Of blasts and the path to deliverance

By Afzal Hussain Bokhari

Once known for its delicious chapli kebobs, the crowded Swati Phatak (railway crossing) was the least likely of all the city places to be struck by a suicide car bomber. Located on the southern tip of Peshawar Cantonment, the railway crossing was a significant entry point from the direction of village Pishtakhara or Bara tehsil of the tribal Khyber Agency a few kilometres farther to the south.

In that context, everyone who arrived at or departed from the Swati Phatak was looked upon with suspicion at least by the vigilant guards belonging variously to rangers, army, military police or militia. In spite of the heightened vigilance displayed by the law enforcing agencies, the suicide car bomber succeeded in taking his explosives-laden vehicle to the CIA police station, where some experienced detectives were busy interrogating a few Taliban prisoners.

The suicide bomber detonated the explosives and blew up the vehicle out of shape. The blast rocked the nearby Falcon Colony bungalows where women screamed in fear as functioning television sets fell off the shelves and doors were blown out of the walls with the impact of the explosion. 

Initial reports said that an alleged suicide bomber along with a burqa-clad woman arrived at the main gate of the CIA police station by a motorbike. The woman got off the motor cycle and tried to enter the building. The guard stopped the woman who retaliated by opening fire at him.

Early reports described her as a suicide bomber who was promptly gunned down by the guard. However, later when the newsmen were busy examining the dead bodies in local hospitals, the woman turned out to be an ordinary citizen named Naheed who worked as laboratory attendant in the PAF School.

Her father Manzoor worked as administrator in the school while her sister A'sia studied in class VII. On that particular day A'sia felt slightly hungry and all three of them left the school before time. While on their way home, the trio was caught up in cross fire and got killed.

From October 5 to 16, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Lahore remained in the grip of a violent wave of terrorism. In order to curb the subversive activities of the Taliban militants the security forces launched on the night between Friday and Saturday a formal military operation code-named Rah-i-Nijat (path to deliverance).

Army sent two divisions - about 32,000 troops - into the area. The operation may initially continue from six to eight weeks. As many as 8,000 families moved on Friday from South Waziristan Agency to Dera Ismail Khan. Meanwhile, thousands of refugees have arrived through the North Waziristan routes but due to the imposition of curfew they got stuck at the town of Mir Ali. 

Eminent social worker Abdus Sattar Edhi along with his daughters arrived in Peshawar and launched a campaign in City as well as Cantonment areas to collect donations for the widows, orphans and the needy refugees coming from Waziristan.

Security forces want it to be a three-pronged attack mainly on the area where the hostile Mehsud tribesmen live. An ISPR announcement on Sunday said that during the first 24 hours about 60 militants got killed while five of the soldiers had to sacrifice their lives. Army gained control over the routes between Shakai, Sararogha and Kanigoram and the areas up to Mundana, Kund, Ladha and Tarakai were declared safe.

All known routes to the area have been blocked so that the suspected militants are not able to flee the region. Supported by air power, including the gunship helicopters and the bomber jets, the operation will be supervised by the concerned corps commander. Latest reports from Waziristan said that army had taken positions on the mountains of Kotaki, the native region of Hakeemullah Mehsud. 

As a precaution, the inspector-general of prisons, NWFP, Tanvirul Haq Sipra, ordered the closure of all public call offices (PCOs) on every jail compound and disallowed the use of cellular phone by any of the jail inmates.

Newsmen faced a great deal of hardships in gathering information because the administration, as a security measure, ordered the networks of all the mobile phone companies to suspend their operations in Tank, Dera Ismail Khan and other towns in the settled areas located in close proximity to the tribal South Waziristan Agency.

The security forces are not targeting the areas of pro-government Taliban leaders like Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Maulvi Nazeer as they are not putting up any resistance. Due to the intensity of the operation, some key militants crossed over to the neighbouring Orakzai Agency and the adjoining areas of Balochistan. 

Prior to the operation, there was an important meeting in Islamabad attended among others by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani and Chief of the Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The COAS later told the meeting that a military operation in South Waziristan had become unavoidable because every subversive act was being planned there.

Similarly, the Director-General of Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), Lieutenant-General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, told the political leaders in attendance: "You cannot imagine how many people are on the hit list of the terrorists. They are not only important personalities and politicians but also some ordinary people in different professions."

It was after this observation that the provincial government directed more than 22 important figures in City to drastically curtail and restrict their activities. These included ministers, members of the legislative assembly and top retired military officers.

After the death of Baitullah Mehsud on August 5 in a US drone attack, there was a general impression that the death signified the demise of the party. It was to dispel this impression that in a hurriedly-arranged meeting, the new chief of Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hakeemullah Mehsud, recently met the local correspondents of various newspapers to let them see with their own eyes that he was still very much alive and not killed in any kind of infighting in the party over the issue of leadership or the distribution of assets.