essay on operation zarb e azb

Terrorism in Pakistan has declined, but the underlying roots of extremism remain

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January 15, 2021

This piece is part of a series titled “ Nonstate armed actors and illicit economies: What the Biden administration needs to know ,” from Brookings’s  Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors .

According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, Pakistan saw 319 terrorism-related incidents in 2020, and 169 associated deaths of civilians. That represents a decline, from a high of nearly 4,000 such incidents in 2013, with over 2,700 civilian deaths (see figure below).

This fall is largely due to the Pakistani army’s kinetic operations against the Pakistani Taliban — also known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — which had been responsible for the majority of deaths of civilians and security forces since 2007, the year it formed officially as an umbrella organization of various militant groups. Over the years, American drone strikes targeted and killed successive TTP leaders, including Baitullah Mehsud in 2009, Hakimullah Mehsud in 2013, and Mullah Fazlullah in 2018. The Pakistani military’s Zarb-e-Azb operation (named for the sword of the Prophet Muhammad) began in 2014 — after a TTP attack on the Karachi airport that June — and increased in intensity after the Peshawar Army Public School attack of December that year, which killed more than 130 schoolchildren. Since 2017, having largely routed the TTP (because of limited information access to the area, there are questions about how many terrorists were killed, versus simply displaced across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border), the military’s operation entered a new phase of “elimination” of militant groups. The operation is called Radd-ul-Fasaad, which literally means elimination of all strife.

Figure: Terrorism-related fatalities in Pakistan

While this top-line picture in terms of number of attacks and casualties is clearly a positive one, the TTP has been regrouping since last summer. Various breakaway factions pledged allegiance to the group last July, and there are reports of it making a comeback in at least six districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa “ with the intimidation of locals, targeted killings, and attacks on security forces .” The TTP is reported to have killed at least 40 security forces between March and September 2020. Official Pakistani sources blamed India as “behind” the revival. On the other end, the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement, an ethnic protest movement that claims human rights violations against civilians by the Pakistani military during its operations against the Taliban, has alleged (without systematic proof) that “the Taliban are being allowed to return” to the tribal areas in a “secret deal with the military.”

The TTP, of course, maintains ties with the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida. Some have speculated that the TTP comeback may be linked with the Afghan peace process and Pakistan’s fencing of the border with Afghanistan, both of which threaten the group’s sanctuary in Afghanistan. (A U.N. report from July 2020 stated there were 6,000 Pakistani fighters in Afghanistan, most affiliated with the TTP.) There has also been some speculation that the Afghan peace process might include, at some point, a separate Afghan-Pakistan deal, with Afghanistan denying safe haven to the TTP potentially in return for Pakistan denying sanctuary to the Haqqanis (though it is unclear whether that will be possible, or acceptable to Pakistan). Pakistan has already raised questions about Afghanistan’s sanctuary for the TTP.

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The Islamic State in Khorasan (ISIS-K), which operates in Afghanistan and is the Afghan Taliban’s rival, has been responsible for recent attacks in Baluchistan, including of 11 Shia Hazara coal miners this January — complicating Pakistan’s already violent sectarian landscape. In discussing this attack, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan again blamed India for “backing ISIS” to “spread unrest” in Pakistan. (Pakistan has also long claimed that India uses Afghan soil — on which ISIS-K is based — to destabilize Pakistan.)

Anti-India militant groups continue to have a foothold in Pakistan, but Pakistan has begun taking action against the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in recent years, especially in the wake of its enhanced monitoring by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in 2018 for terrorism financing; it is a key goal of Khan’s government to have Pakistan removed from this “grey list,” because it hurts the country’s image and causes it financial harm. Most notably, Pakistan has sentenced Hafiz Saeed, the leader of the LeT, to 11 years in prison for terrorism financing. Another LeT leader, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, was also recently sentenced to five years for terrorism financing. The United States has acknowledged these steps, but has argued that Pakistan needs to hold these LeT leaders accountable for more than terrorism financing. Pakistan has taken less action against Jaish-e-Mohammad, the terrorist group responsible for the Pulwama attack of February 2019; its leader, Masood Azhar, is at large. Notably, Pakistan-based militant groups have not been responsible for any violence in Kashmir since the Pulwama attack; in an interview later in 2019, Khan asked Pakistanis not to engage in any violence or “jihad” in India, because it would be blamed on Pakistan and would harm it. That signal seems to have worked.

Placing the blame on India for terrorism in Pakistan is something the country has long done, although not always in as direct a manner as in 2020. Beyond linking the recent ISIS-K attack with India, Pakistan also linked the Baluch Liberation Army’s June 2020 attack on the Karachi Stock Exchange with its eastern neighbor (Pakistan has longed argued India supports the Baluch insurgency). In November, the Pakistani foreign minister, in a splashy press conference, released details of the “ dossier ” Pakistan has compiled linking India to funding, arming, and training terrorists (including the TTP) against Pakistan. Only the summary — not the full dossier — discussed in that meeting has been made public. It found a receptive audience in a Pakistani population already wary of the Narendra Modi government for its actions in Kashmir and the alarming rise in intolerance toward Muslims in India. The Pakistani government says it has shared the dossier with the U.N. and various governments, but those parties have not publicly acknowledged it.

Pakistan’s strategy toward militant groups has long been two-pronged, as it were: to take overt (and successful) action against groups targeting the Pakistani state and citizenry — the TTP — without taking action against the groups it has considered “strategic assets,” including the Afghan Taliban that have sought sanctuary on its soil and anti-India militants that its intelligence agencies have covertly supported. Underlying this approach has been an effort to hedge bets: regarding the Taliban’s possible influence in Afghanistan after an international withdrawal, and regarding militant proxies who may give Pakistan parity on an otherwise lopsided conventional military footing with India. There are signs some of this is changing. For instance, Pakistan has developed a good relationship with Kabul, especially in recent months, but it also knows its leverage over the Taliban keeps it relevant to the Afghan peace process. The FATF listing has induced Pakistan to take its strictest action to date on militant groups, especially LeT. It also helps that Pakistan is keen to shed an image associated with terrorism. Yet the long-term sustainability of actions Pakistan has taken in response to pressure from FATF remains to be seen; will they be reversed when the FATF grey-listing is lifted? And what happens after the international withdrawal from Afghanistan is complete?

