Amid turmoil, Pakistan to launch operation against armed groups
Pakistan threatens to default on its debts as a bloody political battle rages between the government and former Prime Minister Khan.
The Pakistani government has announced plans to launch a nationwide operation to eradicate armed groups in the country, the National Security Committee (NSC) said.
The move, announced Friday, is potentially costly for a country already facing a full-blown economic and political crisis.
“The [NSC] meeting agreed to launch a comprehensive operation with [the participation of the] entire nation and government to free the country from the threat of terrorism,” said a press release from the Prime Minister’s office.
Pakistan is in danger of defaulting on its debt, with an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout program stalled since last November, while a bloody political battle rages between the government and former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The last time it launched an all-out operation against armed groups was in 2014, and it cost the country billions of dollars and resulted in more than a million displaced people and hundreds of deaths.
The country has recently seen an increase in attacks on its security forces by the Pakistani Taliban (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP) after it unilaterally ended a ceasefire agreement with the government in November last year.
This year, the group and its factions have unleashed a spate of attacks, including a suicide bombing at a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar that killed more than 100 people, mostly police officers.
The commission blamed the recent spate of attacks on the Pakistani Taliban and what it called a “thoughtless policy” towards the group – a reference to the previous government’s decision to enter into talks with the Pakistani Taliban.
“Not only were terrorists allowed to return to the country unmolested, but dangerous TTP militants were also released from prisons in the name of building trust,” the press release said.
The NSC said it held a meeting on Friday, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and attended by the country’s military leadership, and formed a committee to make recommendations on the details of anti-militant operations within two weeks.
Former Prime Minister Khan is pushing for elections amid mounting anger against the government over decades of high inflation and a crippling economic slowdown as it tries to navigate difficult IMF-backed economic reforms.
On Thursday, he said the committee meeting had been convened to use security as a pretext to postpone elections, warning that the military would face the judiciary.
The political crisis has already severely affected economic decision-making. Pakistan’s finance minister cited domestic political unrest as the reason for canceling his visit to Washington to attend meetings of the IMF and World Bank.