News World Pak govt ready to take on Taliban in tribal belt: report

Pak govt ready to take on Taliban in tribal belt: report

Islamabad: The Pakistan government has decided to take the battle to the Taliban in the restive tribal belt of North Waziristan and a military crackdown is “just a matter of time”, a media report said

“How come we allow such forces of extremism who want to impose not their ideology but also their lifestyle on us?”, he asked.

Prime Minister Sharif was expected to outline his government's strategy against terrorism in the National Assembly.

Expectations over a long-delayed military push against the TTP and other al-Qaeda-linked groups operating from North Waziristan, a semi-autonomous tribal area on the Afghan border, were growing, the report said.

Meanwhile, Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (S) cleric Maulana Samiul Haq, known as the “Father of the Taliban”, said any military operation against the TTP will be a suicide mission for Pakistan.

“If you wage a war against the Taliban, they will either go to the mountains or spread to the cities and you will find nothing but destruction,” he said.  

Former interim chief of the Pakistani Taliban was reportedly among 50 militants, including 36 foreign fighters, killed last week in heavy air strikes in North Waziristan.  

The Pakistan Air Force jets had bombed suspected militant hideouts in North Waziristan which was backed by army gunship helicopters. The operation by Air Force jets last week took many by surprise.

This was the first time the Air Force resorted to air strikes in North Waziristan since a ceasefire was finalised with local Taliban chiefs in 2007.

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