THE defence forces surely deserve appreciation for achieving most of their targets in the swift but carefully planned operation against terrorists and their sponsors.
Media reports, quoting official sources, suggest mid-level leadership of banned militant outfit, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) alias Fitna al-Khawarij, was eliminated in strikes carried out by Pakistani forces under Operation Ghazab lil-Haq. More than 50 airstrikes have been carried out so far on positions linked to the Afghan Taliban regime and key infrastructure used to supply ammunition by the Afghan Taliban regime to militants had been destroyed. The sources indicated that Pakistani forces would continue targeting militant positions inside Afghanistan until all operational objectives are met.
It is an established reality that Pakistan tried its level best to sort out the issue of cross border terrorism through talks with the Taliban regime and it was forced to initiate an operation to eliminate the threat after a stubborn response from Kabul. Now that the operation has been launched, it should be taken to its logical conclusion and that too in the shortest possible time in the backdrop of the latest regional situation. Therefore, reports about realization of most of the targets are encouraging and more important is the fact that Pakistani strikes are carried out in a way not to cause collateral damage. Pakistan has so far carried out 58 operations in Afghanistan as part of ongoing counterterrorism efforts in which 226 militant check posts have been destroyed, while Pakistani forces have raised their flag over 36 captured posts. Across the border operation became a necessity as Afghanistan has effectively become a “master proxy” in the ongoing regional security landscape and patronizing several terrorist organizations. The sources aptly pointed out that Afghanistan has historically been viewed as a “graveyard of empires”, but in reality has served as a “playing ground” where major powers pursue their strategic interests. All this is evident from the presence of all kinds of terrorist outfits on the soil of Afghanistan, the support they are getting from the Taliban government, collusion of intelligence agencies of some other countries and presence of Israeli drones in Afghanistan, which were destroyed during air strikes by Pakistan. Despite all this, the doors of talks must not be shut if the other side showed genuine desire to address security concerns of Pakistan.
