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Arms recovered from terrorists enough for 15-year war

Operation Zarb-e-Azb

Sunday, November 16, 2014From Print Edition

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MIR ALI: Commander Zarb-e-Azb Military Operation Major General Zafar Ullah Khan

has said that the arm cache recovered from the militants could have enabled the terrorists

to protract the conflict for another 15 years if only they had used five IEDs everyday in

North Waziristan, Fata or elsewhere in the country.

He said the Pakistan Army had so far cleared 90 percent of the North Waziristan Agency (NWA)

of terrorists and killed 1,198 terrorists and injured 356 during the ongoing military OperationZarb-e-Azb launched in June this year.

So far, 2,708 square kilometres of the area has been got vacated while the remaining area wouldbe cleared as qucikly as possible, he said on Saturday.

While commenting on neutralisation of the IED capability of terrorists, he said that an analysis of

terrorists IEDs capability revealed that they could have caused as many as 88,440 casualtiesthrough the IEDs only.

He, however, said that the return of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their homes would bepossible after the removal of landmines and IEDs laid by the terrorists, which would take time.In an across-the-board military operation against foreign and local terrorists hiding in North

Waziristan, we have also made major recoveries of weapons, ammunition, explosives,

improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and their manufacturing facilities, he told reporters whowere especially flown to Mir Ali and Miranshah for a briefing held there.

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Giving details of the recoveries, he said that 6,752 rifles with 0.99 million ammunition, 2,470

sub-machine guns including snipers rifles with 0.67 million ammunition, 293 machine guns and

light machine guns with 0.24 million ammunition and 111 guns (12.7mm and 14.5mm) with 0.25million ammunition were recovered from different areas. He said that 389 rocket launchers and

recoilless rifles with 5,481 rockets, 68 mortars with 5,667 rounds, 3,821 hand grenades and 4,991

IEDs besides 132,000 kg of explosive material were also recovered.

All these arms and ammunition were buried by the terrorists before fleeingthe area as a result

of the massive military operation against them, he added.

Zafar Ullah Khan said that IEDs manufacturing facilities, weapons and ammunitionmanufacturing facilities, caves, tunnels, underground hideouts, private jails and detention centres

were also unearthed during the operation.

The Pakistan Army, he said, has also inflicted a colossal loss to the terrorists war economy to

the tune of Rs 2.49 billion, adding the loss included the amount spent on weapons, ammunition,

infrastructure, prepared IEDs explosive material and purchase of vehicles, motorcyclescommunication equipment, etc.

While commenting on neutralisation of terrorists IED capability, he said that an analysis ofterrorists IEDs capability reveals that they could have caused as many as 88,440 casualtiesthrough the IEDs only. Such capability could have enabled the terrorists to protract the conflict

for another 15 years if only five IEDs were used everyday in North Waziristan, Fata or elsewhere

in the country, he said.

Regarding own combat casualties, he informed that during the course of the operation, the

Pakistan Army had so far suffered a total of 197 casualties.

Giving an overview of the operation, he said after the decision of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, it was

ensured that the terrorists were strangulated so as to seize the initiative and liberty of move of

terrorists away from objective zones. As many as 250 strangulation posts and check points were

deployed around the major communication centres, he added.

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Simultaneously, Ghulam Khan, Miran Shah and Razmak were sealed to stop the terrorists from

moving to settled areas as part of a national strategy for safeguarding against blowback in cities

and towns, he added.

The military commander informed that after the strangulation phase, the evacuation of IDPs was

initiated and 18 checkposts were established at the main points. An organised evacuation was

ensured by allocating a particular date and time to a particular village or town, he said and addedall possible administrative assistance was provided at each check post and a total of 676,000

IDPs were evacuated.

Commenting on the clearance phase, he said the bulk of terrorists and their infrastructure wereconcentrated in the core areas and clearance of these areas was completed in 52 days.

Consequent to this clearance, some terrorists relocated to the peripheral and adjoining areas tooffer continuous resistance. He said hence the scope of the operation was enhanced, the terroristswere chased down and clearance of the peripheral areas commenced.

He strongly dispelled the impression that there were some good or bad terrorists, adding themilitary operation was going on against all the terrorists whether they were local or foreigners.

Responding to a question about the Afghan governments role in combating terrorism, he said atpresent both Pakistan and Afghanistan governments were striving hard to enhance cooperation inthis regard. As a goodwill gesture, Pakistan has returned 29 Afghan nationals arrested from this

area to the Afghan authorities, he added.

The media persons were also taken to various facilities which remained under the use ofterrorists before the military operation. A huge cache of arms and ammunition was also shown to

the media.