Islamabad: Pakistan’s finance minister has said the ongoing military operation against terrorists, launched in June last year, in the northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan will cost the country $1.75 billion (Dh6.4 billion), according to the state-run radio.
Ishaq Dar told a media briefing at the Pakistan’s Embassy in Washington, where he is currently on a visit, that Pakistan requires $800 million for repatriation of internally displaced tribal people, the radio said.
Around a million people had left their homes when the military operation in North Waziristan tribal district was launched. The campaign used air power and ground offensive to dismantle terrorist bases.
The military has said that most of North Waziristan has now been cleared, paving the way for the return of displaced people from camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to their native areas in phases.
The military has also conducted air and ground operations from time to time against terrorists in Khyber Agency tribal area, where five militant were reported killed, in Tirah valley, in the latest clash over the weekend between security forces and militants.
Neither the government nor the military has given a clear indication about when the military operation, code-named Zarb-e-Azb, would be complete.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the military leadership has, however, repeatedly asserted that the operation would continue until all terrorists have been eliminated.
