“The army brass had decided in principle that preparations will be completed from 2010 to 2011 for an operation in North Waziristan which will kick off the same year,” Maj Gen (retd) Athar Abbas, the former director general of ISPR, told the BBC
However, he added that the then army chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, was reluctant to give the nod for the operation. Abbas answered in the affirmative when asked if delaying the operation was a personal decision of Gen Kayani.
“Gen Kayani thought he would be held accountable for sending troops into North Waziristan. And that is why he dilly-dallied on the operation due to which we wasted too much time and suffered losses,” he added. “The country, its people, the government and the armed forces had to pay a heavy price for Gen Kayani’s hesitance.”
The delay in deployment, however, helped extremists strengthen their foothold, recruit more fighters, raise more resources and develop a network, “I think things have become quite complicated there [in North Waziristan],” Abbas said.