Gen Raheel accompanies the pall-bearers carrying the coffin of Captain Umair Abbasi in Peshawar. PHOTO: AFP
SUKKUR/ ISLAMABAD:
Army chief General Raheel Sharif has pledged a relentless war until terrorists are decimated as he reviewed progress made so far in the last phase of the ongoing military operation in North Waziristan Agency.
The reiteration of counterterror resolve by the army chief came a day after four army men, including an officer, were killed in a ground battle with fleeing terrorists in the strategic Shawal Valley, where some militants are still holed up.
All the 19 terrorists were also killed in the skirmish in the Mangroti area of Shawal. The fallen army men were identified as Captain Umair Abdullah Abbasi, Havaldar Hakim Ali Abro and Sepoys Rashid and Hameed.
Gen Raheel travelled to Peshawar on Sunday where he first attended the funeral of the soldiers and expressed solidarity with the bereaved families, and then visited the injured soldiers at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Peshawar, according to the military’s media wing.
The army chief also visited the corps headquarters where he was briefed by Corps Commander Lt-Gen Hidayatur Rehman on how the Shawal operation was progressing, the ISPR said in a statement. Last week, the army chief gave the go-ahead for the final phase of Operation Zarb-e-Azb launched on June 15, 2014 in North Waziristan, where homegrown and foreign terrorists virtually held sway.
“The army chief vowed to go to any length to finish all pockets of terrorists from any nook and corner of the country,” according to the ISPR.
He expressed his satisfaction over the pace of the operation and paid rich tributes to the sacrifices and resilience of the soldiers who were courageously fighting terrorists in the difficult mountainous terrain of Shawal.
The final phase of the Waziristan operation is targeting the densely forested ravines of Shawal and Datta Khel which, the military says, are being used by terrorists for infiltration between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
At the funeral, the father of Captain Umair Shaheed said he was proud of his son. “His [my son’s] sacrifice is a matter of pride for me, my family, for the entire army and the country,” he said. “My second son is also serving in the army. I’ve told the army chief that if you send him to the front-lines it will be a matter of pride for me.”
In a video message recorded before going for the deadly clash Captain Umair asked the nation to believe in their armed forces. “We have cleared most areas. And the remaining pockets [of resistance] will be cleared in the upcoming days and months. We have done planning for it. Things will improve. You don’t have to worry, just believe in us. Allah will make things better,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hawaldar Hakim Abro Shaheed was laid to rest at Pehalwan Fakir graveyard in his ancestral village near Jacobabad on Sunday. A large number of people attended his last rites. His body was flown in a military helicopter from Peshawar to Janu Bello village, to which he belonged.
On behalf of the army chief and Karachi’s corps commander, Brigadier Salman laid a floral wreath on the grave of Hakim Abro.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 29th, 2016.
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