The central issue is not one of state capacity, but an unwillingness of the Pakistani state to paint all jihadist groups with the same brush, to recognize the linkages in ideology that connect them all — and to acknowledge how those ideologies find fodder in Pakistan’s laws, educational curricula, politics, and indeed the very nature of how Pakistan has defined itself, as I detailed in my book . This issue holds for Pakistan’s military, and also across its spectrum of major political parties, as has been demonstrated over the last 12 years with all three of them successively holding power. That lack of recognition of how terrorism and extremism are connected, and of the very roots of extremism, is the crux of the problem: Militant groups can always find recruits, from other groups or from the general population. Non-armed right-wing fundamentalist groups, notably the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), share these ideologies, glorify violence (the TLP, after all, celebrated the murder of Salmaan Taseer for daring to propose reform in Pakistan’s blasphemy laws), and enjoy growing support and sympathy.

For a brief time after the Peshawar school attack of 2014, there was some clarity in recognizing the homegrown nature of the Pakistan Taliban, and the country devised a National Action Plan to tackle extremism and terrorism. While it was incomplete and never acknowledged the deeper roots of extremism, it was a start. But it has gone by the wayside as the Pakistani state has turned back once again to blaming India for terrorism in the country. Meanwhile, the underlying roots of extremism — the country’s curricula, the way its politics works, and its laws, which have all primed its citizenry to buy into and sympathize with the propaganda of extremist groups — remain intact. Pakistan’s claims about India deserve to be heard and investigated, as the international community ignoring them only worsens Pakistan’s sense of victimhood, but that does not absolve the state of its own policies that have fostered extremism and allowed terror groups to proliferate on its soil.

As the Biden administration takes office, it is worth recognizing the effectiveness of the FATF tool, and the limited leverage of the United States to effect real change on security matters in Pakistan, at least initially. Ultimately, Pakistan must be the one to connect the dots linking all the terrorist groups on its soil and their ideologies, acknowledge how it has contributed to extremism within its borders, and decide on addressing the roots of that extremism. I would argue that the best way to encourage it to do so is for America to develop a relationship with the country that is separate from Afghanistan, and separate from India: to deal with Pakistan on its own terms. Meanwhile, security concerns in Pakistan are more or less contained, with the FATF listing and the Pakistani state’s action against the TTP being the primary mechanisms for that control, and the Biden administration need not make them the center of its Pakistan policy.

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Operation Zarb-e-Azb: Two years of success

His words are echoing today loud and clear and with the pride of the dutifulness, sacrifices and commitment of an army speaking behind that has written an episode of history with no match to be found anywhere in the world. He confidently puts it as, “Zarb-e-Azb was launched against terrorists of all hues and colour, with sanctuaries of terrorists dismantled during the operation without discrimination,” These are the words of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Raheel Sharif on two year successful completion of the operation Zarb-e-Azb, and, today, Pakistan is a safer place than it was before the launch of Operation Zarb-e-Azb in 2014.

Inception of Operation Zarb-e-Azb

With the full support of political Government, the Pakistan military launched a full scale military offence Zarb-e-Azb on 15th June 2014 with the staunch determination to wipe out hotbeds of militants in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) that isa strategically important agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) bordering Afghanistan.

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The operation is named as Zarb-e Azab.‘Azb’ refers to one of the seven swords of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) that was he carried along in the Ghazwaz of Uhad and Badr to strike hard infidels. Zarb-e-Azb means “swift and conclusive strike”not over yet.

Suicide bombings, target killing, fatalities by violence, and terrorist attacks had plagued the peace of Pakistan since a decade.In Pakistan, the presence of militant groups in NWA was seen as major cause of worst terrorist attacks in last few years. Militant wings had stronghold in NWA and terrorist wings were active in using Pakistan’s own soil for their nefarious designs. On 8 June 2014, militants group attacked Jinnah International Airport in Karachi which led toprompt inception of the Operation Zarb-e-Azb.

The defenders of Pakistan initiated the operation with unflinching faith and undaunted commitment toeradicate the scourge of terrorism while fighting without any discrimination of “good” and “bad” Taliban.

Army officer martyred following attack in Tirah Valley

 Undoubtedly, it was an uphill task to fight in the most treacherous terrain but Pakistan armed forces proved its invincibility with an unwavering resolve, as the motherland’ peace and progress has always remainedparamount for Pakistan Armed forces.

Undaunted soldiers of Pakistan armed forces, successfully targeted sanctuaries and safe havens of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Punjabi Taliban, East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Al-Qaeda and all other miscreant militant outfits on the harshest terrain of the world withvalour.

Global acknowledgments

Many global and domestic security portals saw operation Zarb-e-Azb as an instrument of peace in country. There is long list of various military, civil leaders and forums across the globe that generously acknowledged and praised the success of the Operation Zarb-e-Azb.

TheUS State Department country reports on Terrorism, released inearlier June 2016, appreciated Pakistan’s efforts to curb terrorism and maintained that Pakistan “remained a critical counterterrorism partner in 2015.”

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The report further acknowledges the operation Zarb-e-Azab and reads, throughout 2015, “the Pakistani military continued ground and air operations in North Waziristan and Khyber Agency to eliminate terrorist safe havens and recover illegal weapons caches.”

Statistical data endorses theunparalleled   success of operation

While analyzing various sources that mostly matched, it was found that the number of terror related incidents have gone down since the inception of Zarb-e-Azb.Concurrently, the percentage of the global terrorism surged form 40-50%, however, terrorism decreased from 40-45% in Pakistan, as per precise security reports published in 2016.

Figures speak the truth. In the wake of Zarb-e-Azb the number of terror related incidents, terrorist activities; suicide bombings have witnessed dip in Pakistan.

