Pakistan anti-militant offensive enters 'final phase'

Pakistan has begun the "last phase" of an ongoing massive military operation to wipe out the remnants of militants from hideouts across the troubled tribal regions along the restive border with Afghanistan. 

A senior Pakistani security official said on Thursday that the operation would target militant positions in Data Khel town and Shawal valley in the volatile North Waziristan.  

"Both ground and air assets are being used to take on the terrorists hiding in the areas," AFP quoted the source as saying, adding, "The objective is to cleanse the area of militants." 

The massive operation near the Afghan border will be conducted as part of an ongoing major offensive to clear strongholds of the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants. 

According to a statement by Pakistani military, the chief of the Pakistani army staff General Raheel Sharif ordered the immediate launch of the final phase of Operation Zarb-e-Azb during a visit to North Waziristan on Wednesday. 

General Sharif has emphasized that sacrifices by Pakistani troops will not be in vain and the ultimate goal of a terror-free Pakistan will be achieved. 

Meanwhile, Pakistani law enforcement agencies also plan to step up intelligence-based anti-militant operations in major cities across Pakistan.

Security sources say such large-scale operations are already underway in major cities like violence-hit southern port city of Karachi where police have detained hundreds of al-Qaeda operatives and members of a notorious outlawed anti-Shia terrorist group known as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) during a series of raids in recent weeks. 

Pro-Taliban militants and al-Qaeda operatives have been active in Karachi, which is home to numerous ethnic groups, carrying out several attacks in the past.

In the country’s troubled northwestern tribal regions, Islamabad has been engaged in a major offensive against militant hideouts since June 2014, when a deadly raid on the Karachi International Airport ended the government’s faltering peace talks with the pro-Taliban militants.

Pakistan’s army has intensified military operations against the militants since pro-Taliban elements killed over 150 people, most of them children, in an armed assault on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar in December 2014. 

According to Pakistani officials, more than 3,600 pro-Taliban militants have been killed since the army intensified military operations following the school massacre. The military claims it has now cleared 90 percent of the region. 

At least 358 soldiers have also lost their lives during the ongoing fight against militancy. 

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