Unidentified armed miscreants fired first during the Bannu peace march, forcing the military to retaliate, with at least one individual killed and at least 30 others injured in the episode.
It was further suggested that in addition to the physical presence of a large group of armed miscreants, 'digital terrorists' helped fan the flames of the incident on social media by sharing fake news as the military unveiled a revised National Action Plan (NAP).
The disclosures came during a news briefing on Monday by the head of the military's media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif, at the army's nerve centre, the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi.
Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif said that the peace march in Bannu was preceded by an incident of terrorism on the cantonment in which some civilians were also killed. It prompted the local traders and other residents of Bannu to come together and protest.
He said that 1,500-2,000 armed and unarmed miscreants also joined the protests, posing as civilians. This group, Lt Gen Sharif said, passed by the road where the terrorists had detonated a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device just a few days prior. Once they reached the spot where the wall of the Bannu cantonment was breached during the terror attack, the protesters raised anti-military slogans and started pelting security personnel with stones. He further claimed that some armed men were part of this crowd who opened fire. They demolished an under-construction temporary wall and damaged a tent put up to erect a temporary fence. The mob also looted a government food supply depot located nearby, and people were seen carrying away bags of flour and cans of ghee. He added that another group of armed men opened fire about a kilometre away from the cantonment near the central part of the rally, causing casualties.
"The military responded as per the SOP," he said, defending the military's reaction.
He added that in the aftermath of May 9, a particular political group started the propaganda that the military never stopped the protesters from marching into cantonments across the country and causing damage and that the troops should have opened fire on May 9 rioters. However, because the troops did not open fire, it showed that the military was involved.
The ISPR chief said that this all happened because relaxation was provided to the planners, orchestrators, facilitators and executors of May 9 incidents.
If you don't take perpetrators to justice and punish them for their acts, fascism is emboldened.
Further, he said that it was the provincial government's job to maintain law and order and control riots. If miscreants infiltrated a crowd and opened fire, the local administration and police should act against them.
"What I don't understand is why a political party is protesting against its own provincial government," he said, making a veiled reference to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
However, he asserted that the public was in the right to stage a protest against growing incidents of terrorism, and a protest against recent incidents of terrorism should be held. "You must march and protest against terrorism, and issue calls for peace," he asserted, adding, "You should definitely protest for the eight soldiers and two FC personnel and three civilians who were martyred, for the lady health workers who were gunned down by terrorists in DI Khan."
He showed video clips of people carrying guns and firing them in the air and pulling down the temporary boundary wall of the Bannu cantonment. A clip of a man setting fire to the tent fence was also shown, along with people pelting the tent fence with stones and setting furniture alight.
Lt Gen Sharif said that as soon as the incident took place, 'digital terrorists' were in sync and spread fake information using old images and making claims that the military had fired upon unarmed protesters.
Military operations
He said that so far this year, the military and other law enforcement agencies had conducted some 22,409 small and large operations against terrorists.
Of these, 8,767 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) were conducted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and a further 13,240 operations in Balochistan. In these operations, 300 terrorists were killed in KP and 96 in Balochistan. A further 402 operations were conducted in other parts of Pakistan in which at least two terrorists were killed.
Among the 398 terrorists killed during the operations, Lt. Gen Sharif said that 31 high-value targets were also killed. Some 137 soldiers were martyred during these operations.
Azm-e-Istehkam
Lt Gen Sharif said that it is a comprehensive counter-terrorism campaign and not new, traditional military operation per se. Unfortunately, he said that it was being politicised unnecessarily.
He added that when PM Shehbaz Sharif unveiled Azm-e-Istehkam during a meeting of the apex committee in Islamabad on June 22, the meeting included chief ministers and chief secretaries of all four provinces were present along with all services chief. He added that during the meeting a comprehensive review was undertaken of the counter terrorism campaign, and multi-domain tenents of the national action plan were scrutinised and shortcomings were identified.
In the meeting, the premier highlighted the necessity for a comprehensive and reinvigorated counter-terrorism strategy, which will be based on complete nationwide consensus and system-wide synergy. At the end of the meeting, the prime minister approved a re-energised and reinvigorated campaign.
However, Lt Gen Sharif said that while Zarb-e-Azb was launched to dislodge terrorists from their stronghold, Azm-e-Istehkam was aimed at energising existing intelligence-based operations. No large-scale military operation is being contemplated where the local population will be displaced.
He showed a 14-point revised national action plan, which the previous government had presented and approved.
The points included intolerance for militancy and refusing to allow any militant/armed/criminal gang to operate; capacity building/strengthening of counter-terrorism departments (CTDs; action against the spread of terrorism through media (electronic, print & social media) communication and cyber networks; choking of terror financing and proscribed organisations; taking effective measures against religious/sectarian persecution of terrorism; regulation and registration of religious seminaries/madaris; repatriation of Afghan refugees and dealing with their issues; reforms in the criminal justice system; legislative/legal oversight for espionage/subversion; institutionalisation and implementation of counter-violence extremism (CVE) policy; curb increasing trends of illegal spectrum.
Lt. Gen Sharif claimed that a political and criminal mafia wanted to make the operation/plan controversial to foil it.
He said that the government repeatedly felt the need to strengthen CTDs. As an example, he said that in KP, the overall strength of CTD was 2,437 personnel, of which there were just 537 field operators for the entire province. Similarly, in Balochistan, CTD had a strength of 3,431 while per NACTA, the field strength was 2,700.
Noting that while they have been hearing since 2014 that madaris will be registered, so far, only 16,000 seminaries have been registered, which represents only half of the total number of seminaries believed to be operating in the country.
"We don't know where half of the seminaries are and who operates them. Is this the army's job?"
On the reform of the criminal justice system, Lt Gen Sharif said that the number of anti-terror courts in Balochistan (nine) and KP (13) have convicted ten and 14 terrorists, respectively, this year. However, they were inadequate in dealing with the volume of terrorism.
Lastly, he said that there is a need to curb the illegal spectrum of terror-criminal nexus which operates on an illegal economic system such as the trade of non-custom paid vehicles, smuggling and benami properties.
Lt Gen Sharif said that when the government implemented the one-document regime (requiring a passport to cross the border) at the Chaman border with Afghanistan, vested interest groups and political parties staged a protest against it.
He said that in Azme-e-Istehkam, they resolved to break the terror-crime nexus, which has worried the interest groups benefiting from it. He further claimed that money from the illicit income sources of this nexus is used to fuel fake information on social media. He further claimed that these interest groups raised issues of missing persons and peace marches and used them to attack security forces, law enforcement personnel and intelligence services.
Lt Gen Sharif said that the military has cleared many areas of militants on multiple occasions and then transferred them to the provincial governments to build it up and transfer it to the people to prevent militants from returning to these areas.
"If you don't build those (cleared areas) and don't transfer it to the people, the terrorists will return to those areas," he said adding that you will fall into the vicious cycle of clear-and-hold cycle. Ultimately, this cycle will breed contempt in the local populace against the military.
He said that the time has come for the nation to standup to the terrorists, especially digital terrorism - which he likened to bullying.