Dubai: As the Pakistan Air Force jets started pounding terrorists’safe havens in North Waziristan near Afghan border on Sunday, army soldiers have taken control of security in Islamabad amid threats of attacks by Taliban.
Though security across the country has been beefed up, soldiers were deployed early on Sunday in the red zone around the parliament and other sensitive areas including diplomatic enclave in the capital city for fear of any terror attempts.
Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that ‘on the directions of the government, armed forces of Pakistan have launched a comprehensive operation against foreign and local terrorists who are hiding in sanctuaries in North Waziristan Agency.
The operation has been named Zarb-e-Azb (sharp and cutting).
The decision to launch an operation comes exactly a week after the all-night siege of Karachi airport that killed 38 people, including 10 attackers, and all but destroyed a tentative peace process between the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the government.
A security official said that more than 100 foreign and local terrorists were killed in the early morning air strikes.
The DG ISPR said: ‘Using North Waziristan as a base, these terrorists had waged a war against the state of Pakistan and had been disrupting our national life in all its dimensions, stunting our economic growth and causing enormous loss of life and property.”
There were conflicting reports about the identities of those killed in the operation but an intelligence official in Miranshah told AFP that Uzbek fighters were targeted.
