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Editorial overview Against
the odds humanangle 'Jirga has
failed to produce the desired results'
While we try to focus on
the most recent and bloody clashes between the Pakistani security forces The sporadic attacks on specific bases and sanctuaries -- largely following the lead provided by foreign intelligence -- did not serve the purpose, the same source adds. Well this approach may solve the problem once and for all because everything that has been attempted before did not. Or is that too a matter of conjecture? Actually the troubles in Waziristan have been far too many. To begin with the question: Is it our war or theirs? But we leave the political side of the story for the time being. We focus on the issue of credibility. We remind ourselves that the media has been kept away from the whole affair in the face of the one and only ISPR version. We want to remind our readers that some of the journalists in Waziristan had to lose their lives while others were forced to either leave their jobs or move to settled districts. We want to find out: How easy is it to brush aside the hundreds or thousands of deaths as collateral damage and for how long? This time round, after the last spate of bombings, the critically injured patients were brought to a couple of hospitals in Peshawar, along with their attendants. And that's how we managed to get the other version of the Waziristan story... the most potent side of the story... truths we would not have known otherwise.
The government has failed to defeat the militants or satisfy the international community, even at the cost of lives of innocent locals and armymen By Rahimullah Yusufzai A middle-aged tribesman
from North Waziristan aptly described the predicament of its battle-weary There cannot be a better description of the situation in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region. The tribesman, Darya Khan Wazir, who had brought his injured relatives to Peshawar for medical treatment, volunteered to explain his one-liner. Having suffered the loss of some family members and injuries to a few others in three days of bombardment carried out by warplanes and Cobra gunship helicopters of Pakistan Air Force in his native Mir Ali area, he had suffered pain and displacement and was, therefore, in a unique position to talk about the worsening security situation in North Waziristan. As he explained, he was referring to the jet-fighters and gunship helicopters that suddenly appear in the skies and start bombing their villages and hamlets. And if that wasn't intimidating and harrowing enough, there were Taliban fighters who carry knives haunting everyone on the ground and slaughtering those daring to defy them. For long-suffering people like Darya Khan Wazir, it is a stark choice. He cannot support the government due to fear of the militants, but the latter too don't inspire confidence on account of their violent ways. The government's writ in both North Waziristan and neighbouring South Waziristan has gradually weakened and the vacuum has been filled by Islamic tribal militants. Since early 2004, the Pakistan Army has been involved in military operations aimed at eliminating and flushing out an unspecified number of foreign fighters first from South Waziristan and subsequently from North Waziristan. Despite deploying up to 90,000 troops in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and losing more than 1,000 soldiers in battle, it could neither defeat the militants nor satisfy the US, Afghanistan and Nato, all wanting more action and bloodshed by chanting their habitual 'do more' slogans. The military operations in Waziristan are deeply unpopular in Pakistan and the killing of soldiers and tribespeople is having a damaging political fallout for President General Pervez Musharraf and his domestic political allies. Almost all tribal people allege that the military action in their area was being carried out at the behest of the US. The conflict has now entered its fourth year and become largely invincible. The latest round of fighting in North Waziristan was the deadliest to date. Figures may not convey the intensity of the fighting and its human cost. Still it would be useful to provide some data, howsoever one-sided and unreliable, to understand the severity of the situation. The fighting started on October 7 and continued for 10 days before an uncertain ceasefire took hold as a result of efforts made by a tribal jirga from Orakzai Agency. It is relevant to mention that Orakzai is the native place of NWFP Governor Lt General (Retd) Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai, who appears committed to peaceful resolution of the Waziristan and other conflicts in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and was instrumental in sending the jirga from Orakzai Agency to mediate between the combatants and work for peace in North Waziristan. According to military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad, 45 soldiers were killed and 20 injured in the fighting. It was by far the highest casualty figure suffered by the military in one extended combat operation in North Waziristan. If one were to believe