Pakistani army fights militants
| By Barbara Plett BBC News, Waziristan |
 Soldiers found the Taleban deeply entrenched in some areas |
They've brought journalists to the tribal area of South Waziristan, along the Afghan border, to back up their claims that they've beaten back pro-Taleban militants.
Mounds of bricks and twisted metal line the road - the mangled remains of a hospital complex, a small oil refinery, and a market place.
Brigadier Ali Abbas takes us through the ruins, an area he describes as a hub of rebel activity and a "bomb factory."
"There were certain buildings inside the hospital compound being used for making improvised explosive devices," he says.
"We found suicide jackets, detonating chords, wires and fuses. If we found anything used by the miscreants we destroyed it."
All these buildings have been demolished to punish locals for collaborating with the militants, according to the terms of harsh colonial laws inherited from the British.
Deeply entrenched
The army launched its campaign after daring attacks on paramilitary forts in the area by Baitullah Mehsud, the head of Pakistan's Taleban movement.
In the village, soldiers found the Taleban deeply entrenched.
 The army says it has dismantled the Taleban's capacity in the region |
"There was a kind of semi-autonomous state," says the divisional commander, General Tariq Khan, painting a picture of the Taleban's rule, "and if it was not contained last year, it would have spread to the Indus Highway."
The army claims to have dismantled part of the infrastructure feeding a campaign of suicide attacks in the country.
General Khan shows videos of training centres for child bombers discovered in the area, some as young as nine. Fifty-two were recovered, he says.
He downplays Western concerns that Arabs and Central Asians linked to al-Qaeda are regrouping under the protection of these tribal militants, saying that only two Uzbeks were killed in the fighting.
He accepts that many of the rebels escaped, but insists that at least in this part of South Waziristan, their military threat has been neutralised.
"What we're saying is that we've dismantled the capacity," he says, "the kind of preparations they've made, the kind of trenches, the kind of defences we've blown up, the kind of weapons systems - they will take time to re-establish it.
"That is where the government comes in - are they going to let this happen again?"
Human cost
The army says the government can now negotiate peace from a position of strength, pursuing a new and controversial policy of dialogue with Islamist militants.
The human cost, though, has been enormous.
The view from the army helicopter is eerie - clusters of mud-brick homes, nestled in pockets of forest at the foot of stark, jagged mountains, with not a soul in sight.
 General Khan says the army had to act to contain the militants |
General Tariq says some 200,000 people fled the area before the fighting.
A walk through one of the ghost towns shows evidence that they departed in haste - unmade beds, a hand-painted trunk left in the pathway. Crops and animals have been untended for months.
Some of the houses have also been demolished because they were used by the militants, again part of the colonial-era punishment designed to "get the tribes to take collective responsibility for what happens on their territory," says Brigadier Abbas.
He acknowledges, though, that this might also trigger resentment and a desire for revenge, especially as some - if not most - of the locals were forced to support the Taleban, or face beheading.
Peace talks
The brigadier's men have occupied the towns since the fighting ended in January.
They're preparing to pull back to give space to returning civilians. But they won't withdraw.
The siege on the area will be maintained by controlling the roads around it and all the entry and exit points, he says.
They're waiting for the outcome of the peace talks, and so is Nato, across the border in Afghanistan.
 Bringing peace in the tribal areas is a painstaking process |
It fears that peace deals here will strengthen the region as a base for the Afghan Taleban and its Pakistani supporters, and increase attacks against coalition forces.
The Americans have publicly opposed the policy of negotiation. And last week they fired missiles at suspected militants in the tribal areas, killing at least 13 people.
Many here saw this as an attempt to sabotage the peace process, and it wasn't only tribesmen who were angry.
"This helps none of the sides," says army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas.
"It is completely counterproductive. It creates pressure on the Pakistan government and army, and makes it very difficult to explain to the locals as to what the government's effort or its orientation is in this regard."
In the tribal areas, bringing peace is painstaking, he says - it has to be won area by area.
But with soldiers threatened in Afghanistan, America and Nato want speed and action - differing approaches that are difficult to bridge.
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