ISLAMABAD, February 16. /TASS/. The anti-terrorist operation Zarb-e-Azb (Smashing Blow) in the Pakistani region of Waziristan on the border with Afghanistan will be completed in the end of 2015, Pakistan’s Minister for States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch told The Dawn newspaper on Monday.
"The military operation in North Waziristan will be completed by the end of 2015," he said. "At the moment, the country’s security forces managed to completely get rid of extremists the majority of areas, ousting them to the border with Afghanistan," Baloch noted.
The anti-terrorist operation Zarb-e-Azb against the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan organization is being carried out on the territory of North Waziristan, which has become part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in June 2014. In the course of the operation, the security forces neutralized more than 1,000 militants, destroyed dozens of terrorists’ training camps, plants for explosives production, as well as numerous arms and ammunitions depots.
After local Taliban groups are destroyed in North Waziristan and other FATA areas, the Pakistani authorities will start massive restoration effort in those regions which suffered the most from terrorism. "The program for restoring the Federally Administered Tribal Areas will be like a ‘mini-Marshall Plan’ which the US implemented in Europe after World War II," Baloch said. In particular, several special economic zones will be set up on the FATA territory to attract investment and facilitate trade, he concluded.