Call it Sunrise
The full gamut of implications of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s orders to commandos to storm Islamabad’s Lal Masjid in the early hours of July 10 have still to be fully debated. But two days later, a quick scan of the headlines on Dawn’s front page covered almost all bases. “It’s ‘Operation Sunrise’, not ‘Silence’.” (The operation name had come in for much anlaysis. As Ejaz Haider wrote the same day in The Daily Times: “Could it be that the government did not want Ghazi to remain alive and at some point talk to the media? The operation was codenamed ‘Silence’. It makes sense to dub it such if there is an urgent need to ‘silence’ someone.) “Musharraf gets a pat from Bush.” “US envoys remarks criticised” (by the religious parties, for extending support to the government on the operation). “Karzai supports operation.” “Protests continue in NWFP.” “Measures to protect Chinese ordered.”
The next morning, on July 13, Dawn quoted sources to report: “The army started deploying troops in NWFP’s southern districts, adjoining the Waziristan region, amid reports that an operation to curb militancy and extremism was imminent.” Troop re-inforcement was said to be in Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, Lakki Marwat, Bannu, Swat and Lower Dir districts. The report added: “Local Taliban expressed resentment over the troops’ redeployment in North Waziristan. They asked the government to pull troops back by July 15 and threatened that if it was not done, they would not abide by the peace agreement (of September 5, 2006, under which it had to withdraw all troops).”

... contd.