According to sources, participants of a meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, agreed that a recent spate of suicide bombings in different parts of the country had roots in South Waziristan and suicide bombings and terrorist attacks could not be curbed without crushing terrorists’ leaders hiding in tribal areas.
Chief of Army Staff, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, gave a detailed briefing and the meeting is reported to have decided about the timing of the operation, but it was not officially disclosed to the media.
Security sources said it was going to be a three-pronged operation supervised by the corps commander concerned with the aim to block all routes of militants present in the region, particularly the Mehsud area.
The operation will be supported by the air power, including helicopter gunships and jet bombers. The army has reportedly sent two divisions totalling 28,000 men and blocked different routes in the area.
The army chief said the situation had become so ‘dangerous’ because of terrorist activities being planned in South Waziristan that a military operation had become unavoidable.
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha briefed the meeting about intelligence reports and said: 'You cannot imagine how many people are on the hit list of terrorists.
They are not only important personalities and politicians but some ordinary people in different professions.' Interior Minister Rehman Malik gave a separate briefing when Chaudhry Nisar asked why the operation had become necessary.
He presented an overall picture of militant organisations and their activities in South Waziristan and claimed that not only the current spate of terrorist attacks, but also those that took place in the past had links with Taliban in the region. The PML-Q supported the decision to launch the operation.