New Military Operation Under Consideration in Pakistan to Combat Militants

Pakistan’s National Security Commission said on Friday that the Pakistan Army is planning to launch a new operation across the country to eliminate the Pakistani Taliban militants.

Pakistan is at risk of defaulting on its debt, with the International Monetary Fund’s bailout program stalled since November, while a grinding political battle rages on between the government and former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The last time Pakistan launched an all-out operation against militants was in 2014, which has cost the country billions of dollars, displaced more than a million people and killed hundreds.

“The meeting agreed to launch a comprehensive, comprehensive process with the entire nation and government to rid the country of the threat of terrorism with renewed strength and determination,” the security committee said in a statement.

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country of 220 million people, has seen a rise in militant attacks in the past few months, particularly since negotiations with the hardline Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan broke down last year.

This year, the group and its factions launched a wave of attacks, including a suicide bombing at a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar that killed more than 100 people, most of them policemen.

The security committee said it held a meeting on Friday chaired by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and attended by the country’s military leadership, which resulted in the formation of a committee to make recommendations on details of anti-militant operations within two weeks.