The Pakistani Spectator

To win any battle swiftly, easily and without much losses, the best course of action is to win the people of the targeted area. Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan have become a flash point for the world, and due to the inclination of many media personnel in Pakistan and due to their pandering to the vested interest, FATA is considered as the hotbed of the terrorists in the eyes of the world, and very swiftly most of the Western world is unifying on the point is that only if the FATA is taken down by force, only then the would be more safer.

That is why the United States, NATO and other nations in the world cluster are mounting their pressure on Pakistan to “do more” or more better let them “do it”. The prospective next American President Barack Obama has already shown his intentions to bomb the FATA area, if the thing go as they are going, and already the sabre-rattling of the US led NATO forces on our Western borders are threatening and become ominous day by day.

Amidst such circumstances stands our military. Pakistan Army doesn’t want to kill its own people, yet they don’t want to accept the writ of any Mangal or Jumma Bagh. Pakistan Army is the sole guardian of the borders and territory of the Pakistan, and they while maintaining that authority don’t want to kill their own people. But things are not even that simple. Our “very own” people also include foreigners and most of them belong to the unknown origins. The Arab and Chechan fighters have long gone to Afghanistan or have been killed, and there are very few of them, but there are sure intelligence evidences of the huge presence of the fully trained agents of Mossad, RAW, CIA and 30 other agencies of the West, and they are present within the rows of the Talibans, and they are the main reason that peace is not a consistent entity found in the FATA area.

Having operations in the FATA area wont’ achieve much on the ground. These operation come and they go, and they have been executed for many times now with short time volatile gains. The basic reason of the ill gains of these operations is the noncommittal of the local population of the area. These people have been literally taken hostage by the militants. These militants are armed to teeth and when security forces do operation, these militants mix up in the local population and then the innocent residents not only become the collateral damage, they also have to make do with the militants.

The local population of the restive areas don’t really trust the security forces, as they say that as soon as operation would end, the militants would return and then there would be no one to save them from the wrath of the militants. They therefore see it as prudent to side with militants, or at least maintain a neutral position, in the hope of a return to the peace that they seek more than anything else.

In order to curtail and subjugate the militancy in the area, the security forces must first build up a relationship of confidence with the people and only then the operations would yield some lasting results.