Mushahid lauds Pak Army for fighting battle for future of Pakistan

Date : 26-01-2015

Islamabad: The Chairman of the Senate Defence Committee, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed has lauded the valiant Pakistan Army for fighting the battle for the soul and future of Pakistan.

He made these remarks in the course of a historic visit of the Senate Defence Committee which was led by him to North Waziristan today. This was the first ever visit of any parliamentary committee to that war torn part of FATA.

He thanked the Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif had especially invited the Senate Defence Committee to visit Waziristan, and Senator Mushahid Hussain led a high-powered delegation which went in a military helicopter first to Peshawar where he laid wreath for the martyred school children of the Army Public School as well as the military shuhada who have sacrificed their lives in the war on terror at the Corp Headquarters.

In Peshawar, they were given a special briefing by the Corps Commander, Lt. Gen. Hidayat ur Rehman who briefed them on the operation against terrorists being carried out.

In his briefing, the Corps Commander informed the committee that since 2007, 439 major military operations and 1808 minor military operations were carried out under the command of the Peshawar Corps.

Any operation which is more than that of a military battalion is classified as a major operation. Since 2001, the Pakistan Army has suffered a total of 4173 fatalities and 13000 wounded in the war on terror.

The Senate Defence Committee was also informed that over 900 million dollars have been spent in development and construction work in FATA under the supervision of the Pakistan Army.

During its visit to Miran Shah, which is the main city of North Waziristan just 18 kms from Afghanistan border, the delegation was received by GOC Maj. Gen. Zafarullah Khan who briefed the delegation about Operation Zarb-e-Azb which was launched on June 15, 2014.

He said that since the launch of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, 1300 terrorists have been killed, 600 have surrendered while 233 have been arrested. From the Pakistan Army side, so far there have been 63 shaheeds and 238 wounded in operation Zarb-e-Azb.

Briefing the delegation, Maj. Gen. Zafarullah Khan told the Defence Committee that the terrorists infrastructure in North Waziristan have been destroyed with 40 factories producing illicit arms, ammunition and IEDs demolished and 137 tons of explosive material for making IEDs was unearthed.

The General also escorted the delegation to various parts of Miran Shah where they was bunkers, basements where ammunition explosives and hate literature had been hidden.