The Global terrorism index (GTI) 2015, complied by the international research group the Institute for Economics and Peace, analyses impact of terrorism on global community. The report conceded success of Zarb-e-Azb and stated “Pakistan was the only country in the ten most impacted countries that saw a decline in deaths and accordingly it dropped from third to fourth.”

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 *Data retrieved from SATP till June 26, 2016

In 2015, many security analysts agreed thatthe number of the Suicide attacks, Terrorists attacks and fatalities in terrorist attacks decreased in Pakistan with impressive numbers.According to South Asian terrorism Portal, in Pakistan, during 2013, terrorists carried out 43 attacks, however, during 2015, 2016 the number of suicide attacks plummeted in country and the credit obviously goes to the operation Zarb-e-Azb.

Decreased percentage of civilian casualties from terrorist violence (2014-2016) SATP till June 26, 2016

According to data retrieved from the South Asia Terrorism Portal till June 26 2016, the fatalities of civilians from terrorist violence are declining in number, the year the operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched. Civilian fatalities, has been dropped to 40 percent in 2014 and 65 percent in 2015 and 74 percent in 2016.

Source: SATP *Data till 3 July, 2016

Thanks to Zarb-e-Azb, the number of civilian fatalities in terrorist violence shrank from horrible four digit figure to triple digit within launch of one year. In 2013, before Zarb-e-Azb , 3001 civilians killed in terrorist violence. In 2015, the causalities decreased to 532 to 308 in 2016.

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Fact sheet of two year achievements

The facts released by the ISPR on the two year completion of the operation Zarb-e-azb are self-explanatory to manifest the success of the operation.

Over 4,000 square kilometers of land in North Waziristan, including the most treacherous and rugged terrain of Shawal, has been cleared of terrorists, which included 900 terrorists of proscribed militant organization Lashkar-e-Islam. 

The valiant Pakistan Army successfully carried out 19000 Intelligence-based operations (IBOs) were carried out which were based on interrogation and lead generations.

Pakistan Army also seized around 243 tons of explosives, enough to make IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) for 17 years, shut down 7,500 bomb factories, and a total of 3500 terrorists were killed, wiped out 992 safe havens and sanctuaries of terrorists.

Our 4900 soldiers including 17 officers embraced sacred status of martyrdom, and over 2000 valiant Ghazis wounded during the past two years.

Uplift programmes introduced by the Pakistan Army

Pakistan military introducedvarious uplift programmes and activities for the development and rehabilitation of the area.

On 14 June 2016, the COAS visited North and South Waziristan expressed solidarity with natives and categorically emphasized, “Development of FATA is a priority task being undertaken by the army as part of a comprehensive plan. These projects will improve the quality of life in the tribal areas, usher in a new era of economic prosperity and address the problem of militancy in the long term.”

The COAS inaugurated various infrastructure and developmentprogrammes, including the 72km long Miranshah – Razmak - Makeen dual carriage road which is part of the 705km Central Trade Corridor. The proposed road will decrease distances of several hours to a few hours between the North and South Waziristan after completion. 

Earlier, Pakistan army introduced a “de-weaponisation” campaign in North Waziristan and registered approximately, 3,000 tribesmen under the campaign.

Pakistan Army has undertaken 567 projects in the social, communication, infrastructure and power sectors in Waziristan.

While staying determined on the Temporary Displaced People (TDPs) issue, Pakistan military generously helped to return around 61% TDPs to their hometowns while the remaining TDPs are expected to be repatriated by December, 2016.

Army units, particularly its engineers, have been engaged in building in infrastructure and road developments in the reconstruction phase of the operation. For the stated purpose, FWO and engineering units are working day and night in construction of roads, bridges, schools, mosques, basic health units and water supply schemes in the North and South agencies.

Zarb-e_azb has accentuated   positive effect on Pakistan’s security, stability and progress. The mega project of $ 42 billion CPEC was initiated after satisfactory security situation in Pakistan. With defeating terrorism, the Pakistan Armed Forces have gifted the nation with the peace that guarantees prosperity under CPEC. It has not only paved the way for a promising future but has also restored the confidence of a nation that was shattered by the terror waves during these two decades. With the output of the operation praised worldwide, all the strategic stakeholders in the region should now be left with little doubt about the sheer sincerity of Pakistan in fighting the menace of terrorism.

Now, so as to save the country from the ever present monster of extremism the world, especially the US, should now look towards working with Pakistan in a cordial manner whereby giving due regard to the reality of its problems and not leaving it alone as has been a precedent in the past.

Saima Ghazanfar

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The South Asia Channel: The Afghan Roots of Pakistan’s Zarb-e-Azb Operation

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This article was published more than 9 years ago

The Afghan Roots of Pakistan’s Zarb-e-Azb Operation

The pakistani military is in the midst of an all-out offensive in north waziristan, the roughly delaware-sized region bordering afghanistan’s khost and paktika provinces, which has become the stomping ground for dozens of militant outfits. the offensive comes on the heels of the collapse of peace talks with the tehreek-e-taliban pakistan (ttp) earlier this year. ....

• Afghanistan

The Pakistani military is in the midst of an all-out offensive in North Waziristan, the roughly Delaware-sized region bordering Afghanistan's Khost and Paktika provinces, which has become the stomping ground for dozens of militant outfits.

The Pakistani military is in the midst of an all-out offensive in North Waziristan, the roughly Delaware-sized region bordering Afghanistan’s Khost and Paktika provinces, which has become the stomping ground for dozens of militant outfits.

The offensive comes on the heels of the collapse of peace talks with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) earlier this year. The failure of peace talks, and a series of attacks by the TTP in June, turned public sympathy against both the "good" and "bad" Taliban, providing the political space needed to carry out Operation Zarb-e-Azb ("sharp and cutting strike"). But there is another reason for the timing of the operation.

Pakistani officials, from the district level up to its military brass and civilian leadership, are hoping to clear militants from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) before American troops withdraw from Afghanistan. In the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal, some worry Afghanistan’s military may not have the technical capability needed to secure the border. Others fear Afghanistan’s government might instead support militants fighting the Pakistani state, pointing to increasingly frequent cross-border raids by militants based there, and the continuing refusal of Afghanistan to turn over senior TTP leaders to Pakistan.

