War in North-West Pakistan: The Pakistani Armed Forces open Operation Rah-e-Nijat against the Taliban and other Islamist rebels in the South Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
The Operation Rah-e-Nijat ("Path to Salvation"; Urdu: ) was a strategic offensive military operation by the unified command of Pakistan Armed Forces against the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and their extremist allies in the South Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas that began on June 19, 2009; a major ground-air offensive was subsequently launched on October 17. It became the integral part of the war in Western fronts which led to the encirclement and destruction of Taliban forces in the region, although the Taliban leadership escaped to lawless areas of neighboring Afghanistan.
The operation was intended to finish the senior Taliban leadership and bring the lawless areas back to government control, however the leadership escaped to Afghanistan whilst areas came back under the Pakistan government control. Planning for the operation began on June 16, 2009 after successfully commencing a previous offense, the operation Rah-e-Ra'ast, and had applied a successful blockade of the region that prevented the Taliban forces from gaining external support. On October 2, 2009, the preparations for the operation were made after a top civic-military meeting took place in Islamabad which led to the revival and starting of Navy's reconnaissance and surveillance air operations to monitor the troop rotations of Taliban forces. On October 19, the ground offensive was launched when military personnel from XI Corps, along with the airborne forces who were assisted by the joint special forces, entered the area of South Waziristan, which had been subject to a three month long blockade. The Pakistan Air Force pounded the hidden and suspected mountainous regions, relying on the Navy's intelligence, while the Army marched deeper into Taliban-controlled territory. The joint-military forces entered and advanced in the region from three directionsRazmak in the north, Jandola in the east and Shakai in the west. The forces advanced into the towns of Makeen (2 serious encounter in the villages of Wachooba and Bahadar khan), Leeta Sar, Mandeech, Spinkai, Raghzai and Tiarza; initially focusing on taking the town of Kotkai which served as the command and control center for enemy combatant forces. On 24 October, the breakthrough and major achievement came when the military announced that it had successfully retaken control of the town of Kotkai after heavy fighting.
On 29 October, the military occupied the town of Kaniguram, a stronghold of former Russians fighters and Uzbeks led by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. On December 12, the military announced the success of the operation and took the control of the entire South Waziristan into government control. The human cost and casualties for Taliban forces were extremely high, losing roughly a thousand fighters as compared to the military forces; the senior Taliban leadership abandoned their posts and escaped to neighboring Afghanistan before they could be apprehended or killed in the actions.
The insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, also known as the War in North-West Pakistan and Pakistan's war on terror, is an ongoing armed conflict involving Pakistan, and Islamist militant groups such as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jundallah, Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI), TNSM, al-Qaeda, and their Central Asian allies such as the ISIL–Khorasan (ISIL), Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, East Turkistan Movement, Emirate of Caucasus, and elements of organized crime. Formerly a war, it is now a low-level insurgency as of 2017.The armed conflict began in 2004 when tensions rooted in the Pakistan Army's search for al-Qaeda fighters in Pakistan's mountainous Waziristan area (in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas) escalated into armed resistance. Pakistan's actions were presented as its contribution to the international War on Terror. Clashes further erupted between unified Pakistan Armed Forces and the Central Asian militant groups, allied with the Arab fighters, in 2008–2010. The foreign militants were joined by Pakistani non-military veterans of the Afghan War to the west, which subsequently established the TTP and other militant umbrella organizations, such as Lashkar-e-Islam.
The war depleted the country's manpower resources, and the outcomes outlined a deep effect on its national economy, since Pakistan had joined the United States-led War on Terror. According to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) statistics and mathematical data survey collections, the economy has suffered direct and indirect losses of up to $67.93 billion since 2001 due to its role as a "frontline state." According to the MoF-issued Pakistan Economic Survey 2010–2011, "Pakistan has never witnessed such a devastating social and economic upheaval in its industry, even after dismemberment of the country by a direct war with India in 1971."By 2014, the casualty rates from terrorism in the country as a whole dropped by 40% as compared to 2011–2013, with even greater drops noted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa despite the province being the site of a large massacre of schoolchildren by TTP terrorists in December 2014. The reduction in hostilities eventually changed the conflict from a war to a relatively low-level conflict.