KARACHI, Pakistan
Pakistan reiterated Wednesday that its forces had been launching operations against all Taliban groups without bias in restive North Waziristan and in adjoining tribal areas.
The assurance was given by Pakistan’s army chief General Raheel Sharif at a meeting with a U.S. Congressional delegation led by Senator Jack Reed, a member of the Senate’s Armed Services committee, at the army general headquarters in Rawalpindi, a military official told the Anadolu Agency.
The assurance referred to the Haqqani network, a group once based in North Waziristan which has been blamed for numerous attacks on foreign forces in Afghanistan, including Kabul.
The U.S. media has long blamed Islamabad for using the Haqqani network as a proxy in Afghanistan, a charge Pakistan denies saying it holds no favorites among Taliban ranks.
The army chief said that almost 80 percent areas of North Waziristan had been cleared of Taliban forces, adding their control and command system had also been completely dismantled.
General Sharif who, along with the country’s top spy agency, Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) chief, Lt General Rizwan Akhtar paid a day-long visit to Kabul on Tuesday, informed the U.S. delegation that cooperation between Islamabad and Kabul to root out militancy was growing. The two forces have been carrying out coordinated operations against militants in their respective countries, he added.
The Pakistani army has been engaged in two large-scale operations - Zarb-e-Azab or strike of sword, and Khyber One - against Pakistani Taliban’s umbrella coalition, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and its affiliates in North Waziristan and Khyber Agency, respectively since last June.
Up to 2,300 Taliban militants have been killed in the ongoing military operations since June 15, 2014. But media have been barred from accessing operation-hit areas and conducting independent verifications of the army figures.
Some 226 soldiers have also been killed in the ongoing operation, according to official figures.
The military operations have already forced 1.5 million people from North Waziristan, and adjoining Khyber Agency to adjacent Peshawar, Bannu, Karak, and Lakki Marwat districts.
