The Pakistani Spectator

The chief of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Swat chapter, Maulana Fazlullah is the key for the ultimate result of Operation Rah-e-Nijat. If he is captured or eliminated then it would be a sealed victory for the security forces, and if he remains in hiding, and we keep on  hearing conflicting news about him through media, then the peace and stability will remain fragile and brittle even after the return of the Internally Displaced People to their homes.

Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj-Gen Athar Abbass has repeatedly claimed that he had credible information that Fazlullah was injured critically during an attack of security forces and another media source claimed that the TTP chief in Swat is dead for good. There also are conflicting and unconfirmed reports of death of other Taliban leaders like Shah Doran and Muslim Khan.

Security forces have cleared the Swat by and large and they control 98% of the Malakand Agency. The way security forces have carried out such a successful operation with professionalism and planning and determiniation is laudable but they need to seal it with the arrest of Taliban top leadership, dead or alive.

That will have far reaching effects.