By IANS,
Rawalpindi : The lessons learnt from the military’s anti-Taliban operations in the country’s restive northwest were reviewed by the Pakistani Army at the Corps Commanders conference that began here Thursday.
Quoting military sources, Online news agency reported that during the course of the conference, the constructive and positive strategies of Pakistan Army in Operation
Rah-e-Rast in the Malakand division of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) were discussed.
The army says it has taken 90-95 percent of Swat and other areas of the Malakand division in the operations that began April 26.
Addressing the conference, the 121st in the series, Pakistani Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani expressed satisfaction at the operational preparedness of forces and noted the sacrifices made by the officers and soldiers who were killed in the Malakand operation.
The overall situation in the South Waziristan region of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the border with Afghanistan after the killing of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone strike last month was also reviewed in detail.
The military had gone into action after the Taliban reneged on a controversial peace deal with the NWFP government under which they were to lay down their arms in return for Sharia laws being imposed in the Malakand division, which includes Swat, Buner, Lower Dir and four other districts.
Instead, they moved south from their Swat headquarters and occupied Buner, which is just 100 km from Islamabad.
The operations had begun from Lower Dir, the home district of radical cleric Sufi Mohammad, who had negotiated the peace deal and who is the father-in-law of Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah. The focus later shifted to Buner and Swat.
The military says over 1,500 Taliban have been killed in the operations. While Sufi Mohammad has been captured, Fazlullah’s whereabouts are a mystery.
With the operations in Malakand virtually over, the military has now trained its guns on the South Waziristan region.