Pakistan’s military chief denounced terrorists as enemies of the country and Islam, but warned his officers to avoid killing civilians as they widen their operations against the Taliban.
The government is seeking to capitalize on public support for its 6-week-old offensive in the Swat Valley region and open a new front in a nearby lawless tribal zone where al-Qaeda and the Taliban are entrenched.
The military action is being welcomed by the US as a strong stand against militants after years of failed offensives and striking deals rather than confronting Taliban hard-liners directly.
PHOTO: AP
But the weak government is also keenly aware that public support could sour if civilian casualties escalate or the task of resettling more than 2 million refugees displaced by fighting is badly handled.
A top official in the northwest said on Sunday that the government had given the order to send the military after Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. The announcement was interpreted as effectively giving the go-ahead for a fresh military offensive in Waziristan, the semiautonomous tribal region on the border with Afghanistan that is rumored to be a hiding place of Osama bin Laden and where Mehsud makes his base.
In a carefully stage-managed event on Monday, selected television outlets taped armed forces chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani dressed in a tight-fitting flight suit clambering into the copilot’s seat of an F-16 fighter-bomber before taking off for a flight over the Swat Valley.
In an address to officers before the trip, Kayani denounced Mehsud and the Taliban leader in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, saying they had nothing to do with Islam.
“Terrorists are the enemies of Pakistan and enemies of Islam. We have to eliminate them,” Kayani was quoted as saying by Geo TV, one of three networks invited to cover the event.
No questions were allowed.
He also stressed the importance of avoiding civilian casualties.
“In the present circumstances ... it is difficult to differentiate between friend and enemy,” Kayani told the officers. “The problem is that you have to separate black from white ... to avoid collateral damage.”
In the southern city of Karachi on Monday, hundreds of protesters furiously beat and kicked effigies of Mehsud and a hardline cleric who negotiated a failed peace deal that handed control of Swat to the militants prior to the military operation.
“They are the murderers of the Muslims,” the mob chanted, setting the effigies alight.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military shelled rebel hideouts in the northwest tribal belt yesterday, where forces are believed to be on the brink of an all-out onslaught to crush the Taliban, officials said.
Artillery struck insurgent hideouts in districts of South Waziristan, a semi-autonomous northwest tribal region on the Afghan border and Mehsud stronghold.
“Security forces used heavy artillery to pound militant hideouts. We have reports that several miscreants have been killed but we do not know the exact number,” said an intelligence official in the northwest’s main city Peshawar.
A government official based in the area confirmed the strikes, which began overnight and continued into early yesterday.
Residents also reported shelling in the area, which ended in the morning.
“There is heavy firing since midnight — we can hear it,” Spainkai Raghzai resident Aftab Wazir said.
North West Frontier Province governor Owais Ahmad Ghani vowed to track down Mehsud, blaming him for a string of recent deadly bomb attacks.
The army has so far stayed silent on any new campaign in the tribal areas and it is not clear when an all-out offensive would begin. It has officially confirmed only some retaliatory strikes in and around South Waziristan.
New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch on Tuesday urged the military to do all it could to avoid civilian casualties in any fresh offensive.
The group said that during the ongoing Swat campaign, many families have been trapped in the conflict zone, without being given ample chance to flee.
“The Taliban’s disregard for civilian life should not be mimicked by the Pakistani military,” said the group’s Asia director Brad Adams.
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