ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan launched a ground offensive
against militant strongholds near the Afghan border on Monday after
evacuating nearly half a million people from the region, the army said,
in the most significant escalation of a two-week long operation to root
out insurgents trying to overthrow the government.
The ground
offensive is the second phase of a long-awaited operation against
militants in the North Waziristan tribal area, a lawless, mountainous
stretch of land in northwest Pakistan. The military announced the
operation on June 15 but has mostly limited its tactics to airstrikes
while giving time to hundreds of thousands of people to pack up their
belongings and leave to safer areas.
The U.S. has long pushed for
such an operation to go after militants that use the area as a safe
haven from which to attack targets in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
But
for years Pakistan has said its forces were too strung out battling
militants in other areas of the northwest to go into North Waziristan.
The military is also believed to have been reluctant to launch the
operation without political support from the civilian government. Until
recently Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had been pushing for negotiations
over military force as a way to end the years of bloodshed caused by the
militants.
The army began a house-to-house search in Miran Shah,
the main town in North Waziristan, the army statement said. It said
nearly 15 militants were killed in the initial ground advance. The town
is also the headquarters for a number of different militant groups such
as the Pakistani Taliban. Al-Qaida and the Afghan Taliban also have a
presence in North Waziristan.
The operation began days after
militants attacked the main airport in the southern port city of
Karachi, killing 26 people. The 10 attackers also died in the roughly
five-hour siege that shocked Pakistanis by showing how vulnerable the
country’s institutions have become.
The siege of the country’s
busiest airport became a turning point in the government’s willingness
to negotiate with the militants. A week after the attack, the military
announced its troops were starting the North Waziristan operation.
Pakistani
forces killed 376 militants during the first 15 days of the offensive,
the statement said, adding that 17 soldiers also died. North Waziristan
has always been a challenging area for journalists to access but the
operation has made it even more difficult to independently verify
reports of casualties.
The military said infantry and commandos
are leading the ground advance. Three soldiers were wounded in an
exchange of fire, the statement said.
Mansur Mahsud, from the FATA
Research Centre which researches the tribal areas in northwestern
Pakistan, said they had been receiving reports that many militants had
left for neighboring Afghanistan or into the more remote mountainous
areas in the northwest after the airstrikes. But he said a ground
offensive was still necessary to clear the area.
In the past,
critics have accused Pakistan of playing a double game, supporting or
tolerating some militants that it sees as useful in maintaining
influence in neighboring Afghanistan, and going after other militants
that attack the Pakistani state. The military has said that this
operation will go after everyone equally, but many question how
aggressive they will be.
The operation could take three to four
months, and it isn’t likely to end militancy across the country
immediately, said Mahsud. Militant groups still have a presence in
places such as Karachi or Punjab province or other parts of the
northwest.
But over time, Mahsud said it will significantly weaken
the militants by denying them a place to headquarter their
organizations and to train new recruits.
"It cannot end militancy
100 percent in Pakistan but it can have a significant effect," he said.
"Once this area is cleared the militants are forced to shift to
Afghanistan or the mountains."
About 468,000 people have poured
out of North Waziristan, flooding the nearby Pakistani areas of Bannu
and Dera Ismail Khan in anticipation of the ground offensive. An
additional 95,000 went to Afghanistan, the United Nations reported.
The
Pakistani army has already conducted several military operations in the
tribal badlands along the Afghan border, including 2009 offensives in
the scenic Swat valley and in South Waziristan, the onetime headquarters
of the Pakistani Taliban.
The Pakistani Taliban is a loose
network of several local militant groups who want to overthrow the
country’s government in a bid to install their own harsh brand of
Islamic law. In their decade-old deadly campaign of bombings, shootings
and other attacks, they have killed thousands of Pakistanis.
The
government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ever since he took office last
summer had been trying to negotiate a peace deal with the militants.
The operation has effectively ended prospects of any such move in near
future.