PESHAWAR: After completing the tactical phase of Operation Zarb-i-Azb in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (Fata), the army has launched a combing operation in the rural and urban areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to eliminate terrorists’ sleeper cells and networks, according to a military commander.

“Security forces have presence in 99.2 per cent areas of Fata. Only 0.8pc area adjacent to the Afghan border in Khyber and North Waziristan agencies remains to be cleared of terrorists because of tactical reasons,” said Corps Commander of Peshawar Lt Gen Hidayatur Rehman while briefing reporters about the security situation in the region here on Monday.

He said that the army had cleared 100,927 square kilometres area in Fata but 814sq km area in Rajgal (Khyber) and Lawara Mandi (North Waziristan) had been left untouched due to tactical reasons and keeping in view the sanctity of the border with Afghanistan.

He argued that deployment of troops in the two areas did not give any tactical benefit to the army because terrorists could move across the border and fire at security forces from the Afghan side.

He said that Afghan army had no presence in the areas and security forces could not take action against terrorists inside Afghanistan because of the sanctity of border.

“These are contested areas as they are controlled neither by the Pakistan army nor by the Afghan army. Militants will not be able to operate from the areas if security forces of the two countries fulfil their responsibilities,” he said while citing Afghanistan’s inability to control its territory.

In reply to a question, the corps commander said that the Frontier Corps and the Levies Force would assume control of Fata after 2021 and reconstruction work would be completed by 2019 if the situation remained normal.

He said that the strength of the FC in the region was above 79 wings (a wing consists of between 700 and 800 soldiers) and 10 new wings would be added to the force by the end of August.

Lt Gen Rehman seemed concerned over governance-related issues in Fata, particularly the slow pace of reconstruction of damaged infrastructure, rehabilitation of IDPs and poor quality of developmental works being executed by the Civil Secretariat of Fata.

“I talked to the KP governor yesterday and brought poor quality of construction work to his notice,” he said, adding that the governor had asked the army to monitor work on development schemes being executed by the civilian departments.

“Since army engineers are busy in North and South Waziristan, they can’t focus on development and reconstruction activities in entire Fata,” Lt Gen Rehman said.

Border management

The military commander said that security forces had sealed the border with Afghanistan, adding that Pakistan had established 535 checkpoints from Chitral to South Waziristan but Afghanistan had set up only 145 posts in the region.

“Pakistan has a post at the distance of every two kilometres along the border,” he said.

Replying to another question, he said that border management system with Afghanistan would be in place at Torkham from Wednesday and only those tribes which had easement right (Rahdari) would be allowed to move within 20km along the border without visa.

“Right of easement does not mean that a person will travel from Torkham to Karachi without valid documents,” he said, adding that there would be no cross-border movement without visa after Wednesday.

He said that the jurisdiction of the Federal Investigation Agency had been extended to Torkham and seven more crossing points would be established along the border in future. The points will be located in Arandu (Chitral), Nawapass (Bajaur), Kherlachi (Kurram), Ghulam Khan (North Waziristan) and Gorsal (South Waziristan). He said that the army was ready to install a proper system at the seven points if the federal government released funds.

Combing Operation

The corps commander said that 11th Corps and 10th Corps were conducting combing operations in eight districts of KP. Eleventh Corps was presently combing areas in Peshawar Valley and Shangla and 10th Corps has moved in Torghar district of Hazara division.

“Our first priority was to clear major hideouts of terrorists in areas like Waziristan and then start combing operations,” he said.

Security forces had conducted 77 operations in rural and urban areas of the province, rounded up 151 proclaimed offenders and seized suicide jackets and ammunitions etc, he said. Kurram, Khyber, Orakzai and North and South Waziristan have almost been cleared, but threat warnings are coming from Bajaur, Mohmand and inside Swat. Threat warnings in Kurram have been received from across the border.

Return of IDPs and reconstruction in Fata

He cited slow pace of release of funds by the federal government as major impediments in the rehabilitation of displaced persons and reconstruction of damaged infrastructure.

The government had announced Rs 400,000 grant for a destroyed house and Rs160,000 for a partially damaged house, he said. An amount of Rs32 billion is required for paying the grant to affected families but the government has released Rs5bn so far of which Rs1.3 billion has been paid to affected families.

An amount of Rs5.3bn was needed for immediate repair of infrastructure and the government had released 3.6bn so far, Lt Gen Rehman said. Similarly permanent repair of infrastructure requires about Rs30bn but the government has released Rs5bn so far.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2016