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Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani says the military operation targeting Taliban militants in the South Wazirstan tribal region is over.

Pahari Sahib, Wikimedia Commons

Mr. Gilani told reporters that Pakistan’s military is now focusing on the Orakzai tribal region in an effort to chase the Pakistani Taliban leadership that is believed to have fled there from South Waziristan.  Once fully launched, the operation in Orakzai will be the third major offensive against the Pakistani Taliban this year.

Here is a breakdown of the situation:

Part 1 –  How has Pakistan’s offensive against the Taliban evolved in 2009?

Part 2 — How successful has the military been?

Part 3 — How have the militants responded?

Part 4 — How is the public responding to the offensive?

U.S. officials have commended the Pakistani government for launching the South Waziristan operation.  But as the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan strengthens, Washington continues to urge Islamabad to expand its operations to take on the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida agents believed to be based in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region.

The former security chief of the tribal regions, retired Brigadier-General Mahmood Shah, tells me that the United States’ priorities are very different than Pakistan’s.  The United States wants Pakistan to focus on militants that are part of a global network of terrorists.  But Shah says Pakistan wants to focus on its immediate threat: militants it believes have launched a series of high-profile attacks across the country.  Since the beginning of October, these attacks have killed more than 500 people.

If you click the map above, you can see that North Waziristan is between South Waziristan and the Orakzai tribal regions.  I told Shah it appears the militants escaped from South Waziristan through its northern neighbor — where the United States wants Pakistan to focus its forces.

Shah says the militants Pakistan is targeting have always had a presence in Orakzai.  He says the military chose to attack the Pakistani Taliban’s base in South Waziristan before broadening its campaign.  He says that he believes his country will be in a better position to help the United States and its allies once it takes care of its domestic insurgency.

Click here for the story.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-15-voa8.cfm

Click here for VOA’s News Now segment.

Late Thursday, a bomb blast hit a government residential area in Peshawar.

Click here for the story.

There have been nine attacks in Pakistan in the last 10 days.  In that time, we’ve seen attacks on the army’s headquarters, security checkpoints, police training stations and the country’s equivalent of the FBI.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik says it appears the militants are focusing their sights on symbols of the country’s security.  But Malik vowed that these attacks will not deter the government from pursuing the militants.

Looking at the local media, it appears the government is on the defensive.  Sure you hear about the daily skirmish in the country’s northwest between the military and militants, but in terms of shock value, the militants are winning the PR war.

Several Pakistanis have told me that the situation has come to the point where there isn’t a target that could shock them now.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-12-voa8.cfm

Click here for the story.

The militants have shown their reach, whether it is in Pakistan’s northwest, a high-security area of the capital or one of the most unthinkable targets in the country: the army headquarters.

The interesting thing about the attack on the army HQ (known as the GHQ) is that not all the militants involved in the fighting were from South Waziristan.

Several were from Punjab province, and army spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, said the sole militant captured in the attack also was involved in the assault on Sri Lanka’s cricket team earlier this year.

The attack on the cricket team in Lahore was one of several operations that analysts believe are relatively new collaborations among Pakistani Taliban from the tribal areas and outlawed militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

Overall though, Abbas said the militants in South Waziristan are responsible for more than 80 percent of all terror attacks inside Pakistan.

I spoke to the former security chief of Pakistan’s tribal regions, Mahmood Shah, and he repeated his insistence that the military needs to tackle militants based in the tribal region soon.

In the meantime, the militants have vowed more attacks.  The question is: Where will they strike next?

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-09-voa5.cfm

The week ended as it began… with a suicide bombing.  The violence moved from the capital westward to the North West Frontier Province city of Peshawar.

Click here for the story.

It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan in more than six months.  I know several people from that area, and they say the market where the blast occurred is in the center of the city and at a major crossroads for people either traveling to Afghanistan or Islamabad.

Following the explosion, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the government has “no option” but to go on the offensive against the militants, specifically in South Waziristan.

In this week’s “Reporter’s Notebook” radio talk show, I discuss today’s attack and how it may affect the government’s response toward militants in the tribal regions.  I also break down the Kerry-Lugar bill, Pakistan’s response toward it and I give a quick react from Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan’s ruling political party regarding President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.  (Click here for that story.)

Click here for my “Reporter’s Notebook” segment.

Looking ahead, Afghan election officials are expected to formally declare a winner in Afghanistan’s presidential election by late next week.

I spoke earlier to Dan McNorton, a U.N. spokesman in Kabul.  We discussed the The Washington Post’s article, which quoted confidential U.N. data that allegedly shows voter fraud, mainly in favor of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Click here for the story.

Unofficial vote tallies indicate Mr. Karzai leads with 54-percent.  If his lead falls below 50 percent, he could face his top challenger Abdullah Abdullah in a runoff.  There is a lot of uncertainty — both political and regarding security — as we head into next week.  Stay tuned…

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-09-26-voa5.cfm

Twin suicide attacks in northwestern Pakistan rocked the region Saturday.  Both targets were associated with the country’s security forces.  The first attack hit a police station in Bannu, while the second target was a bank in Peshawar affiliated with the Pakistani army.

Although the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the first bombing and no one as of yet has claimed the Peshawar attack, it appears the military is facing a renewed and heated resistance to its ongoing operations in the area.

Click here for the story.

In other news this week, swine flu reared its ugly head again in Pakistan.  Just days after I touched down at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, authorities detained a traveler with the H1N1 virus there.  He had flown through Dubai (like me).

So far, Pakistani health officials say there have been three confirmed cases of the virus in the country.  Good thing I packed hand sanitizer.  Especially since I’ve been hearing the guys painting the room across from me sneeze and cough non-stop all day.  That’s comforting.