W e hear the Afghans gave Mangal Bagh 10 army trucks, and he parades around in them," says Roshan Mehsud, one of the most senior government officials in Khyber agency, referring to the truck-stop-janitor-turned-cleric who leads Lashkar-e-Islam (LI), a local Islamist militant group seeking to impose sharia law in the region. The conflict in Khyber has killed more than 1,400 people in the last two years , according to the FATA Research Centre, an Islamabad-based think-tank tracking the fighting. Mehsud is at his wits-end trying to protect the road outside his office, a two-lane highway that connects Peshawar, Pakistan on the east with Jalalabad, Afghanistan on the west.

"They like to fire tracer bullets into the NATO containers, especially into the driver’s cabin, so everything catches fire," his assistant explains over a dinner of curried okra consumed on the floor of his heavily-guarded office. "A few days ago, the truck was full of plastic water bottles. They caught fire and there was so much smoke, it took us hours to put [it] out."

The American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 gave birth to a war economy in the region, and competing groups of militants have set-up shop along the road outside Mehsud’s office, in hope of plundering containers destined for NATO soldiers, making off with everything from armored Humvees to cans of USAID cooking oil marked "not for sale." By 2008, the preeminent group of highway robbers was LI, led by Bagh.

LI fighters had occasionally fought Pakistani and Afghan Taliban militants for control of the Peshawar-Jalalabad road, meaning they were a nuisance to Pakistan, but not an immediate threat. In June 2008, LI threatened to bring its brand of sharia to the city of Peshawar, and Pakistan sent in troops, sparking a battle that continues today and has produced more casualties than any other conflict in FATA.

In April 2013, Pakistan launched airstrikes and air-lifted thousands of troops to retake the Tirah Valley , a remote mountainous region across the border from Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province that had become a base for LI and the TTP. According to military and civilian officials I spoke to, LI’s leadership, including Bagh, have fled to Afghanistan, where they still operate from safe havens in the district of Nazyan. (Much of the 2,600 km-long Pakistan-Afghanistan border continues to be a subject of dispute between the neighbors.)

For more than a decade, American and Afghan officials have accused Pakistan of providing safe havens and logistical support to militant leaders like Jalaluddin Haqqani and Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose fighters live and train in North Waziristan, but make regular trips into Afghanistan to participate in the insurgency. In 2009 though, a second retrograde flow of insurgents began to appear, and militants seeking to topple the Pakistani state began to find spaces to operate out of Afghanistan.

"For quite some time, Pakistan and its security organizations have been communicating with the American and Afghan political setup that somehow these people have linkages… [the] TTP has safe havens and sanctuaries across the border," says Athar Abbas, a retired Pakistan general who served as the military’s spokesman from 2009 to 2012.

He stated further: "Pakistan has been saying there is a problem in [North Waziristan, but] it’s not the real or complete problem of Afghanistan. The United States claims the entire problem of Afghanistan lies in… and originates in [North Waziristan]."

Abbas also notes that Pakistan has carried out ground operations to clear militants out of six agencies along the border, yet the insurgency continues on both sides of the boundary. Frustrated with the lack of security on the border, he says Pakistan repeatedly offered to put up a fence there, even to lay land mines, only to have the idea dismissed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Now, Pakistan’s complaints about Afghanistan’s unwillingness or inability to secure its side of the border are becoming difficult to ignore.

On Aug. 5, Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz asked Afghanistan to "hand over" Maulana Fazlullah , who now heads the TTP , and has operated out of Afghanistan’s Kunar province since fleeing a Pakistan offensive in his native Swat Valley in 2009.

Aziz’s remarks came after a series of particularly brazen cross-border raids by Fazlullah’s fighters. The skirmishes have prompted Pakistan to pursue militants into Afghanistan, sparking deadly clashes with Afghan border forces. Dozens of similar raids have taken place since 2012 , killing 334 people, according to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, which issues annual reports on the border conflict.

Fazlullah’s career as a militant leader began in the town of Imam Dherai, in his native Swat Valley, more than 70 miles from the Afghanistan border. In 2009, after a deal to allow the limited enforcement of sharia law in Swat fell through, Pakistani troops moved into the scenic valley, briefly displacing 2.5 million civilians. Within a few weeks, the army had regained technical control of the valley, but Fazlullah and other militant leaders had escaped , making their way west across Pakistan’s Lower Dir and into Afghanistan’s Kunar province. Five years later, Mingora, the largest city in the Swat Valley, still feels like a city under occupation .

Most multi-story buildings and the surrounding hilltops are crowned by posts built from sandbags, draped in chicken wire. Convoys of troops patrol the streets, patting down locals at checkpoints sprinkled throughout the narrow streets. An entire Pakistani army division is still deployed there, and plans are in place to build a cantonment and expand a cadet college — the military is here for the long haul.

On a visit to Mingora in October 2013, I asked one of the most senior Pakistani army officials there why so many troops were still present. His answer was simple: "They [Fazlullah and other leaders] are sitting in Afghanistan waiting to come back."

Pakistan is not simply worried that the TTP will find a space to operate out of in Afghanistan. For years now, Pakistani officials have peddled the theory that groups like the TTP are being funded and supported by the Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies. Ironically, some of those claims appear to actually be coming true.

In October 2013, American special forces broke up a meeting between Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) agents and Latif Mehsud, the former second-in-command of the TTP, who has operated out of Afghanistan since 2010.

Aimal Faizi, Karzai’s spokesman, told reporters the NDS had been working with Latif "for a long period of time." The meeting "was part of an NDS project like every other intelligence agency is doing," he explained, alluding to an apparent quid-pro-quo of Pakistani support for the Afghan Taliban.

