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Pakistan set to wage full-scale military offensive in Waziristan

Iran Press TV

Wed Feb 26, 2014 5:55PM GMT

The Pakistani government is on the verge of launching a major military offensive in the North Waziristan tribal region days after dialog process between Islamabad and Taliban reached a deadlock.

With 150,000 troops already based in the militancy-riddled regions, a senior Pakistani official said that the Islamabad government was prepared to begin a full-fledged clearing operation.

"It could be any day," media outlets quoted the official as saying, adding, "We really don't have to start from scratch.'

This comes after Sartaj Aziz, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's adviser on national security said the cabinet-level consultations on the military option would take place this week to launch the full-flege offensive in the militancy-riddled region.

"Dialogue with the Taliban has derailed and the writ of the state will be established in the region," Aziz recently told reporters in Islamabad.

Meanwhile, Pakistan government has finally approved a new national security policy to deal with the growing violence in the country. The first-ever national security policy in Pakistan describes the country as the most affected by terrorism in the world after Iraq.

The developments come after Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif initiated the talks last month in an attempt to end endemic violence in the violence-wracked country.

Islamabad government called off so-called peace talks with the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group amid new reports of bloodshed in the country's northwestern tribal region. The peace process faced a deadlock after a militant outfit executed nearly two dozen kidnapped soldiers in the troubled northwestern tribal region.

The militants are extremely active in Pakistan's tribal regions, which border neighboring Afghanistan. They want to overthrow the state institutions and impose Wahhabi laws across the country.

Pakistan has been gripped by deadly violence since 2001, after Islamabad joined the so-called US war on terror. According to Pakistani authorities, nearly 50,000 people have lost their lives in the conflict.

JR/SL