The Supreme Court was informed on Tuesday that as many as 49,000 civilian and military casualties took place in the fight against terrorism in tribal areas of Pakistan after 9/11. A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard the matter of missing prisoners from Adiala Jail.
Senator Ibrahim became a party to the case through challenging the provision of Federally Administrated Tribal Area (FATA) Regulation which allows signing over of civil powers to the army in Fata. Ghulam Nabi Fani, the counsel for Senator Ibrahim, argued he would withdraw the petition if any civilised authority of the world defined such a Regulation as law.
At the outset of hearing, the counsel for intelligence agencies Raja Muhammad Irshad, submitted a report which disclosed that armed forces suffered 15681 casualties in fighting terrorism with the highest number of casualties suffered in 2009. From 2008-13 the army suffered 1479 casualties with 5745 injured; 675 FC men were killed and 1978 were injured and 1717 policemen were killed while 1121 FCN were injured.
Around 5,152 civilians were killed during this period while 5,678 were injured. The report further noted that from 2008 to 2013, around 3,051 terrorists were killed and 1228 injured. From 2008 to 2013, there were 235 suicide attacks, 9,257 rocket attacks, 4,256 bomb attacks, the number of targeted killings was 243 with 275 people suffering injuries, and around 1030 schools and colleges were destroyed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 2009 to 2013, the report revealed.
The report argued that in 2013 Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan was not as effective as it was in 2008, when it threatened the security of the state and challenged the writ of the government. It further stated that people's support to the TTP had been eroding and the militants were no longer looked upon as heroes.
In 2007-2008 terrorists challenged the writ of the state and violated Article 256 of the constitution by raising private armies and conducting a series of offences against the state including terrorist attacks against the symbol of the state, the report added.
Irshad contended that the armed forces were called in aid of civil power as civilian structure including police was unable to handle the challenge and threat on vast territories of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) The court was informed that military operations against terrorists/hideouts had largely been successful while security forces had made massive sacrifices.
The report concluded that military operations were conducted only to create an enabling environment wherein political and developmental prongs of strategy can be applied. During the course of hearing, Secretary FATA also placed on record a report on operations in FATA and PATA. The bench asked the counsel for the petitioner in the current matter to get a copy of the report and submit a reply. The hearing was adjourned till Wednesday (today).