Eight months earlier, in February 2013, the NDS announced it had captured one of the TTP’s founding members , Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, during a raid near the Pakistani border in Nangarhar province. At the time, the capture was hailed as a sign of improving relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Muhammad commanded a battalion of 6,000 fighters, including some Afghans and Arabs, until 2009, when the Pakistani military flushed militants out of Bajaur. Yet Muhammad continues to remain in NDS custody — the Karzai administration is apparently holding on to him as long as Pakistan holds on to senior Afghan Taliban figures.

While Afghanistan doesn’t seem to be cooperating with Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts, American forces have provided important technical and logistical assistance to the military in FATA. At least seven drone strikes have taken place in North Waziristan since the start of Zarb-e-Azb. And Pakistani officials have, uncharacteristically, admitted that they were jointly conducted. But that cooperation may be coming to an end. With the impending U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the CIA, which operates the drones, has already shut down most of its operations near the Pakistani border.

"Now there is pressure on them [the TTP] through drone strikes," says Rehman Malik, who served as Pakistan’s interior minister between 2008 and 2013. "I don’t think the Afghan army or law enforcement have got that much capability [to conduct drone strikes.]"

"[Cooperation] was very much there in terms of intelligence," continues Malik, whose term included the height of the American drone campaign between 2009 and 2011. "If we had been given the technology along with the intelligence information, we could have performed the same functions."

Until Pakistan has the technology to operate a fleet of lethal drones of its own, former and current Pakistani officials know they need the United States to pursue men like Fazlullah and Bagh.

They are just hoping the Americans stick around a while longer, at least until Pakistan can get a handle on militants operating in FATA.

And so, after patiently answering my questions about his efforts to combat LI, Roshan Mehsud had a question for me. "You’re an American, what do you think. Will they just leave Afghanistan?"

Umar Farooq is a freelance journalist who has reported from Pakistan for Al Jazeera English , the Christian Science Monitor , the Wall Street Journal , and the IRIN News agency. Read his work at umar-farooq.com and follow him on twitter: @UmarFarooq_ . 

Umar Farooq is a journalist based in Istanbul. Twitter:  @UmarFarooq_

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Zarb-e-Azb and the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality

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O n June 15th, the Pakistani state launched operation “Zarb-e-Azb,” a full-fledged military assault on North Waziristan, one of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) that form Pakistan’s northwestern border with Afghanistan. The stated aims involve a “comprehensive operation against foreign and local terrorists who are hiding in sanctuaries in North Waziristan” according to the military. With hundreds of thousands of people displaced and hundreds killed, the operation is another attack on the people of Pakistan, like those that have come before it.

Since 2001, a global “war on terror” has been waged under a grand narrative of secularism and civilization combating Islamic fundamentalism, and has dovetailed conveniently with wars conducted under that other grand narrative of supporting democracy against dictatorship. 1 In fact, as the political economist Adam Hanieh argues , there is a single imperialist war on the people of the region at large, a war that stretches from Libya and Egypt in North Africa, to Somalia in East Africa, to Syria and Iraq in West Asia, to Afghanistan and Pakistan in South Asia. It is worth noting that most of these countries have Muslim majorities.

Defining a pro-people politics and initiative in this mess is difficult. In Pakistan, an old left, eager not to be on the wrong side of secularism, civilization and democracy, has frequently found itself degenerating into liberalism, siding explicitly or implicitly with imperialism. 2 Some younger radicals have also been prone to confusion. 3

Accordingly, advancing a new, pro-people politics in Pakistan, where ruling classes have polarized the discourse, first requires revisiting some basic questions around state and society in relation to the Waziristan issue and secondly, analyzing how imperialism operates as a class force in Pakistan. This is where the analyses of progressives, liberals and Marxists alike, often fall short.

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Such analyses argue that politics in Pakistan is dominated by “the establishment,” whose chief component is “the military,” that is, the Pakistan Army and under its command, the main intelligence agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The military, we are reminded, has ruled Pakistan for around half of the country’s existence, and is liable to interrupt the democratic process at any time in order to secure its pernicious, institutional interests in maintaining and projecting power inside and outside of Pakistan. 4 Indeed, if a military operation was being prevented until now, it was due to the ISI playing a “double game” — on the one hand taking aid from the U.S. that was actually meant for combating militants, while on the other, supporting militants for the military’s interests. Such explanations assume a normative ideal of state and politics, exemplified for progressive leftists in the post-colonial world by Indian liberal democracy. They explain the problems of Pakistan’s state and politics as a result of deviating from this ideal type due to the predominance of the military and its pernicious, institutional rationality.

Adm. Mike Mullen, U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff reviews Pakistani troops at an honors ceremony welcoming Mullen to Islamabad, Feb. 9, 2008. – Read: Abuses on the Path to Salvation | Adaner Usmani

To be sure, the military plays an important role in the politics of Pakistan. Our aim here, however, is to show that one institution cannot be responsible for all events and decisions in Pakistan, and that we need to look at the class forces and formations behind the action or inaction of any institution. Placing the military in contrast to other aspects of ruling class power in Pakistan obscures the ways in which ruling class power actually works. Resistance needs to be structured against the entire ruling nexus, of which the military is a part. The military is not the kind of the solitary player that “establishment”-centric analyses assume.

Through their strategic policymakers and journalists, U.S. imperialists have often presented a similar analysis, one where FATA – and Swat before – have become safe havens for al-Qaeda and other militants primarily because of patronage from a treacherous Pakistani military, which is reluctant to conduct operations because it seeks to maintain the militants for its particular interests. They argue that while the U.S. may have ignored the links between its military ally and the militants, it has now come to its senses, and wants to fix the problem by forcing Pakistan’s armed forces to conduct its assault on FATA and break its reliance on the Taliban and other militants.

If these inquiries consider class at all, they find the landed and capitalist classes more or less helpless (indeed, innocent) and dependent on the military. 5 More importantly, because these theories foreground the military, they cannot explain why it is that we repeatedly find that regardless of who is in government – military or civilian – ruling classes are constrained, even subservient to, the ideologies and practices of power and economy of the U.S., its allied Western powers (e.g., the UK), and their vassals, the Gulf monarchs. 6 To understand that, we have to get at how it is that Pakistan’s political and economic dynamics are produced and reproduced. We want to advance a class analysis of the post-colonial state in Pakistan. We do so to illustrate why these operations are being conducted and in what kind of a society—a society whose dynamics extend far beyond the institutions at its apex.