him and certain unnamed security officials, the militants lost 200 fighters including 50 foreigners belonging to Uzbekistan, Chechnya and other countries. The militants' spokesman Ahmadullah Ahmadi, on the other hand, also put the casualties suffered by the army at 200. He conceded the death of 30 militants only. He claimed that very few soldiers had survived the Taliban ambush of the military convoy of up to 250 troops in the Mir Ali area. The losses suffered by the military prompted their commanders to send jet-fighters to bomb the villages where the soldiers were ambushed. It was the first time that jet-fighters were used to bomb villages and suspected militants' hideouts in North Waziristan as until now the Cobra gunship helicopters were the air weapon of choice in the rugged mountainous terrain. Such was the severity of the fighting that whole villages were emptied of their population and no Eidul Fitr prayers could be offered. Village and tribal elders claimed that more than 80,000 people were displaced and 90 per cent population of Mir Ali town, populated by 50,000, abandoned their homes due to fear of bombing by the Pakistan Air Force. Most walked to safer destinations, spending cold nights in the open and cursing all those who made them suffer in the holy month of Ramazan. Civilian casualties were high, up to 60 according to some estimates, and the injured included men, women and children aged two years to 70. Some of the wounded were brought with great difficulty and at a huge cost to Bannu and Peshawar, and that is how the media and the world got to hear heart-rending stories of human suffering resulting from military operations and militants' attacks. The military's reluctance to admit civilian deaths as a result of the bombing by its warplanes and its insistence that those killed were all militants and terrorists inflamed passions and deprived it of whatever little support it still had in North Waziristan. This was skillfully exploited by the militants, who accused the government of resorting to indiscriminate aerial bombing and artillery shelling densely populated villages. Though there is no fighting now in Mir Ali and villagers have mostly returned to their homes, the situation is still tense and tempers are running high due to the heavy loss of life and property. Governor Aurakzai has hinted at forming a larger jirga of tribal elders and clerics drawn from Fata to make another effort to peacefully resolve the conflict in North Waziristan. The jirga from his native Orakzai Agency has done the spadework and mediated a ceasefire but the bigger issues such as the militants' demand for the removal of roadside security checkpoints remain unresolved. The militants had unilaterally scrapped their September 2006 peace accord with the government on July 15 after accusing the military of redeploying troops to man the checkpoints in violation of the terms of the agreement and the tribal jirga that had brokered it backed the militants' stance. It is clear the militants would not agree to revive the peace accord unless the checkpoints are dismantled. But the government appears unable and unwilling to do so owing to international pressure, particularly from the US which is wary of any peace deals with the militants. In these circumstances, there is fear that it is the proverbial lull before the storm as the factors that sparked the North Waziristan conflict haven't been tackled and issues such as presence of foreign fighters in the area still need to be properly addressed.
The militants claim that they had sincerely followed the terms and conditions of the peace accord, but the government violated the accord -- perhaps to please the US -- and set up new military posts in the tribal region For the first time after
the tribal militants scrapped the controversial peace agreement with the The militants claimed that they had sincerely followed the terms and conditions of the peace accord which according to them worked well and helped restore peace and order in the troubled tribal region. But, they complained, the government under US pressure started violating the peace accord and set up new military posts at various points on Bannu-Miranshah road, Miranshah-Datta Khel and Miranshah-Razmak roads. Also, they claimed, it was decided in the peace agreement that the government would take the jirga members into confidence prior to any action if there was any information about the presence of foreign militants in the region. The government then imposed an unannounced curfew in the region and closed all in and out routs of North Waziristan which were causing acute hardships to the local people. The militants believed that the government, in a bid to please the US and other anti-Islamic Western powers, was making pretexts to pave the way for launching military operation against its own people in North Waziristan. The government, for the first time, used the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter planes and bombarded several villages inhabited by civilians in North Waziristan. Local residents claimed that more than 200 tribespeople, mainly women and children had been killed and several others received serious injuries in the