'Zarb-e-Azb' launched

Pakistan Army on Sunday launched a comprehensive military operation against foreign and local terrorists holed up in North Waziristan Agency. "On the directions of the Government, Armed forces of Pakistan launched a comprehensive operation against foreign and local terrorists hiding in sanctuaries in North Waziristan Agency," said Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a statement. He said that the operation has been named Zarb-e-Azb.
The military offensive was launched at about 0130 hours, as the DG ISPR said a number of terrorists' hideouts in Degan, Datta Khel in NWA, were targeted by jet aircraft.
"There were confirmed reports of presence about the foreign and local terrorists in these hideouts who were linked with planning of Karachi airport attack," he said. Reportedly over 50 terrorists, mostly Uzbek foreigners were killed in the strikes. An ammunition dump has also been destroyed, he added. However, some reports said that the number of suspected militants killed were more than 100, which also include mastermind of Karachi Airport attack.
The reports further claimed that terrorist Abu Abdur Rehman Almani - planner of Karachi Airport attack - was also among those killed in the aerial attacks in North Waziristan, along with several other terrorists of East Turkistan Islamic Movement.
"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, adversely affecting country's economy and causing enormous loss of life and property," the DG ISPR said.
He said that the terrorists had also paralysed life within the agency and had perpetually terrorised the entire peace loving and patriotic local population.
"Our valiant armed forces have been tasked to eliminate these terrorists regardless of hue and colour, along with their sanctuaries," he said, adding with the support of the entire nation, and in co-ordination with other state institutions and law enforcement agencies, these enemies of the state will be denied space anywhere across the country.
He further stated that as always, armed forces of Pakistan will not hesitate in rendering any sacrifice for the motherland.
After the military action, the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Shahidullah Shahid claimed in a statement that innocent tribesmen were targeted in the attacks and vowed they would take revenge.
Agencies add: Pakistan sent troops, artillery and helicopter gunships to the troubled North Waziristan region on Sunday in a long-expected military operation just a week after a deadly insurgent attack on the country's biggest airport.
The army said a total of 105 insurgents, mostly Uzbeks, were killed by air strikes which preceded the ground operation.
"We as a government tried our level best to resolve this crisis through dialogue," the defence ministry said in a statement. "We were frustrated through attacks on innocent Pakistanis and damage to national assets."
It added: "This operation will continue until the surrender or elimination of the enemy."
In anticipation of more violence, families are fleeing from North Waziristan to other parts of the country as a climate of fear has gripped the lawless mountainous region.
It was not immediately known whether there were any civilian casualties. Journalists' movements are restricted in the ethnic Pashtun region where the army has imposed a curfew, and verifying official or insurgent accounts is next to impossible.
Military sources told Reuters that Pakistan had sent 40,000 troops to the region for the operation, bringing the total to 80,000 and sealing off the border with Afghanistan.
"Around 40,000 additional troops have been moved into North Waziristan for the operation, backed by artillery and helicopter gunships," said a military official. "The border with Afghanistan has been sealed off with thousands of troops to keep militants from escaping to Afghanistan." The authorities fear that militants might try to escape through the porous border along with civilians.
A senior foreign ministry official said Pakistan had asked Afghan counterparts to help seal the border. "Afghanistan has assured complete assistance but let's see if they follow through," the official said.
CLIMATE OF FEAR
The army said troops had encircled militant bases in the towns of Mirali and Miranshah but as of late Sunday it was unclear if fighting was underway.
"Announcements will be made for the local population to approach designated areas for their orderly and dignified evacuation out of the agency," the army said.
The army said ethnic Uzbeks accounted for most of those killed in the earlier air assault. "Fighter jets targeted militant hideouts in the village of Dagan near the Pakistani-Afghan border," said one source in the regional capital of Miranshah.
"An important Uzbek commander, Abdul Rehman, has been killed in the air strike," he said, adding that Rehman was directly involved in masterminding the Karachi airport attack.
Military sources said a number of ethnic Uighur militants, who operate alongside Uzbeks and share a similar Turkic language with them, had also been killed.
The official account could not be independently verified and there was no immediate comment from the Taliban.
Meanwhile, long-standing curfew in North Waziristan has been tightened following the start of a ground offensive, with authorities issuing shoot-on-sight orders according to residents and local intelligence officials.
At least two people have been critically wounded after soldiers opened fire on them for violating the curfew in Sarai Darpa Khel village near Miranshah, residents said.
Some 40 percent of the region's population of half a million have already fled, leaving around 300,000 behind, multiple residents told AFP.
Many locals had been pinning their hopes on a rare tribal jirga formed by the district's top elders to negotiate with the authorities and avert a military operation. But an all-night siege of Karachi airport last week by Taliban and Uzbek militants dashed their hopes, a member of the tribal jirga told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Local government officials said some 10,000 additional people crossed into eastern Afghan provinces fearing the military operation on Sunday.
In the district's main town of Miranshah, imams made announcements from mosque loudspeakers asking people to recite from the Koran and pray to God for the safety of those who had remained behind.
Local shopkeepers reported closing their stores and taking all their goods and valuables home.
In the Dande Darpa Khel area, a stronghold of the feared Haqqani network which is known for its spectacular attacks against US forces in Afghanistan, announcements were made in the local mosques to flee. "Even we (Haqqani fighters) are leaving, so go to safer places for your safety," a resident told AFP, quoting a Haqqani network fighter.
Residents said home-grown Taliban militants and foreign fighters have already left major towns in recent weeks and moved to the mountains on the Afghan border, raising questions about the effectiveness of an operation there.