The following analysis is necessarily broad because it attempts to observe and chart particular tendencies within progressive analyses that have hindered an accurate and honest interrogation of the current predicament, including the latest military assault on North Waziristan. We argue that it is necessary to understand the concrete, material processes through which ideologies and practices of power are constructed.

We ask: Who is carrying out this operation and why? How have the Taliban become a potent force in Pakistan? In a country caught within imperialism and militancy, is there a primary enemy, and if so, who is it?

An imperialist assault

The Pakistani military is conducting operations in North Waziristan based on the consensus of the class forces that rule Pakistan, namely, the capitalists, the landlords and, perhaps most importantly, imperialism led by the United States of America.

A misunderstanding of the relationship between the state, class forces, and the production of imperialist grand narratives has led us to this. Interrogating the materiality of particular ideologies – the practices, shapes and forms they take in specific contexts – can help lead us out.

There is no shortage of evidence showing how the U.S. and its Western allies have long pressured Pakistan into military operations and have been calling for the same in North Waziristan in particular. They have repeatedly claimed that their war on the people of Afghanistan has been a failure because the Taliban, who lead an anti-NATO resistance there, have found rear bases and safe havens across the border in Pakistan. 7 Accordingly, the majority of U.S. drone attacks have been conducted in North Waziristan. As the U.S. begins to withdraw some of its forces from Afghanistan, Western powers seek to maintain their presence and power in the region in other ways—including by shifting the focus of the war to Pakistan. Unsurprisingly, a U.S. congressional resolution proposes to make $300 million of the total aid package  given to Pakistan under the Coalition Support Funds, contingent specifically upon an operation being carried out by Pakistan in North Waziristan. The total aid, some $900 million for 2015, is intended as reimbursements and compensation from the U.S. to Pakistan for the latter’s support to coalition forces in the region.

The unequal and deferential relationship between Pakistan on the one hand, and the U.S. and its allies on the other, is not merely a relationship mediated by diplomacy or trade (although those are extremely important), but by the very structure of Pakistan’s political economy. Hassan Gardezi has meticulously documented how Pakistan’s economic policies have closely traced whatever was promoted by imperialist institutions, particularly the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank — with few exceptions. In the 1950s-60s this was modernization theory and now, it is neo-liberalism.  Read on >>

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• This narrative sometimes takes the garb of protecting Islam from those who are hijacking it: the Islamist insurgents. These narratives draw on the same conceptual apparatus that reduces politics to civilizational battles for the soul of Islam and makes imperialist violence invisible. This repertoire has been mobilized inside Pakistan as well as the U.S. to differentiate between between “good” Muslims and “bad” Muslims and to legitimize imperialist wars. See: Mahmood Mamdani. 2005. Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War and the Roots of Terror . Harmony. [ ↩ ]
• A very particular example of this confusion is the position of the Awami Workers Party (AWP). See for instance: Farooq Tariq, Abid Hassan Minto, Fanoos Gujjar. 2014. “ AWP joint statement on military operation in Waziristan ” Or see here . [ ↩ ]
• For lack of a better term, we refer to both the old left and new radicals as “progressive leftists.” [ ↩ ]
• There is plenty of literature available pointing out the manipulative role of the military in political life. For example, Ayesha Siddiqa has pointed out the role of the military through the concept of “Milbus,” or military capital that is different from the defense budget and related to the military’s internal economy. This, she argues, is responsible for the direct and indirect control of governance of the country. The military’s predatory nature becomes cause and effect of the feudal, authoritarian and undemocratic political system in this argument. See Ayesha Siddiqa. 2007. Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy. New York: Oxford University Press. See also Husain Haqqani. 2005. Pakistan Between Mosque and Military. Washington D. C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.; Saeed Shafqat. 1997. Civil-Military Relations in Pakistan: from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to Benazir Bhutto. Boulder: Westview Press. [ ↩ ]
• See for example: Hamza Alavi. 1972. “ The State in Post-Colonial Societies: Pakistan and Bangladesh .” New Left Review. I(74): 59-81. Alavi’s basic argument, and very importantly, his way of conceptualizing the state more broadly, remains highly influential. [ ↩ ]
• US imperialism permeates Pakistan’s relationships with other states as well, particularly the Gulf States that have funneled money for various Islamist political projects in Pakistan as well as for cultural projects that are religiously-inspired. While political parties such as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) have criticized American imperialism, they have failed to mention its Gulf vassals. On the relationship between US imperialism and the Gulf states, see: Adam Hanieh. 2014. “ A Petrodollar and a Dream .” Jacobin. January. Hanieh argues that reversing neoliberalism in the Middle East (and one might add, Pakistan) will require challenging powerful Gulf states. See also: Douglas Hill. 2014. “ Islam, Terrorism and Hypocrisy: U.S. Imperialism in the Muslim World .” The Red Phoenix, January 7. Timothy Mitchell. 2002. “ The Nature of Oil: Reconsidering American Power in the Middle East .” Jadaliyya , January 12.; Timothy Mitchell. 2002. “McJihad: Islam in the US Global Order.” Social Text . 20(4): 1-18. [ ↩ ]
• Canada’s current immigration minister and former ambassador to Afghanistan, Chris Alexander recently reiterated this position on Canadian national television when he complained that the failure of the NATO mission in Afghanistan was a result of not being able to conduct military operations in Pakistan. [ ↩ ]

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Tags: noaman g ali , solidarity , zarb-e-azb

This entry was posted on Aug 2014 at 12:01 AM and is filed under Multitudes , sidebar , Zarb-e-Azab . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

46 Responses to Zarb-e-Azb and the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality

JUST PUBLISHED: Zarb-e-Azb & the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality | Syed Azeem & Noaman G. Ali http://t.co/dzkz0BCCkJ

