Ever since the War on Terror began, Pakistan has had to conduct multiple military operations to battle with militancy.
In 2007, the first battle was fought in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Swat district between Pakistani security forces and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Parvez Musharraf was the army chief at that time. Following the failure of talks between army and TTP, Musharraf gave the go-ahead to start a military operation named Rah-e-Haq in KP’s Swat district.
By mid-2007, an organization founded by Sunni Islamist cleric and militant Sufi Mohammad Khan, Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah-Mohammadi, had taken over the majority of the district.
In November 2007, military forces started an operation to eradicate terrorist elements from Sawat Valley.
In 2009, the security situation in Swat again became worse when Mullah Fazlullah appeared on the scene. The army started an operation called Rah-e-Rast, which lasted for three months.
According to the details of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), during Operation Rah-e-Rast, the army killed 2635 militants, detained 254, and wounded 454 others.
The tenure of former army chief Gen (r) Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was full of military operations in tribal areas of the country as the armed forces conducted a military operation named Rah-e-Nijat in 2009 in South Waziristan.
The aim of the operation was to wipe out TTP, including eliminating TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud from the area.
Operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched on June 15, 2014, under the leadership of former army chief Gen Raheel Sharif against multiple militant organization including TTP, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, al-Qaeda, Jundallah and Lashkar-e-Islam in North Waziristan.
Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad started in 2017. At that time, Nawaz Sharif was the Prime Minister and General Qamar Javed Bajwa was the army chief. The operation’s purpose was to root out terrorism from the entire country.
Now, the Apex Committee on National Action Plan on June 22, 2024, approved a new operation with the name of ‘Azm-e-Istehkam’.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said today that operation Azm-e-Istehkam will be implemented in different areas of Balochistan and KP.
The purpose of ‘Azm-e-Istehkam’ operation is to strengthen the government’s writ in certain areas.