PAF warplanes air strikes on villages like Hasukhel, Ipi, Hurmaz, Musaki, Esori, Mir Ali, Mullagan, Haiderkhel, Khushali Wazir and Adalat Khel in Mir Ali. Also, for the first time after military offensive was launched in the tribal areas, around 60,000 residents were forced to flee their homes in Mir Ali and take refuge in the adjacent Bannu district and other safer places. The residents complained that hundreds of houses, markets and buildings had been destroyed in the latest military operation. The Mahsud tribal militants fighting Pakistan army troops in the adjacent South Waziristan tribal agency despite their pledge to fight alongside their colleagues in North Waziristan, if military operation was launched against them, could not fulfil their commitment as they were already engaged in a similar activity on their own land. Now that another 40-member tribal Jirga from Aurakzai Agency headed by Mufti Syed Mukhtaruddin has been formed by the NWFP Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai for mediation between militants and security forces, it at least helped in brokering a ceasefire between the two sides. Haji Faizullah, a spokesman for the 40-member Jirga, told TNS that the jirga, after hectic negotiations with Hafiz Gul Bahadur, the 'Ameer' of Pakistani Taliban in North Waziristan and another militant commander Maulana Sadiq Noor, convinced the militants to announce the ceasefire and help restore peace to the troubled tribal region. Besides the Ulema and tribal elders, the brother of NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai, Muhammad Amin Aurakzai, was also a part of the Jirga that met the militants' key commanders Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Maulana Sadiq Noor a day before Eidul Fitr in Khattey Kelly, the hometown of Sadiq Noor, about 12 kilometres west of Miranshah. The sources said that Governor Aurakzai had been seriously worried about the rapidly deteriorating law and order situation in the agency and sought the help of the Ulema and tribal elders from his hometown Aurakzai Agency to help save North Waziristan from further destruction and develop brotherly relations between the security forces and the tribesmen. The militants said that they had authorised the jirga members to independently investigate which of the two sides -- government or militants -- had violated the peace accord. They also promised of stopping attacks on security forces and government installations if military checkposts were removed in the tribal region and roads opened. Till the filing of this report, the Aurakzai tribal jirga succeeded in restoration of peace to the militancy-hit region and also convinced military authorities on removing at least three security checkposts i.e. Gora Qabristan on Miranshah-Mir Ali road, High School checkpost on Ghulam Khan-Datta Khel road and Amin-II post near Miranshah bazaar, while troops from the one in Mir Ali located near Tehsil Headquarters Hospital would be withdrawn very soon. --
By Mushtaq Yusufzai
Some critically injured patients were brought to hospitals in Peshawar after the recent attacks in Waziristan. A few accounts... By Riffat Rani President Musharraf was
running his presidential campaign, even as death chased the tribesmen of It was Iftar time, on October 7, 2007. Horrifying sounds of bombs and shelling had the poor residents of the Agency scared all right. Faujada, like thousands of his fellow villagers, was desperate to arrange for the safety of his family. He scurried them off to the nearby village Hurmaz -- unscathed -- and later led them to the next village Hassokhel. His three-month pregnant wife, Parizada, was not comfortable running, but she had to in order to save her own life and that of her children -- Abdullah, 10, and Nasima, 12. Faujada's sister-in-law Rozmina was also accompanying them, along with her three children. Fear and panic hounded this little caravan, forcing Faujada to run faster. He tried to drag his wife along, but the pounding bombs caught hold of them, rendering this bunch of eight people unconscious on the street of Hassokhel. Parizada was the first to come back, though she could still see nothing in the pitch dark of the night. All she could do was to hear the sounds of the bombing, and groan in pain. She felt her bleeding tummy. Ignoring the pain in her body, she summoned all her strength and called out her husband's name. But, Faujada didn't live to answer her. Terrified, Parizada pulled herself up and began to look around, only to find most of her family reduced to a mere mass of dead meat. A picture of complete desolation, thirty-something Parizada spoke to TNS about her tale of woe at a hospital in Peshawar. "Allah gave me the courage to reach out to a nearby place where my relatives lived, and ask for help. Fortunately, they had survived the attacks, and their house was intact. They immediately rushed my folks to the spot. But, it was too late," she said, sobbing. "I cried like mad, wanting to take a last look at my husband and son, but the people would not let me." The place is full of such tales of horror. To quote Parizada's brother Hajibullah, "Army and Taliban are two faces of the same coin. Both are killing