While I agree religious fundamentalism may not be a principle contraction, it cannot be reduced to imperialism. http://t.co/yHwEON0CH5

RT @TanqeedOrg: JUST PUBLISHED: Zarb-e-Azb & the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality | Syed Azeem & Noaman G. Ali http://t.co/dzkz0BCCkJ

@AhmerMurad stop watching nura kushti. Read http://t.co/PLHK3Bsqtj

RT @mattaikins: A critique of Pakistan’s military operation from the anti-imperialist left, from the always incisive @TanqeedOrg http://t.c…

@AmmarRashidT In Pakistan,an old left… has frequently found itself degenerating into liberalism – See more at: http://t.co/qxg4L5JhHN

In Pakistan,an old left… has frequently found itself degenerating into liberalism – See more at: http://t.co/qxg4L5JhHN …

RT @TanqeedOrg: In Pakistan, an old left, eager not to be on the wrong side of secularism has been degenerating into liberalism. http://t.c…

[…] Zarb-e-Azb and the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality [x] […]

Zarb-e-Azb and the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality #Pakistan http://t.co/177pbzYxiH

CADiP members’ in-depth analysis of the reasons for the war in Waziristan and the role played by imperialism…. http://t.co/Rljb4394JF

Zarb-e-Azb and the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality http://t.co/oa0wHj1EqW

@Tanveerbooni http://t.co/qxg4L5JhHN

RT @TanqeedOrg: There was no pre-packaged ideological conspiracy to spread Islam and fundamentalism in Pakistan through terrorism. http://t…

RT @CADiPinfo: CADiP members’ in-depth analysis of the reasons for the war in Waziristan and the role played by imperialism…. http://t.co…

Zarb-e-Azb and the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality http://t.co/mXGgEBCUrN

RT @socialism21: Zarb-e-Azb and the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality http://t.co/mXGgEBCUrN

Zarb-e-Azb and the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality – http://t.co/eqT1iwEDCo – via @hadia_akhtar

RT @JosephKay76: Zarb-e-Azb and the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality – http://t.co/eqT1iwEDCo – via @hadia_akhtar

@idkasuri Sir, you will enjoy this. On the left in Pakistan. http://t.co/N2jw5r9fqy

@umairjav Thought you might find this interesting. On the Pakistani left. http://t.co/N2jw5r9fqy

Zarb-e-Azb and the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality http://t.co/RrCXRN0Ozp

RT @ChapatiMystery: Zarb-e-Azb and the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality http://t.co/RrCXRN0Ozp

Zarb-e-Azb and the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality http://t.co/YqAyf1LqmZ

needed this – a critique of Pakistan military’s Operation Zarb-e Azab by the anti-imperialist left. | http://t.co/QmsoIEUbPU

RT @TanqeedOrg: Many have misunderstood this entire dialectic between U.S.-led imperialism and Islamist insurgencies. http://t.co/dcTgHOh8S6

US proposes $300 mil to Pakistan under Coalition Support Funds for N Waziristan. The total aid? ~$900 mil in 2015: http://t.co/JODyukeHCF

If you decide to read anything about #Pakistan today, make it this one. http://t.co/93IiaMBrvx #longreads

RT @mehreenkasana: If you decide to read anything about #Pakistan today, make it this one. http://t.co/93IiaMBrvx #longreads

[…] Zarb-e-Azb and the Left: On Imperialism’s Materiality […]

[…] values, placing Islam itself as the root cause of terrorism (relatedly, one could argue that  a cycle of American military and cultural dominance feeds fundamentalist, anti-American sentiment), the oppression of women, and irreconcilable cultural differences. Kairey’s column relies on […]

[…] Syed Azeem and Noaman G. Ali: Accordingly, the responsibility of anti-imperialist struggle falls on the shoulders of the working classes of Pakistan. There should be no doubt about this point. Finding any solution to problems like militancy or economic development as suggested by the petty bourgeois “civil society,” reliant as they are upon imperialism, will lead Pakistan towards a situation like that of Libya, Syria and Iraq. That is where half of the population is fighting against the other half. Let us stop right here. There should be no more wars on the people of Pakistan, not least of all because that is what imperialism wants. Being anti-imperialist is being in favor of those vast masses who find themselves squeezed by the daily grind of an underdeveloped economy and a repressive politics and especially those who find themselves the victims of the violence that has exploded as a result of imperialist misadventures. In terms of practice, the first step in this regard is to embrace the people of Pakistan – that is, the working classes, the poorer peasants, the unemployed and underemployed, the oppressed women, the minorities – whether they are of North Waziristan or Balochistan, regardless of whether these people are “conservative” or “progressive.” They are suffering, and no one can tell us better than them why they are suffering and what problems require what kinds of solutions. If they say imperialism is the enemy, we should not try to convince them that it is necessary to first evacuate oneself of Islamic sentiment and fight “religious extremism” in the abstract in order to be progressive. We should critically examine the history of leftist struggle in Pakistan and advance our own understanding in a way that provides lessons for our current practice. How did the left degenerate so much that it started standing with imperialism and the ruling classes against the people of Pakistan? A comprehensive and self-critical assessment will be a sign of the ideological strength of the left, not its weakness. More here. […]

[…] this sense of justice also implants in us a responsibility to be critical of power holders who have capitalized on horrific ordeals — such as last week’s tragedy —  for their own interests. It is this […]

very very strange analysis, dont put any blame on mil alone , u may nat be knowing actual sit ion ground in NWA it is easy to make dramatic analysis in ur drawing room rather be upfront against those elms. poor analysis

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• Corpus ID: 111829290

Operation Zarb-E-Azb: A Successful Initiative to Curtail Terrorism

• Umbreen Javaid
• Published 1 July 2015
• Political Science
• South Asian Studies

21 Citations

Mapping normalcy through vernacular security-development in post-conflict north waziristan, framing of operation zarb-e-azb in english dailies of pakistan, counter narrative on extremism and terrorism in islamic perspective and role of muslim thinkers in establishment of peace: analytic study of pakistan’s efforts to combat violent extremism, waziri culture and pashtun tribal governance system : a missing link to halt the deadliest war in wild waziristan, transformation in political economy of post-conflict north waziristan, pakistan, the effects of growing indian military potential on south asian stability, relationship of security stability with fdi inflows and economic growth evidence from pakistan, security challenges and policy initiatives: an analysis from cpec standpoint, socio-economic and political determinants of terrorism in pakistan.

