Pakistan to launch new military operation against militants

Pakistan plans to launch a new nationwide operation to root out militants, the national security committee said on Friday, in a potentially costly move for a country already facing full-blown economic and political crises.

One analyst said the operation would also serve as a pretext for the government to delay provincial elections it had been under pressure to hold next month.

Pakistan is in danger of defaulting on its debt, with an International Monetary Fund bailout programme stalled since November, while a bruising political battle is raging between the government and former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

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The last time it launched an all-out operation against militants was in 2014, and it cost the country billions of dollars and resulted over a million people being displaced and hundreds being killed.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif

"The meeting agreed to launch an all-out comprehensive operation with the entire nation and the government, which will rid the country of the menace of terrorism with renewed vigor and determination," the security committee said in a statement.

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country of 220 million people, has seen a rise in attacks by militants in the last few months, particularly since negotiations with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militant group broke down last year.

This year, the group and its factions have unleashed a wave of attacks including a suicide bombing at a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar that killed over 100 people, mostly policemen.

The security committee said it held a meeting on Friday chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and attended by the country's military leadership, and formed a committee to make recommendations regarding the details of the anti-militant operations within two weeks.

The meeting was summoned by Sharif a day after he and his allies held a parliamentary vote to reject a Supreme Court order to hold provincial polls next month.

The government has maintained that the worsening security situation means the provincial elections would have to be delayed.

Reuters