us to appease the Americans." An enraged Rozmina wanted to bomb the Mirali camp as this was the place that killed her innocent children. A young man in his early thirties, Ihsanullah had just been discharged from the operation theatre in Khattak Medical Centre. His grim face and icy eyes were telling a myriad stories. When this scribe tried to talk to him, he did not show any interest. A relative accompanying him said that Ihsanullah had lost his wife and three children to the counter-attack by the militants. His only son left is fighting for life in the ICU next door. His general store in the village has also been bombed. Standing close to the bed of his sixteen years old wounded son, Shahpur said, "The Taliban lot -- all masked -- commonly emerge out of nowhere and slaughter the locals. We can do nothing!" Samoda, 14, shifted from Hassokhel to Hurmaz with her family, and then to Zeraki village for safety. But misfortune did not leave her. She was looking forward to celebrating the Eid day with her children, and had prepared dresses specially for the occasion. But, one night, when they were asleep, Samoda and her two female relatives were ambushed in a fierce shootout that left everybody except Samoda dead. Poor Samoda ended up in Hayatabad Medical Complex with injuries galore. Missile splinters had pierced into her face and disfigured her. Samoda's teeth and eyes were damaged majorly. It was the unfortunate night of October 10 -- precisely two days ahead of the local Eidul Fitr day. Her misery didn't end there. Samoda was in the hospital during the Eid, without proper medical care, until the ICRC came to her rescue and shifted her to Khattak Medical Centre, a private hospital. The Plastic Surgery ward of HMC had not reopened. "People think we are uncivilised and fanatics, but this is not true. We understand everything," says Jamal who is waiting for his BA result (Govt Degree College Mirali). "I wanted to send Hafizullah, my five years old son, into army, but not now. "Earlier, if we were on the road and an army convoy was passing by, we would stand still in reverence. But, today, the situation has changed altogether." Jamal is worried for his young son Hafizullah who was hit by a splinter right in the skull. Hafizullah's mother is also laid up in the hospital bed with a fractured arm, while her daughter was brutally killed on the spot. Noreda had a similar fate who was hiding with a three-month-old daughter in her lap. got killed. "Hassokhel is probably the largest village in Waziristan, with a population of some 20,000. It was targeted in the week ahead of Eidul Fitr. They didn't even leave the schools, the hospitals and the mosques" a resident of the area told TNS, requesting anonymity. "Pakistan army did not drop warning pamphlets before attacking the place," he went on, "In Afghanistan, the Americans dropped pamphlets telling the people to vacate the places, but our army wasn't bothered." Some residents of Waziristan even claimed to have seen American soldiers in the area, though this could not be verified. More than 10 patients from Waziristan were seen in Khattak Medical Centre, while the same number was noticed in HMC. In Peshawar, reportedly, more than four people gave in to injuries while the remaining lot were left to mourn the deaths of their near and dear ones. Sabir Rahman, 16, and the three-year-old Saima breathed their last in HMC, while the corpses of most of their relatives didn't even get coffins. Earlier, Sabir Rahman was shifted from the operation room to the ICU on Wednesday last, and in a matter of twenty minutes he was declared dead. Lying unattended in the Head Injury ward of HMC, little Saima passed away right in front of this scribe. In another incident, the details about the family of a four-year-old dead Salma were not known. The men who brought her told TNS that they had found the injured kid in bazaar. She was unconscious and carried a Rs 20 currency note in her hand. Septuagenarian Abdul Ghafoor was shot inside the Bakhmal Jan mosque at around 8pm, on Sunday, October 7. He was taken to HMC but he could not sustain the injuries and passed away on October 10. Mushtaq Ali of Hassokhel, a sub-engineer serving at the C&W department since 1986, told TNS, "Uncertainty prevails in Waziristan . No one knows the whole truth. It seems to be a part of some big international conspiracy." "We cannot leave our homes. We have not committed any sin or crime. So what are we being targeted for?" asked Shahpur of Waziristan. The situation today is such that the tribal people never leave the doors of their homes locked. Besides, one male member has to essentially stay back. Jalil, owner of the New Waziristan Medicose store, was quite critical of the army presence in the area. "The army misbehaves with the bearded males at check posts. Miranshah, Sargardan, Amin, Gora Qabristan, Stadium and Dattakhel check posts have all become places for humiliation. "Attacks and curfew have badly affected the quality of life. It is hard to find a bag of flour, even if one is ready to cough up a Rs 2000 amount. Closure of roads has led to an increasing death rate of the injured. People are dying and no one is there to stop the madness."
