION Raddul Fasaad, launched four year back, has been a resounding success as most of its goals have been realized – thanks to the commitment and sacrifices of Pakistan defence forces.
Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major-General Babar Iftikhar told newsmen on Monday that the strategic intent of Raddul Fasaad was, and is, a peaceful, stable and normalized Pakistan where people’s confidence in the state is restored and terrorists and extremists are rendered completely ineffective by curtailing their freedom of action.
There is unanimity of view by independent analysts that the menace of terrorism has effectively been crushed as far as Pakistan is concerned and whatever stray incidents that take place in some parts of the country after some intervals have links to either terrorist sanctuaries across the Durand Line or are handiwork of Indian agents.
Operation Raddul Fasaad was more challenging than previous ones as terrorists attempted to take refuge across the length and breadth of Pakistan after their infrastructure in the tribal areas was destroyed and after they suffered heavy losses in various operations carried out by our defence forces.
Credit goes to the planning and execution skills of the armed forces as a result of which normal activities of life have resumed in almost all parts of the country especially the worst affected formerly tribal areas, Balochistan and Karachi. Apart from operation, Pakistan Army wisely conceived the idea of border management and is successfully implementing it along borders with Afghanistan and Iran.
The magnitude of the operation can be gauged by the fact that in the past four years, more than 375,000 intelligence-based operations (IBO) were carried out under Raddul Fasaad in which the CTD, IB, ISI, MI, Police, FC and Rangers all played a role. As pointed out by DG, ISPR, Pakistan’s “grand strategy” in its war against terrorism was based on four concepts: “Clear, hold, build and transfer.” We believe that the entire region can get rid of menace of terrorism if other countries also adopt a similar approach.
