As a nation, we hail and salute the professionalism, patriotism and sacrifices of our police and national army personnel who bravely fought in Helmand and retook the control of areas captured by Taliban and militants. Initially, the fight started when Taliban attacked in large numbers the police checkpoints in Sangin district killing and injuring large number of police. Later on, the fresh deployments and assistance by National Army turned the things around and Taliban had to retreat.
They also received fresh help and in this way, the fight got extended to some other parts of the province like Musa Qala, Nawzad and Kajaki. Having a look at the acuteness of the situation, our forces were strengthened by continued deployments of army and police force in the area. The condition was controlled later by the high-ups of police and army in Kabul who went with effective plans to tackle the militants. After the intensive fighting of many days, the area was cleared of the militants that resulted in the killing of hundreds of militants while dozens of police and national army soldiers and officers also sacrificed their lives for the security of the country. The area is now cleared of the militants and once again, the writ of law and control of government has been resumed.
The war in Helmand was taken much seriously by some of the military and political experts. Being the birthplace of Taliban and remaining the most restive part in last twelve years of democratic rule, Helmand has always been a good choice for Taliban to start and continue their activities. In Helmand, Taliban have access to flee across the border into Pakistan, get moral and physical support from the local people and also manage their hideouts in the mountainous and forested area.
In the presence of such suitable elements, it was always feared that Taliban would be able to get a rebirth from the same area. In the wake of the re-emergence and control of Al-Qaeda and other militants in Iraq, the fighting in Helmand was feared to be a second emerging point for Taliban from where they could have spread to other parts of the country. However, this fear has been averted by the constant and brave resistance of our forces.
Media also reported that there were foreign elements in form of local Taliban who could not speak the local languages. As the area has long borders with Pakistan so it was described that Pakistani forces had started fighting in form of Taliban. This is not a small issue and our intelligence should make proper investigation of this report and in the light of its findings, proper and official protest should be filed with the government of Pakistan.
However, this is not going to be a single incident of its own and we may have similar mass attacks of Taliban in near future. Our army needs to be absolutely alert to tackle any such emergency situation.