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War as an Instrument of Political Policy: Clausewitzian Analysis of Operation Zarb-E-Azb

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Operation Zarb-e-Azb: Treatment of Pakistan Army in the Western Media Before and After the Start of Operation Zarb-e-Azb

This research investigates the treatment of Pakistan army in western media i.e. New York Times and Washington Post. The stories from these two daily papers incorporate all areas before two months begin of operation i.e. From April 14, 2014 to June 14, 2014 and following two months begin of operation Zarb-e-Azb i.e. From June 15, 2014 to August 15, 2014. It found that the general picture of Pakistan army stayed negative in both daily papers before beginning of operation Zarb-e-Azb and after beginning of operation Zarb-e-Azb, both daily papers surrounded Pakistan army in a positive way. The research depended on theory that "the general proportions of positive, negative and nonpartisan scope about Pakistan army and then afterward beginning of operation Zarb-e-Azb in New York Times and Washington Post" and tried through content analysis and deductive approach was connected. Prior to the begin of operation Zarb-e-Azb the Washington Post distributed 56 stories while 76% of them depicted Pakistan army as negative and after the beginning of operation Zarb-e-Azb the Washington Post distributed 52 stories and 94% of them depicted Pakistan army as positive. Before beginning of operation Zarb-e-Azb the New York Times distributed 33 stories and 64% of them depicted Pakistan army as negative while after the beginning of operation Zarb-e-Azb the New York Times distributed 22 stories and 77% of them surrounded Pakistan army as positive .The discoveries of the exploration bolster media similarity hypothesis as; American media takes after the American government outside approaches and depicted negative casing of Pakistan army before the beginning of operation Zarb-e-Azb and depicted positive edge of Pakistan army after the beginning of operation Zarb-e-Azb.

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Studies in Conflict and Terrorism

Pamir Sahill

This article, employing a poststructuralist Critical Discourse Analysis, reveals cracks, discrepancies, and inconsistencies in Pakistan's discourse on terrorism and practice. I argue that Pakistan continuously constructs a “monstrous enemy” and magnifies it in a way that conceals alternative representations of reality that could show that the state, by presenting itself as a victim of terrorism, is using phenomena of political violence to serve its political objectives inside and outside the boundaries of the state. The article argues that after a militant attack on a school in northwest Pakistan, critical, liberal, and dissenting narratives mingled with the dominant state discourse in a fashion that strengthen illiberal practices in the country, thus undermining the ideals of democracy.

Simon Engelkes

On 8 June 2014, armed militants attacked Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, the largest airport in Pakistan. 36 people were killed, including the 10 attackers. Later, a senior commander of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) confirmed that the attack was a joint operation with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). As a response, Pakistan’s Armed Forces launched the joint military offensive Operation Zarb-e-Azb, named in reference to the sword of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Operation Zarb-e-Azb, aimed at militants in the remote mountain region of North Waziristan and in greater Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province along the Afghan border, was declared a “phenomenal success” by Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan army’s media wing. General Bajwa claimed the operation broke the “terrorist’ backbone”, disrupted the nexus between sleeper-cells and resulted in the killing of roughly 3,400 terrorists and the destruction of 837 hideouts, although coming at a high human cost for the armed forces with 488 of its personell getting killed.

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Zarb E Azb Operation In Pakistan Essay In English

The  Zarb-e-Azb operation was launched by the Armed Forces of Pakistan on June 15 th , 2014. It’s a full-fledged martial attack on North Waziristan, one of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) that form Pakistan’s northwestern border with Afghanistan. Granting to the Defense Minister this operation will be against ‘local and foreign terrorists’ and will stay till ‘the last terrorist has been eliminated’. This operation commenced  in the reaction of an attack on  Jinnah International Airport in Karachi with the complete political, defense and the civilian  support of the state.

Operation Zarb-e-Azb, a mutual service of the equipped forces against the different combative groups, including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jundullah, Al-Qaeda, East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Haqqani Network, in the area of FATA. About some 30,000 Pakistani soldiers took part in Zarb-e-Azb, illustrated as a ‘comprehensive operation’ to wash out all foreign and local militants trouncing in the North Waziristan Agency and the neighboring regions.

Therefore, Operation Zarb-e-Azb was extended, because North Waziristan is a survival place for militants patiently vulnerable the triumph of other martial operations throughout the 2002-2014.Certainly, the capability of militants was hastily found protection in North Waziristan to recover and reclaim their lost force.This is a major cause that Pakistan’s chief operations failed to attain their set objectives above the final decade.The current activity has gone bad to bring real peace to Pakistani cities,nevertheless,the TTP and associated group are even competent to commence main attacks. On November 2, 2014, a huge penalizing suicide bombing was launched in Pakistan-India border near Wagah, Lahore. In this attack, 55 people were killed and 200 wounded.

            Thus, concluding my article as, the global world has constantly had their uncertainties about Muslims that whether they stand for harmony or are they religious extremists in favor of war. The distorted meaning of “Jihad” that is prominent amongst the international world is damaging due to the Taliban.To undo this damage we need to show our peaceful side, the side that supports peace in our country. This war also provides us an opportunity to demonstrate our sense of equivalence between the other provinces. Let’s demonstrate the cosmos that the masses of Sindh, Baluchistan, Khyber- Pakhtoon- Kha and Punjab are all equal to us. The geographic milieu of someone does not an issue to us and that we still remember and hold  the saying of Quaid-e-Azam in our heart:

“We are now all Pakistanis–not Baluchis, Pathans, Sindhis, Bengalis, Punjabis and so on–and as Pakistanis we must feet perform and work, and we should be overblown to be known as Pakistanis and nothing else.’’

Muhammad Hassnain

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