DG ISPR Maj Gen Waheed Arshad speaks on the recent military operation in Mir Ali, North Waziristan By Mushtaq Yusufzai The News on Sunday: What
were the reasons behind the latest military operation in the Mir Ali Major General Waheed Arshad: The security forces did not launch any new operation, but only retaliated against the terrorist attacks of the militants hiding there. In fact, the militants used Mir Ali and its adjoining localities as their hideouts for IED (Improvised Explosive Device) attacks and ambushes on security convoys. The army was left with no other option but to take them to task for their growing attacks. TNS: If it is only retaliation, why were jetfighter planes used in the drive? MGWA: We had already made it clear that if the security forces were attacked from any quarter, they would be retaliated in a befitting manner and all the resources that the army has would be utilised. TNS: It is generally perceived that the fresh offensive was linked with the presidential election and elevation of Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani to the post Vice Chief of Army Staff (VCOAS). Comment. MGWA: There is no such link of the operation with the presidential polls or elevation of any person. This is actually a continuous process linked with the situation. Whenever the army gets information about any activity on the part of the terrorist element, it takes action. TNS: What would you describe as long-term objectives of the drive? MGWA: The government had
made it clear that it would never allow anybody to use its land for Most of the suspected elements took their way to the cities and settled in areas of Pakistan from where they were arrested. The army was actually deployed in the tribal areas and alongside the one-time peaceful border to control the entry of the unwanted elements into this side of the border. Being a national institution like other departments, the army soon after its deployment, started development works in the all time ignored backward tribal belt on the directives of the government, which attracted support and applause of the neglected tribal people. The army had not gone there on its own but with the consent of the tribal people and their elders. Army provided the best platform for political and administrative reforms, which is the only solution of the prevailing issues in Fata (commonly known as tribal areas). TNS: What changes do you see in the present strategy in view of Gen Ashfaq's statement that war on terror would continue? MGWA: I think the entire Pakistani nation is against the menace of extremism and terrorism. We would never tolerate extremists and terrorists to strengthen their roots here. Army is taking action against the miscreants well in accordance with the wishes of the people. The operation is not aimed against the tribal people, who are the most peaceful and patriotic ones. There is a long list of sacrifices of the tribal people during the Pakistan Movement. They are our own people and the operation is basically against the miscreants to protect the tribal and other people from the wrath of the unwanted elements. TNS: How many losses do you think were made on both the sides in the fresh drive? MGWA: Forty five army men were killed and 30 injured in the drive, while more than 200 terrorists were killed, including 50 foreigners and several commanders. TNS: What do you say about role of traditional jirga particularly the one formed by NWFP Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai? MGWA: I consider jirga as a traditional and viable means for resolution of conflicts. I appreciate the achievement made by the jirga on several occasions in the past, but I must say that the jirga has also failed to produce desired results on many occasions. I want to remind you that the jirga had declared that foreigners would not stay in the tribal areas, but the elements were found there. It had given verdict against attacks on security forces, but attacks were made.
Waziristan has been made inaccessible by the government despite claims that there were no curbs on the media By Rahimullah Yusufzai The media and the
journalists are handicapped while reporting wars and conflicts. Truth, as
they To start with, the press always had a restricted role in the two Waziristans and rest of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The political agents and their minions, as well as the powerful tribal chiefs, saw to it that there was no criticism of their misdeeds. The political administration could easily implicate a reporter in cases and take him to task by using the draconian Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR). The vast powers at its disposal meant that tribal journalists were forever vulnerable and, therefore, largely unable to report freely. Deployment of Pakistan Army troops in South Waziristan, North Waziristan, and other tribal agencies for carrying out operations against local and foreign militants brought a new factor into equation as journalists now had to contend with a force that didn't like criticism and enjoyed authority overriding every other organ of the state. Initially, tribal journalists prospered reporting from strategic Waziristan towns such as Wana, Makeen, Spinkai Raghzai, Miranshah and Mir Ali. They quickly learnt the tricks of the trade, acquired reporting and technical skills and bought expensive digital cameras to make films of the military operations, militants' activities and tribal jirgas. The international focus on Waziristan, on account of its importance as a theatre of the US-led 'war on terror', brought the tribal reporters into the limelight and enabled them to earn fame and money. However, it also earned them tribal jealousy and the wrath of the parties to the Waziristan