A spate of terrorist incidents earlier in 2014, like this attack on a police vehicle in Karachi, prompted the military to launch its current offensive. Picture: Asianet-Pakistan/Shutterstock.com
Pakistan’s military says it has killed more than 900 insurgents so far in an ongoing offensive to wipe out sanctuaries of local and foreign fighters from the country’s semi-autonomous tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
Launched in June this year, the military operation, named Operation Zarb-e-Azb, has resulted in the deaths of 910 terrorists, a press release issued by the army’s press wing, Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said this week.
ISPR claims the operation has also destroyed a “huge cache” of arms and ammunition, as well as communications and other equipment, eroding the ability of insurgent groups “to attack as a coherent force”.
Security forces have also cleared the towns of Miranshah, Mir Ali, Datta Khel, Boya and Degan, which the army says were “strongholds of terrorists”.
At the same time, the army says 82 of it soldiers have died as part of operations, while another 269 were injured. The fatalities include 42 in North Waziristan, 23 in the rest of the six federally administered tribal districts, and 17 in other parts of the country including Balochistan province and Karachi.
However, the operation has also displaced a large number of civilians in affected areas. The military says relief operations for what it calls “temporarily dislocated people” from North Waziristan are ongoing. According to the ISPR, it has distributed ratios to more than 97,500 families.
