Shops razed after military convoy bombed in Wana

[marwat]

PESHAWAR: Helicopter gunships and bulldozers destroyed dozens of shops in a restive tribal area on Tuesday after a bomb attack on a military convoy wounded five soldiers, officials said.

The incident took place in Wana, the main town of troubled South Waziristan district, where the military is battling Taliban militants.

Read: Pakistan Army major killed in North Waziristan checkpost attack

“At least five soldiers were wounded when a bomb planted on a roadside exploded as a military convoy passed,” a local security official told AFP.

Security forces immediately launched a search operation and called in air support, he added.

Read: Time to bring FATA home

Local administration and intelligence officials and residents said helicopters bombed the market at Wana by-pass road and later bulldozers razed dozens of shops belonging to suspected militants.

A curfew has been imposed in Wana and military helicopters were hovering above, they said.

Officials say more than 3,500 militants have been killed since the launch of the latest offensive in neighbouring North Waziristan last year.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/957285/s...ombed-in-wana/

[marwat]

Reader Comments (11)
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ishrat salim
18 hours ago
Reply
The main reason being lack of development work in order to make the place ( Wana etc; ) economically viable for the inhabitants to return. This is the work of the civilian govt, so unless massive development work is not taken up, the vacuum is filled by the criminal / terrorists again. It is high time the civilian govt take responsibility for economic development of the cleared area so that people of the area return & resume their activity with hope of employment for the youth of the area as well. De-radicalization is must, how long the military is going to keep the area secured militarily.
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IBN E ASHFAQUE
17 hours ago
Reply
Why destroying the shops of the poor? Lunacy at its height.
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Iron hand
16 hours ago
Reply
Well done Pakistan army – the war against these terrorists must be total war and must include their sympathizers. Only then will the cancer of religious extremism, previously nurtured by the State, be eradicated by the State.
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Usman
16 hours ago
Reply
@IBN E ASHFAQUE: A psychological war needs a psychological response, razing of shops means terrorists sympathizers and their abettors are not safe. The Army doesn’t spend millions on precision strikes just to go and raze a few shop later. Every move is calculated, unlike in the past.
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Punjabi
16 hours ago
Reply
Why destroy poor people’s shops. Can’t find the enemies to kill so use thousands of dollars worth of munitions to destroy the shops of IDPs? The only people who own shops are the common folk have a heart people.
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Dr M M. Khan
13 hours ago
Reply
This is no way for a professional army to behave. They appear to playing a number game like in vietnam and not the gain game! Every time you destroy the livlihood of innocent people you give rise to the birth of “accidental guerillas”. It is the classical way of losing the battle of hearts and minds.
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Assad
13 hours ago
Reply
@Dr M M. Khan:
This is not exactly correct. The Army, through its intelligence on the ground knows that many people in these areas are shopkeepers by day and militants by night. The IEDs are planted on the roads by these elements and they sit and watch the military convoys move, then the IEDs are blown through remote controllers which have a limited range, meaning the ones pulling the trigger are among the local populace and sitting and watching from the bazars as the military moves. After the attacks, these people are allowed to blend into the same bazars and shops. The military, when it sees that due to proximity of such shops along a commonly traversed route being exposed to IEDs, it tends to dismantle the shops and other built up areas.
The militants cannot operate if the local support on the ground is eliminated. No amount of goodwill can change that because the locals support the militants on the basis of tribal affiliation even though they know that the military brings with it development to the area. In such cases, a strong response against the support base of the militants is needed.
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Vivek
12 hours ago
Reply
This problem is never going to be solved as same as Kashmir,when the army withdraws the militants will take over,so what you gave to Kashmir is what you are getting back.In entire waziristan the army must stay permanently to run their writ or RAW will take over with the help of TTP
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TooTrue
7 hours ago
Reply
How about a similar response to the Indians for killing a Pakistani soldier on the LOC today?
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IBN E ASHFAQUE
an hour ago
Reply
[MENTION=6681]usman[/MENTION]: Try to understand that most of these shop owners are poor people and they are not involved in terrorism. They have put their life savings into this concern thereby earning bread for their families. Where will they go now? Who will take care of their families? This will create dislike for the army among the locals and army will need to one operation after another till it tires out or exhausts the contry’s resources. This is not sustainable.
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IBN E ASHFAQUE
an hour ago
Reply
@Assad: How long can the army sustain this madness? of destroying hearth and homes. It needs to use other options…….
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[marwat]

[MENTION=10678]Da Bannu Mazdigar[/MENTION]
your thought on this

[Talal]

I think they are doing a lot of good there as well.

This report lists a new cadet college, a grid station and a road that has been built in the area. COAS himself was present.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1207352/army-chief-inaugurates-development-projects-in-south-waziristan

[Loy Afghanistan]

This will not go unpunished we will take care of the future children of these haramzadas when we are in power!

[Adam]

Have they built a university in FATA yet?

