Taleban warns foreign firms as Pakistan sends in the tanks

The Pakistani Taleban on Monday warned foreign firms to leave the country and vowed to hit back against the government after tanks, troops and jets were deployed in a long-awaited offensive on their stronghold.

Pakistan’s major cities braced for revenge attacks by tightening security at key installations and ordering soldiers to patrol the streets, while hospitals in the northwest prepared for casualties.

The offensive in the North Waziristan tribal area, the main bastion of Taleban and Al Qaeda militants, was launched a week after a brazen insurgent attack on the country’s main airport in Karachi left dozens dead and marked the end of a troubled peace process.

Pakistan’s allies, particularly the United States, have called for an operation in the mountainous tribal territory to flush out groups like the Haqqani network, which use the area to target Nato troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.

But authorities had previously held back from a final push — possibly fearful of angering warlords who attack only Afghanistan and of opening too many fronts in their decade-long battle against homegrown insurgents.

The Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) warned foreign countries to stop doing business with the government and supporting its “apostate army”.

“We warn all foreign investors, airlines and multinational corporations that they should immediately suspend their ongoing matters with Pakistan... otherwise they will be responsible for their own loss,” main TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said in a statement.

“We hold Nawaz Sharif’s government and the Punjabi establishment responsible for the loss of tribal Muslims’ life and property as a result of this operation,” he added, vowing to “burn your palaces” in Islamabad and Lahore.

Large numbers of troops were seen patrolling the streets of Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.

In the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province which borders the tribal zone, the government has declared a state of emergency in all hospitals and told them to prepare for casualties, said provincial health minister Shahram Khan Tarakai.

Air force jets have been pounding suspected militant hideouts in the region since Sunday and have been joined by tanks and infantry engaging in heavy artillery strikes.

The military on Monday suffered its first casualties, losing six soldiers to a bomb blast at the village of Ghulam Khan, according to an official statement. Three others were injured.

An AFP reporter in North Waziristan’s main town of Miranshah said tanks were now stationed in the bazaar.

Troops were firing intermittently in the air to warn people not to leave their homes but so far there had been no reports of close combat and there appeared to be relatively little resistance.

The militants’ death toll so far stands at 177, according to the military. The figures cannot be verified independently.

In the town of Bannu 10 kilometres from the border with North Waziristan, hundreds of military trucks with mounted machine guns were on their way to the combat zone, as were oil tankers and a military field hospital.

Some 62,000 people have fled the region so far for other parts of Pakistan according to official data, with “hundreds of thousands” eventually expected to leave, said Arshad Khan, a relief official who was overseeing the construction of two refugee camps.

Thousands of others have fled across the border into Gorbaz district in Afghanistan’s Khost province, said Mobarez Mohammad Zadran, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

“The Afghan government has assisted with food and non-food items,” he added.

Several analysts said troops would likely gain control of the territory relatively quickly, partly because of an exodus of fighters across the Afghan border before the operation.

Doubts remain about whether the offensive would lead to lower levels of militant violence.

Analyst Ayesha Siddiqa said the offensive appeared to target only those militant groups causing trouble for Pakistan, rather than insurgents as a whole.

“You have Uzbeks sitting in Sindh and Punjab as well. Is the idea to hit them all? It’s not against all terrorists, it’s against a particular kind of terrorist,” she said.

Last week’s airport siege was claimed by Uzbek militants fighting for the TTP. The attack slammed the door on a peace process with the TTP that yielded a brief ceasefire from March to April.

Amir Rana, director of the Pak Insitute of Peace Studies, agreed. “This operation is not about defeating the ideology or narrative of terror. First they want to physically defeat (these militants) to regain lost territory.”

“The real challenge will start after this operation,” he continued, adding an overhaul of police and other civil institutions was needed.