ISLAMABAD: Indicating that Zarb-i-Azb could be nearing completion, the military on Saturday said that it had cleared Shawal Valley of terrorists except for a pocket to its north-west.

“Shawal itself has been cleared. Action is, however, continuing in a pocket that is north-west of the valley,” military spokesman Lt Gen Asim Bajwa told Dawn after releasing statistics about the actions the armed forces had taken against terrorism over the past 18 months. He highlighted the progress achieved in the tasks assigned to the military since the National Action Plan (NAP) was launched.

The statistics were released in the run-up to the first anniversary of the Army Public School tragedy next week. The ISPR described the figures as an ‘update on Zarb-i-Azb’, but also included elements like military courts formed after introduction of NAP in the aftermath of the Dec 16 APS attack in which 147 people, including 122 schoolchildren, were killed.

“Support of the entire nation and resolve expressed against terrorism after APS attack has been the bedrock of the operation,” Gen Bajwa said.

Zarb-i-Azb was launched in June last year and entered its final phase in later part of August, when army launched the ground offensive in Shawal Valley that was considered to be one of the last strongholds of militants in the region.

Shawal Valley, which borders South Waziristan on one side and Afghanistan on the other, has the toughest terrain in the tribal agency, with treacherous mountains as well as forests.

Gen Bajwa did not give any timeframe for the completion of the operation, but said the army would like to do that as soon as possible.

According to ISPR’s statistics about 3,400 terrorists belonging to different terrorist groups have been killed in the Operation Zarb-i-Azb so far, while 837 of their hideouts from which they carried out attacks have been eliminated.

“All terrorist organisations including Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, ETIM, IMU, Haqqani Network and Daesh and their affiliates have been weakened. Their logistic bases, and command and control nodes have been destroyed and they are being rigorously pursued,” another officer, who did not want to be named, said.

Gen Bajwa attributed that overall improvement in security to Operation Zarb-i-Azb and said stability was being achieved. The operation, he said, has been a “phenomenal success”.

The army and paramilitary forces, meanwhile, during Operation Zarb-i-Azb and related counter-terrorism operations lost 488 men. These included officers and troops of Army, Frontier Corps, and Rangers.

The Army had alongside ZeA in North Waziristan launched what it calls ‘Intelligence Based Operations’ (IBOs) in other parts of the country to target the individuals and groups linked with entities based in the tribal agency.

ISPR says about 13200 IBOs have been carried out in which 183 hardcore terrorists killed, and another 21,193 arrested.

These IBOs, Gen Bajwa said, helped break the linkages of terrorist organisations with their sleeper cells in rest of the country.

MILITARY COURTS: ISPR figures said 142 cases of terrorism were tried by 11 military courts, which have decided 55 of them, while 87 others were in process.

The military courts have convicted 31 terrorists, of which 27 got death penalty, while other four were given life sentences.

Four of those convicted terrorists were executed on Dec 2. Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif signed death warrants of another four on Dec 8.

Some of the convictions have been challenged in superior courts.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2015