Deadly attacks raise questions about Pak’s successful Swat offensive claims

September 16th, 2009 Pakistan makes another arrest in Swat ValleyISLAMABAD — Pakistan killed 10 insurgents and arrested a militant commander accused of beheading troops in the northwestern Swat Valley, notching up more successes in an offensive that has been welcomed at home and in the U.S., an army spokesman said Thursday. Sher Muhammad Qasab was captured this week at an undisclosed location in the valley, said Col.

September 15th, 2009 NEW YORK - While the Pakistan Army has claimed success in its offensive against the Taliban in the Swat and Malakand Divisions by killing scores of militants, human rights activists and local residents have blamed the security forces of carrying out indiscriminate killings in the region. Recently hundreds of bodies were dumped onto the streets in Mingora.

September 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has said that it 'hopes' Pakistan would bring the Mumbai terror attacks perpetrators to book. "We would hope that the Pakistani authorities will continue their investigation and bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice," The News quoted US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P J Crowley, as saying.

September 9th, 2009 Pakistan: Soldier, 7 militants die in Swat clashISLAMABAD — Pakistan's military says one soldier and seven militants have died in a gunbattle in the northwestern Swat Valley, where the army has waged a four-month-old offensive against the Taliban. An army statement Wednesday says the clash came as security forces were conducting a search operation in the Charai area.

August 3rd, 2009 Mingora (Swat, Pakistan), - Beneath the surface of relative calm in the Swat Valley, there is a sense of both fear and hope over whether peace will ever return to the area in the wake of the military offensive against the Taliban. According to a New York Times report, Mingora, the battle-scarred capital city of the Swat Valley, remains tense, and Pakistan's efforts to restore normalcy is being seen as a vital test of the government's resolve to stand up to the Taliban.

July 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Raising questions over the success of the Swat military offensive, US Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke has said it is unclear whether the Taliban has really been hit hard in the operation. Talking to media persons after returning from his visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan here, Holbrooke said Washington is yet to ascertain whether scores of Taliban insurgents are actually being killed, as claimed by the Pakistan Army, or have they just scattered away only to recoil later.

July 7th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Prime Minister's advisor on Interior Affairs, Rehman Malik has said that the major Taliban leadership has been wiped out from Swat. Talking to media persons here, Malik claimed that the military offensive being carried out in the North West Frontier Province's (NWFP) Swat and Malakand Divisions have been successful with top commanders of the Taliban killed.

July 1st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - While the Pakistan government has been claiming that the Swat military offensive has been successful and nearing its end, a former Pakistan Air Force (PAF) top official, Air Marshal (retired) Masood Akhter has raised questions over the claims by saying that people shouldn't be fooled through such statements. During a discussion on 'Post-Swat Operation Outlook' here, Akhter said people should not hope that the war against terrorism and the extremist threat would end within a few weeks.

June 28th, 2009 NEW YORK - The Pakistan Army has been boasting of success against the Taliban and other extremists, and claims that it has flushed the insurgents out, besides killing scores of them during its offensive in the Swat and Malakand Divisions, but a closer look at the region where the military operation purportedly resulted in death of several militants presents a different picture, casting serious questions over the Army's claims. While the military has been claiming being engaged in a stiff battle with the Taliban, no such signs are visible in the region, which clearly suggests that the insurgents have just melted into the local population here, only to remerge and fight another day, The New York Times reports.

June 15th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's Advisor on Interior Affairs, Rehman Malik has said that military offensive in Malakand and Swat Valley would continue until the last terrorist is eliminated from the region by the security forces. Speaking at a police prize distribution ceremony here, Malik claimed that militants operating in the Pakistan were being funded with arms and money from Afghanistan.

June 12th, 2009 PESHAWAR - The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Information Minister, Iftikhar Hussain, has held the Waziristan Taliban responsible for Tuesday's suicide bomb attack on the Pearl Continental Hotel here. "Whatever happens in Peshawar comes from Waziristan.

May 21st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's religious leaders have strongly criticized the Swat offensive, saying innocent civilians are being killed in the operation, and added that even India has never adopted such measures in Kashmir. "It is not correct to target the whole population for the pursuance of few terrorists and even the Indian forces never adopted such measures in occupied Kashmir," the former Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Hussain Ahmad said.

May 19th, 2009 LAHORE - The Pakistan military leadership is worried that the longer the Swat offensive against the Taliban persists, public support will erode. The Pakistan Army's heaviest battle against the Taliban is being fought in the Malakand division, The Time has pointed.

May 14th, 2009 LAHORE - While Pakistan has claimed to have sanitized hundreds of Taliban operatives during the ongoing military operation in the Swat Valley, a US expert has said the offensive has a 'bleak' chance of achieving success and yielding the desired result. Key US strategist, David Kilcullen said that due to Pakistan Army's inexperience and its refusal to accept help from the West in the operation, the success of the Swat military offensive is doubtful.

May 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - With Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari leaving no stone unturned in assuring the United States that Islamabad is concerned by the Taliban's expanding writ and that the country's Army is pledged to flush out the extremists, top US officials have raised questions over the Pakistan military offensive. Senior Obama aides are speculative about the success of the military offensive in Pakistan, as the army is ill suited to carry out the kind of counterinsurgency operations needed to end the Taliban fighters' control of Swat, in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).