shiv wrote:One thing I have noticed about Pakistan is that at least in the past (3-4 years) they had left the policing and action in Waziristan to the "police" and non-Army security forces while the Army was reserved for India. However there have been reports from time to time about the number of Pakistan army personnel involved in fighting the US war of terror against the Sunni Muslims of the Taliban ranging from 80,000 (older reports) to 140,000 (more recent).
Shiv, when the reports claim Pakistani Army soldiers were killed, that most probably refers to Frontier Corps or the various Scouts that operate in the FATA region. The Peshawar-based XI Corps which was moved with great fanfare to the India border after the Parliament attack and Op. Parakram went back in c. 2004 to their bases and did not venture out much thereafter.
These forces were supposed to have taken part in the hammer-and-anvil type attack, along with the NATO forces from the Afghan side, against the Al Qaeda & Taliban elements in Waziristan in mid-March 2004. After the miss in Tora Bora in the fag end of c. 2001, the Americans believed that OBL & Zawahiri were holed up in Waziristan and hence they pressured Musharraf to take part in the joint operation.
As is the standard operating procedure in Pakistan, anything unpalatable to the Pakistanis will have to be packaged differently. If all go well, it's OK; but if things turn worse, there will be a hasty retreat. That is what happened in March 2004. Gen. Musharraf explained away the operation to the concerned jirga elders, hours before it started, as an attempt to capture al-Libbi who Musharraf claimed as the mastermind in attempts to assassinate him. But, March 16, 2004 happened to be the Waterloo for the Scouts at Kaloosha in South Waziristan as the Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters made a mincemeat of them killing over eighty. It was with very great difficulty that the Scouts extricated themselves. This seminal debacle led to immediate cessation of the operations and a peace deal which the Peshawar Corps Commander personally signed at Shakai after publicly embracing Nek Mohammed.
This put paid to the hammer-and-anvil operation between the PA and the NATO forces. Knowing Pakistan as we do here, I won't be surprised if the operations on the Pakistani side were orchestrated to end in a debacle for the PA so as to escape working with the NATO in these operations against top Al Qaeda & Taliban leaders. What are the lives of 80-odd soldiers when the Islamic Nation itself and more importantly its perfidy, need to be preserved ?
After that incident, it was a series of 'peace deals' with the Pakistani Taliban and the regular PA was involved only minimally. The engagements of the PA were later in Bajaur when they along with the PAF flattened mud houses that had a;ready been evacuated after due warning had been given of an intended operation. Then in late 2008, they took on Mullah FM Fazlullah under great international pressure. The PA wanted the National Assembly to approve such an operation ! Even then, Fazlullah strategically retreated and the PA & the PAF, as usual, conquered empty villages and claimed trophies.
During the period from 2004 to 2008, dozens of serious attacks happened in and around Peshawar with Lashkar-e-Islam, an affiliate of AQAM, simply ruled this area. The XI Corps was safely garrisoned and never ventured out to take on the more pious.