Right now the best option is to pull the forces out of FATA, and especially from North Waziristan, lest the fire reaches to palaces of Islamabad. Quaid-e-Azam with his great foresight at once called the military back from the tribal region and assigned the tribal men the task of protecting the northern border, who already have played a pivotal role in the war against India in Kashmir. Due to the same Pakistani tribes in FATA in 1965 and 1971, government even didn’t think about the safety at the North Western borders.
Due to the US war on terrorism, the worst affectee is Pakistan, which is rocking with bomb blasts and suicide attacks, and our tribal region is practically on fire. The on going air-strikes and operation in Tehsil Mir Ali and other areas of Waziristan is against the aspirations of the nation, and they want it to be immediately stopped. All the Pakistanis from the tribal region to Arabian Sea are woven into an integrated nexus, and if one gets hurt in Mir Ali, the pain is also felt in Landhi. If one dies in a suicide attack in pindi, the tears are also shed in Wana.
The news just came in that 200 militants have been killed in Mir Ali. This news came from the official sources, while the locals are claiming that there are more and more civilian causalities, and innocent men, women and children are dying and getting wounded in air strikes and the so-called collateral damage is rising alarmingly.
Nobody is in the favour of terrorism and nobody wants to weak the roots of his own country. If there are militants in the North Waziristan area, and there are local Talibans who are not ready to listen to any logic, then its equally very illogical and irrational to carpet bomb them. Use of force is absurd and very bloodily stupid. It only makes the matters more troublesome, and there is a history of it with vivid examples in FATA. You cannot really suppress tribesmen with the use force. It’s an ongoing war with very dangerous repercussions across the whole country.
Government should engage the local Taliban in passionate dialogue. Government should pull back the armed forces, and spend that money on the development in the region. Employment, health-care, schools, colleges, roads, communications and other boons of modern era with the Zeitgeist of belonging will pave the way for a lasting peaceful solution. They are our own brothers and sisters and we are very gloomy at this Eid because they are dying there.
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