Pakistan has long been accused of playing a double game, in which it accepts support and financial aid from the US to allow drone strike, while failing to reign in militants in Pakistani controlled areas.
The recent offensive in Waziristan might set the stage for a different understanding of Pakistan's internal handling of terrorist threats.
Pakistani jets bombed strongholds in Waziristan today to counteract a spate of bombings aimed at security forces in the area. The area near Peshawar has always been plagued by a heavy presence of militants, and has long been a corridor for terrorists escaping US offensives in neighboring Afghanistan.
It is widely known that Bin Laden himself and many of his lieutenants hid out in Peshawar following the 2011-2012 bombing of the mountainous regions in Tora Bora.
As a matter of fact, the Pakistani air force strikes were pinpoint strikes aimed at destroying knowing Al Qaeda sanctuaries in the North Waziristan area.
The Pakistani military claims to have killed 23 militants, but some of the inhabitants of MIr Ali say that many civilians were killed. In Esori, another village in the same targeted area, most civilians had to flee in the night to avoid being killed by the air strikes, although they had been told to abide by a curfew.
Further military action is supposed to be underway, since the Prime Minister has cancelled his scheduled attendance at the Davos Economic Forum which began last Sunday. The reason was cited as the need for the Prime Minister to address the growing number of terrorist attacks, which killed a number of soldiers in the past weeks.
Source : NBC./ 1.21.14
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