Pakistan army deserves appreciation for having initiated resolute action against the terrorists holed up in North Waziristan by launching a full scale military operation named ‘Zarb-e-Azb’. This bold decision taken by the army has expectedly received overwhelming support from the public, which has suffered for too long at the hands of terrorists. As the good news of the terrorists being decimated in large numbers continues to pour in on a daily basis, the mood is upbeat. So, when all is well, this is not the time to encumber the army with questions as it is already burdened by the task of fighting terrorists. However, once ‘Zarb-e-Azb’ is over and the time to reflect on its conduct comes, many things about the way this whole operation unfolded will certainly come back to haunt the Pakistan army.
This prophecy may earn me the sobriquet of a pessimist or even a Pak army ‘basher’, but my premonition is based on experiences of the past as well as the current happenings. The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) of the Pakistan army, which is the sole provider of news from the North Waziristan war- zone, has a questionable track record. Readers will recall that during the initial stages of the Kargil war of 1999, the ISPR kept claiming that it were mujahideens and not military personnel who were engaging the Indian army. Once this bluff was exposed, it changed its narrative by saying that it was the Indian army that was attacking Pakistani posts. Throughout this war, the ISPR also withheld information regarding the casualties the Pak army had suffered and it was only later that the huge cost of human lives that this misadventure had claimed, came to light and shocked the people of Pakistan.
Selectivity in reporting is not restricted to the ISPR alone. During the Kargil war, the Indian army too initially fed the news to the Indian media that the incursion in Kargil was the handiwork of a ‘bunch of militants’ and nothing very serious. However, it soon made amends and by providing details of its heavy casualties as well as granting access to the independent media, clearly ‘won’ the media war. Unfortunately, ISPR has not drawn any lessons from Kargil and continues to be the sole news provider of the battlefront in North Waziristan. Barring the independent media from entering North Waziristan in the initial stages of ‘Zarb-e-Azb’ was understandable as it was certainly a dangerous place to be in. However, now that the Pakistan army has made substantial gains and sent the terrorists scurrying for cover, there is no reason to deny independent media entry into areas under its control- unless it has something to hide!
Right from the start, ‘Zarb-e-Abz’ was surrounded with controversy. Instead of the government, it was the ISPR that made the formal announcement declaring an out war against the terrorists in North Waziristan. This breach of convention fuelled rumours that the army had taken this decision without the government being onboard, prompting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to hastily declare that ‘Zarb-e-Azb had the prior approval of the government. Then, the failure of the ISPR to outline the specific scope of this military action led to apprehensions that the same was being directed against only the ‘bad Taliban’ and forced the ISPR to come out with a statement that terrorists of “all hues and colour” would be targeted by the army. Being belated, this ‘clarification’ has been received with cynicism and only fuelled more rumours!
These developments do raise questions. Islamabad is well aware that each large scale military action triggers the inevitable deluge of internally displaced persons (IDPs). If the government of Pakistan had approved of such large scale military operation in North Waziristan, then why did it fail in ensuring appropriate arrangements for the IDPs of this region? During any humanitarian crisis, welfare groups and non-governmental organisations do step-in and this does help the government and the local authorities to a great extent. Could it be the lack of preparation for catering to the basic needs of IDPs that has forced both the government and the Pakistan army to permit certain organisations professing radical ideologies and having confirmed terror links to enter the scene?
It is a well known fact that due to privations they have to undergo on account of their displacement, IDPs are in a fragile state of mind and cannot be expected to appreciate the well meaning objectives of the ‘war on terror’. In fact, reports emanating from relief camps indicate that while they are complaining about the lack of basic facilities, the IDPs, including those from minority communities, don’t seem to have very many complaints against the conduct of the terrorists against which the Pakistan army is presently fighting. IDPs are excellent subjects for indoctrination by those who provide them succour and there is no doubt that forces inimical to Pakistan would exploit this situation to recruit people for anti national activities. This is something which needs to be deliberated upon and it may be worthwhile for Islamabad to examine the scope of asking such organisations to hand over the relief material to the local authorities for further distribution so that their direct interaction with the IDPs can be prevented.
