Spotlight: Pakistan army's new major operation to focus on counter-terrorism

Pakistani forces have launched a new major operation to "eliminate the menace of terrorism from the country" that will mainly focus on Punjab.

The military announced on Wednesday the start of the countrywide operation codenamed "Radd-ul-Fasaad," or reject discord in English, after a series of terrorist attacks that killed over 100 people in last week.

The upsurge in the terrorist attacks in the first two months of this year broke months of a lull in violent incidents, which was seen as a threat to the achievements of the major counterinsurgency operation "Zarb-e-Azb," which launched in 2014 was aimed at clearing North Waziristan tribal region, the last major stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban and their foreign militants.

The security forces had killed over 3,000 militants in North Waziristan but many had either fled to Afghanistan and or moved to urban areas and are hiding with the help of their local facilitators, sympathizers and financiers.

Security officials had earlier indicated that the fleeing militants may have found some tribal areas in southern parts of Punjab province that are located at the edge of Sindh and Balochistan provinces.

The army had conducted some raids at the suspected hideouts in parts of Punjab but the recent attacks led to the decision for a large-scale operation with the leading role of the military.

It is widely believed that the intelligence-based operations would target the sleeping cells of the militants, who are using their hideouts to facilitate the bombers for terrorist acts in cities where the armed groups still have some networks.

The suicide bombing in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, on Feb. 13, highlighted the threat of the hideouts of the facilitators of the terrorists as investigators later found that two or three people had taken the bomber to the target.

A vast majority in Pakistan had long been demanding operation against the militants in the southern districts in Punjab province to eliminate the threats to the achievements of the previous major counterinsurgent's offensives in the tribal regions. The country's civil and military leaders took the unanimous decision to start "Radd-ul-Fasaad" with the primary role of the army.

As the army announced the operation, the interior ministry took the much-anticipated decision to delegate powers to the paramilitary force "Pakistan Rangers" in Punjab, who will now perform anti-terror role along with army and other law enforcing agencies. Rangers would have the powers to "apprehend terrorists, their facilitators or any anti-state elements" within cities and adjoin areas.

Army spokesman Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, explaining objectives of the operation, said it is aimed at "indiscriminately eliminating residual and latent threat of terrorism, consolidating gains of operations made thus far and further ensuring security of the borders."

The operation, which will also concentrate on security along Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan, has been launched at a time when Pakistan faces challenges from over a dozen of armed groups.

The military, which insists Pakistani militants now "operate from the Afghan soil," shelled their suspected hideouts in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province. Pakistan has also closed its border with Afghanistan, which has increased diplomatic tensions and led to a blame game.

Tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan is not helpful for security cooperation and could further complicate the security environment for the terrorism-hit nations. Both need an effective mechanism to check the cross-border movement of the militants. Monitoring along the nearly 2,600 kilometer common border is a must as the militants, who are blamed for violence in both countries, take advantage of the fragile border control. Endit