conflict. Three tribal journalists namely Allah Noor Wazir, Mir Nawab Wazir and Hayatullah Khan got killed, some were attacked and injured, and almost all others had to shift from the two Waziristans to relatively safer places like Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Peshawar and Islamabad. Very few journalists are now based in North and South Waziristan, and it is rare for those operating from outside the tribal region to venture into the area. Most of them have become extra careful while reporting the Waziristan conflict due to the risks involved in the job. As was the case during the latest round of fighting in North Waziristan -- from October 7 to 16 -- reporting is now largely confined to publicising the claims made by the spokesmen of the military and the militants. Pakistan Army spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad, who is also Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), is the most widely quoted person on the happenings in Waziristan. Whatever he says is considered an authentic government version and no story is complete unless he is available for comment. He usually describes soldiers killed in battle as martyrs and enemy fighters as terrorists and miscreants, and the Pakistani media faithfully reports in the same manner. There is no way the information provided by him could be confirmed from independent sources such as press reporters, human rights activists, political workers and lawyers. Other government officials and security personnel who sometimes pass on selective information about acts of violence to reporters request anonymity. The militants have devised their own way of providing information about their operations to members of the media. They use satellite phone, cell phones and even land phone-lines to contact a select number of reporters to give them their version of events, including attacks by militants. Their priority is to have their news broadcast on BBC radio's Pashto and Urdu services because that is their window to the world and the best way to reach the tribal people, including their own men and supporters. They are largely unaware of news and views that are published about them in the English and even Urdu press while television is outlawed in their part of Waziristan. In North Waziristan, the militants during the last year or so have used four spokesmen to tell their side of the Waziristan story to the world. Tariq Jamil was their first spokesman, followed by Abdullah Farhad and Abdul Hye Ghazi in quick succession. Apparently, all used fake names to hide their identity. Ahmadullah Ahmadi is their newest spokesman. So high is the level of interest in the Western media about Waziristan that reporters are sometimes willing to take risks, employ objectionable methods and spend any amount of money to get good stories and footage. Two Western reporters were very happy when they recently got to speak to some North Waziristanis who had brought their injured relatives to the Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar recently for treatment. It was the first time that they were able to talk first-hand to tribesmen from Waziristan and hear stories of human suffering as a result of bombing by Pakistan Air Force jet-fighters and gunship helicopters in the Mir Ali area in North Waziristan. It was a story worth telling because it is not often that foreign journalists manage to meet civilians who suffer the most during military operations in Waziristan. For them, and also for most Pakistani journalists, Waziristan has been made inaccessible by the government despite claims that there were no curbs on the media. The more radical elements among the tribal and foreign militants and common criminals have also contributed their bit to keep journalists out of Waziristan.
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and Taliban in North Waziristan, reports start arriving that it's going to be
a fight to the finish this time. "An all out war to capture both North
and South Waziristan which still are the ultimate havens for Taliban and al-Qaeda,"
the anonymous source who happens to be a top Pakistani security official
says.
population when he remarked in Pashto: 'Pas Tayyaray de, landay charrhay de!'
Translated into English, it would read like this: 'There are planes in the
skies and knives on the ground.'
government on July 15, deadliest clashes took place between security forces
and militants in the restive North Waziristan tribal agency, claiming
hundreds of lives of innocent tribespeople as well as security personnel.
There have been accusations and counter accusations by the militants and the
security forces about the violation of the peace accord signed between the
two sides on September 5, 2006. Defending their decision of scrapping the
10-month old peace deal, the militants declared that the government in the
peace accord had promised that there would be no more security posts in the
North Waziristan Agency, while those established earlier would be removed.
Waziristan in another part of the country. The poor people were running for
their life, unable to cope with the speed of jet fighter aircrafts hovering
in the air to hunt them down, not to forget the huge artilleries looking for
flesh and blood.
subdivision of the North Waziristan Agency?
terrorist activities. When USA invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the foreign
elements used the longest porous Pak-Afghan border and made their influx into
Pakistan in huge numbers to escape US pursuit.
say, is the first casualty in war as combatants try to hide losses and
publicise gains on the battlefield. Pakistan in its 60-year life has had to
cope with many conflicts but telling the Waziristan story has been a
particularly tough assignment.