While the handling of IDPs leaves much to be desired, it is heartening to note that the Pakistan army is doing well in North Waziristan. With over 400 terrorists being ‘eliminated’ and more than 100 hideouts being destroyed, it seems that the Pakistan army has finally broken the back of the terrorists. However, given the fact that these statistics have been fed to us by the ISPR and not corroborated by any independent agency, there is a need to guard against over-optimism. There is no doubt that the unsuspecting terrorists would have been very badly mauled by the repeated air force and artillery attacks during the initial stages of ‘Zarb-e-Azb’. However, it is hard to believe that knowing very well that the Pakistan army had identified their hideouts; the surviving terrorists would continue to stay- put there and invite certain death!
The military and more specifically the ISPR are themselves responsible for sowing doubts in the minds of the people by making incredulous and contradictory claims. Right at the beginning of ‘Zarb-e-Azb’, Dawn newspaper, quoting intelligence and military sources, claimed that Abu Abdur Rehman Almani a key commander of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, who was the mastermind of the Karachi airport attack, had been killed in an air strike alongwith 50 other Uzbek terrorists. Surprisingly, the Sindh police has just a few days ago released a sketch of the Karachi airport attack mastermind and by announcing a bounty of one and a half million rupees on his head confirmed that he is alive, outrightly contradicting the claim made by “Intelligence and military sources.”
Further, the ISPR press release of June 15 reads, “As of now North Waziristan Agency has been isolated by deploying troops along its border with neighboring agencies and FATA Regions to block any move of terrorists in and out of the Agency.” This development was met with much cheer as was the ISPR chief Major General Asim Bajwa’s statement to the NBC News that security forces had already cornered terrorist elements in North Waziristan and were now ready to mop them up. However, on July 10, Major General Zafarullah Khan, the General Officer Commanding Miramshah, completely demolished the ISPR chief’s assertion that “security forces had already cornered terrorist elements in North Waziristan.” While addressing the media, Major General Khan admitted that, “It’s not possible to create water-tight or airtight compartment where an individual cannot escape. Given the context of the terrain, the context of who they are, it will be wrong on my part to say that they did not escape, yes they did.”
While conveying ‘good’ news is a must to maintain the morale of soldiers and the public, concealing the facts about civilian casualties during the military operations can prove suicidal in the long run. There is no doubt that the Pakistan army must be taking all necessary precautions to avoid ‘collateral damage’, but by the generous manner in which it is using its air force and artillery to strike at terrorist hideouts day in and day out, there is no way in which the same can be avoided. ‘Precision strikes’ and ‘surgical operations’ may be reassuring phrases, but when rockets or bombs are fired from great distances at targets that are not ‘confirmed’ but only ‘suspected’ hideouts, both weapon and human errors are inevitable. Remember the ‘accidental’ American bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo War? Moreover, Pakistan armed forces are not known to be in possession of rockets or bombs that have such a high degree of precision that has ensured that no civilians have been killed in its military operation, as we are being made to believe!
A rocket or bomb can be guided to a target with great precision, but once it explodes, there is no technology yet known to mankind which can prevent its sharpnels from flying around in all directions and killing or injuring people present in that area. Already there are unconfirmed reports that many of those killed and passed off as terrorists may well have be innocent people who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and so, such claims cannot be dismissed as mere propaganda. Therefore, it is the interest of the Pakistan army that it permits independent media into the war zone so as to add the vital ingredient of transparency in reporting. The media is no devil and I’m sure it will certainly exercise discretion and ensure adequate sensitivity while reporting. In any case, ‘collateral damage’ in such a large scale operation against an elusive enemy is a grim reality of life- the Americans could not prevent this in Kosovo or Afghanistan, nor could the Russians during the Moscow theatre and Belsan school hostage crises. The ISPR should ponder over this and realise that you while news can always be suppressed for some time, it can never be ‘killed’!