[Da Bannu Mazdigar]

I think they are doing a lot of good there as well.

This report lists a new cadet college, a grid station and a road that has been built in the area. COAS himself was present.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1207352/arm...uth-waziristan

alot of projects are planned for FATA,the merger of FATA with KPK will be a game changer,i hope it happens as soon as possible.It will be good for pashtun unity and the development of FATA.

Cadet college spinkai is awesome,the fee is very affordable as compared to other cadet colleges with very bright chances of securing heavy marks and the possibility of getting into pakistan army is striking high.

[jankhan]

18 months of full pledged operation with heavy artillery and most advance weaponery used and all the local people are out, but yet army have not cleared the area. army has given deadlines ten times in the last 18 months for the return of IDPs but still they are unable to fulfill their promise.
There is something wrong there going on.....

[Samandri]

Any one know about Johan Nicolson?, he was the most celebrated figure in East India company and was considered very fearless Scot. In 1850s he was deputy commisonr of Bannu district . One day , in Bannu, he was talking to a group of large number of local tribesmen who came to visit him in his camp. He had only one orderly with him. When he refused to grant some request of his visitors, they begin to get offensive and hostile. One of them showed his disgust by spiting on the ground in front of John Nicolson. A man like Nicolson was aware of the psyche of Pashtuns, he knew that he was insulted and if he didnt punish the man, he will be perceived as weak and the whole crowd will storm him. He ordered his man to grab the man and rub his face in his own spit and make him lick it, then kick him out from the camp. The orderly did as ordered while the rest of the Pashtun visitors were amazed and watched one of their man getting humiliated and didnt do any thing to protect their companion. The news of this incident spread like fire in Bannu and tribesmen realized that John Nicolson is not a man to be treated lightly.

marwat , Da Bannu Mazdigar any guesses why i narrated this incident?

[Shamlawar Khurasani]

alot of projects are planned for FATA,the merger of FATA with KPK will be a game changer,i hope it happens as soon as possible.It will be good for pashtun unity and the development of FATA.

Cadet college spinkai is awesome,the fee is very affordable as compared to other cadet colleges with very bright chances of securing heavy marks and the possibility of getting into pakistan army is striking high.

Life goals of the utterly desperate: becoming a soldier in the Hindu army.

[randolph85]

Nuclear power for decades, only now is electricity for these people being planned.

priorities zindabad!

[Samandri]

Life goals of the utterly desperate: becoming a soldier in the Hindu army.

The Cadet college he is talking about, has mostly non-local students. And fee is higher than average private schools in the region. On Pakistani military forums, this example of cadet college in South wziristan is paraded around as if big developmental projects and progress is going on in "occupied" depopulated territory. A Pashtun reporter of BBC appeared on Pakistani TV channel, he had not confined his visit to this cadet collge and checked on rest of the agency. To his horror , he found that entire villages, markets and even mosques are either bombarded or razed to the ground. Most of the inhabitants had still not returned and ones in the agency returned to ruins, government didnt compensate them for their losses. I read in a news report that in 2009 operation of SW, more than 60,000 houses were destroyed. This destruction of houses and local economy, was on purpose and planned, to subdue the Mehsuds.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Collective punishment, according to the world order and powers is a war crime. Interesting that both these pieces of dung and Israel continue to do it to heir hearts delight, but the accusations for "atrocities" falls onto Sudan, North Korea, and whoever else they want to screw with for the day.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

alot of projects are planned for FATA,the merger of FATA with KPK will be a game changer,i hope it happens as soon as possible.It will be good for pashtun unity and the development of FATA.

Cadet college spinkai is awesome,the fee is very affordable as compared to other cadet colleges with very bright chances of securing heavy marks and the possibility of getting into pakistan army is striking high.

Give me a break. They destroyed the livelihood of people with collective punishment. And for what? For outside powers and so that your military brass can go on having their licentious days and whiskey nights.

The merger of FATA with KPK will be the end of hundreds of years of untouched indigenous Pashtun culture that has yet to be tainted with Bollywood bungra culture embraced in the rest of Pakistan.

The rest of Pakistan should have to pay raparations to these poor people and settle them right back in their lands. Then, Pakistan shoudl vacate every piece of their land and never return.

[Talal]

Give me a break. They destroyed the livelihood of people with collective punishment. And for what? For outside powers and so that your military brass can go on having their licentious days and whiskey nights.

The merger of FATA with KPK will be the end of hundreds of years of untouched indigenous Pashtun culture that has yet to be tainted with Bollywood bungra culture embraced in the rest of Pakistan.

The rest of Pakistan should have to pay raparations to these poor people and settle them right back in their lands. Then, Pakistan shoudl vacate every piece of their land and never return.

War reparations is actually a very good idea but without any functioning political system I dont think reparations will help. You don't think FATA would benefit joining KPK ? Im talking purely in socio-economic sense.