NGO finances fake video of flogging a woman in Swat
Tellingly, Pakistan's mercenary army (it is being paid by the US for its military operations in the volatile tribal belt) conducted a Malala-style concerted public-relations campaign before it launched its brutal operation in Swat in 2009 by seizing on anger over a video showing a Taliban fighter flogging a woman who allegedly committed adultery. However, it turned out later that the flogging video was fake.
Before the operation dubbed as "Rah-e-Rast", in an NGO-financed preparation of the fake video they portrayed the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members flogging a woman. The government ordered an inquiry after the Supreme Court of Pakistan took suo motu notice of the issue. The probe concluded that the video footage of the alleged incident which sent shock waves across the country was "fake".
After the operation in the Malakand division of Swat, the law-enforcement agencies had arrested children who were present in the video while a resident of Swat was also apprehended. The children and the arrested man acknowledged that the video was fake and said that it was made on the demand of an Islamabad-based NGO that provided him US $5,000. The woman who was flogged in the video was also arrested and she revealed that she had received $1,000, while $500 was given to each child.
US pressure on Pakistan
While the Pakistan army continues military operations in the tribal belt, the US has been building pressure on Pakistan to launch a military operation in North Waziristan. When the newly appointed Director General of Pakistan's major spy agency, ISI, visited Washington in August to hold talks with CIA Director David Petraeus, the Wall Street Journal reported on August 4, "the two spy chiefs agreed on joint counterterrorism campaigns and operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The campaigns would target the sanctuaries of the Haqqani militant group in North Waziristan." The Journal explained, "Pakistanis have named the planned offensive in North Waziristan as Operation Tight Screw." However, on August 7, a Pakistani military spokesman rejected the report of the Wall Street Journal and other media speculations about a joint operation (Tight Screw) in North Waziristan.
On August 15, a US State Department spokeswoman also stated that the US was in talks with Pakistan and Afghanistan on joint action against the Haqqani group, which was declared by US as a terrorist organization last month.
On August 17, Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, after meeting with General James N. Mattis, Commander US CENTCOM, categorically dispelled speculative reporting in foreign media regarding joint operations in North Waziristan. He reiterated, "We might, if necessary, undertake operations in NWA, in the time-frame of our choosing and requirements" as "determined only by our political and military requirements. It will never be a result of any outside pressure."
The Pakistan army has said its troops are stretched too thin by operations in other parts of the tribal region. However, Associated Press in America quoted analysts as saying that "Pakistan does not want to cross other militant groups with whom it has historical ties and could be useful proxies in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw. These groups, also located in North Waziristan, have primarily focused their fighting on Afghanistan, and any operation that upsets them could prompt them to turn their guns on Pakistan."
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