WASHINGTON- Clean, safe and secure villages and towns are now being toutedby Islamabad as the supposed hallmarks of tribal regions on thePakistan-Afghanistan border, *The Washington Times*link>reports.

According to the US-based publication, this is an image paid for with bloodand treasure in a two-year campaign by the Pakistan Army to clear NorthWaziristan’s provincial capital from groups such as thePakistani Taliban and the infamous Haqqani network.

But the new schools, homes and markets, with their glistening coats ofpaint and freshly poured concrete, mask a seeming ghost town, the article,published on Sunday, suggests.

Few residents of the largest city in North Waziristan rarely venture intothe heart of the city center – the site of the some of the most intenseclashes with radical militant groups that refuse to go away.

The fighting had become so intense at the onset of the operation thatthe military was forced to evacuate thousands of civilians into “temporarydisplaced persons” camps elsewhere within the country and the FederallyAdministered Tribal Areas (FATA).

From high atop Sarbanki Fort, one of several Pakistani army outposts mannedby units from the “Golden Arrows” 7th Division, Brig Gen Jawad proudlypointed out for a small group of visiting reporters the burgeoning skylineof markets, schools, homes and businesses that cover a wide swath of MiranShah’s new city center.

When asked what happened to the homes and businesses that stood in theirplace before the government offensive into North Waziristan, Gen Jawadreplied dispassionately, “They were no more. Wiped away clean.”

In the two years since the official end of the North Waziristanoperation, Islamabad claims life has slowly returned to Miran Shah and thesurrounding provinces, despite continuing complaints from the Trumpadministration that Pakistan is not going enough to root out extremistgroups that use the border regions as a sanctuary, training base andlaunching pad for attacks inside Afghanistan.

Maj Gen Azhar Ali Shah, head of all 7th Division forces in NorthWaziristan, said in a briefing that he has “taken a back seat” to Pakistanimilitary and civilian-led redevelopment operations in Miran Shah, one ofthe largest cities in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

“In this whole area, I do not have any enemies,” he told *The WashingtonTimes*link>.

Another fresh sign of progress is that the country on March 10 announcedthe reopening of a key Ghulam Khan border post between the North Waziristantribal region and Afghanistan, allowing for trade convoys to pass.

The crossing was closed for three years after government forces launched amajor operation against the Pakistani Taliban and foreign militants in thearea.

*Radical links*

Despite Pakistan’s public pronouncements, many US officials contend thecountry maintains long-standing links to radical groups as a lever topressure Kabul and as an asset in Islamabad’s rivalry with its greateststrategic challenge: India.

But Gen Azhar said his country’s contributions and sufferings from theglobal war on terror, some with roots in the US-backed war against theSoviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s, have been consistently overlookedby Washington and other foreign critics.

“Over 800 Pakistani soldiers embraced martyrdom and 3,500 were wounded inthe operation to flush out extremist groups from their redoubts in NorthWaziristan,” he said.

In a thinly veiled shot at the American-led efforts to battle theAfghan Taliban, Gen Azhar said his forces were able in two years to subduethe de facto center of the Haqqani network, a brutal Afghan militant groupheaded by warlord Sirajuddin Haqqani, while the US-backed Afghan forcescould not do the same across the border.

Pakistan accomplished this without alienating the local population, whichis critical to winning a guerrilla struggle.

“We did not fight the population; we [only] fought the terrorists,” he said.

But that success has come at a cost that is evident from a quick survey ofthe landscape.

Bombed-out plots of land that once housed local businesses lay in tatters,as do mud-brick compounds that housed generations of Waziri families. Trashand debris line the newly paved roads that cross theformer Haqqani stronghold.

Small black placards baking in the sun, erected by 7th Division troops,list the family names of those who owned the shops and homes, waiting forthem to reclaim their property.

Those who have stuck it out agree with Gen Azhar’s contention that the mostdangerous place on earth has turned a corner.

Clad in a leather jacket over a traditional shalwar kameez, teacher ArifUla recalled the days when his high school – located yards from a Pakistanicombat outpost in the city center – was used as a mortar pitby Haqqani fighters during some of the most intense battles of the NorthWaziristan offensive.

“It was very bad, very dangerous,” he said in an interview, recalling thedilapidated school where he conducted classes during lulls in the fighting.

Arif, who has a PhD in early childhood education and earned his master’sdegree at California State University-Chico, recalled the day Pakistaniforces moved his family from Miran Shah to a camp 80 miles north in theSwat Valley – a former Pakistani Taliban stronghold cleared months beforethe North Waziristan operation reached full swing.

“We were sad. We did not want to go” despite the violence, Arif said.

“It was very far, and [Miran Shah] is our home.”

But despite those hardships, staying in Miran Shah under the Haqqanis andPakistani Taliban was not an option, he said.

“Things were very bad with them,” he said. “It was terrible. We could notlive like that anymore.”

Teaching elementary and high school students at the new school built bythe 7th Division on the site that was once a Haqqani mortar and artillerypit, Arif declares, “It is good to be home.”

*Victory against militants*

In the war that straddles the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, from Swat Valleyin the northwestern Pakistan to Balochistan province borderingthe Taliban heartland of Helmand and Kandahar provinces in Afghanistan,defining success has often been as complicated as determining which warringfactions were fighting whom.

To Islamabad, the costly campaign carried out in North Waziristan,Balochistan and the Swat Valley is proof positive that Pakistan does notdifferentiate between good and bad groups.

“We do [counterterrorism] across the board,” said Maj Gen Nadeem AhmedAnjum, inspector general for Pakistan’s Frontier Corps for Balochistanprovince, citing the more than 2,500 counterterrorism operations his unitshave executed in the past year.

“We do not discriminate between Haqqani [Network], Tehrik-e-Taliban – thePakistani Taliban faction – and Lashkar-e-Taiba,” the terrorist groupresponsible for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, he said during an interview athis headquarters in Quetta.

“Pakistan has to put on a good show” given the international pressures itfaces, said Bill Roggio, senior fellow of the Foundation for Defense ofDemocracies. – The Washington Post