Temporary pause in Operation Ghazab lil-Haq has concluded, says FO

The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday said that the temporary pause in Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against the Afghan Taliban had concluded and it would “continue now until its objectives are achieved”.

FO Spokesperson Tahir Andrabi made the remarks while answering questions during his weekly press briefing regarding whether the pause had been extended.

Operation Ghazab lil-Haq was launched on the night of Feb 26 following cross-border firing by the Afghan Taliban.

“Operation Gazab Lil-Haq is ongoing. It is a precise, targeted operation, military campaign directed against terrorist leadership and their support and command, infrastructure, logistics, logistic networks and facilitators and abettors of these terrorist acts within the Taliban regime and in the Taliban controlled area,” he said.

Andrabi said that a temporary pause was observed in “deferrence to Eidul Fitr celebrations and in response to requests from our brotherly Islamic countries”.

“The pause has concluded [on] midnight between, I think, March 23 and 24. So, operations under Operation Gazab Lil Haq continue now until the objectives are achieved, and until the Afghan Taliban regime reviews its misplaced priority of supporting terror infrastructures and terror proxies over the welfare of their own Afghan people. So, our position is anchored in this broad policy statement,” he said.

On March 18, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar had announced that Pakistan had decided on a “temporary pause” in Operation Ghazab lil-Haq in view of Eidul Fitr and “at the request of brotherly Islamic countries”.

At the time, he said that Pakistan had offered the gesture in good faith and in keeping with Islamic norms.

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