Under US pressure to flush out militants from their stronghold of North Waziristan, Pakistani army is to launch a limited operation in the restive tribal belt and is unlikely to focus exclusively on the Haqqani terror network.
Without elaborating when the operation would be launched, the local media quoting unnamed sources said the campaign would be a limited one primarily targeting al-Qaeda, Taliban and foreign fighters.
The military operation is unlikely to focus exclusively on the Haqqani network, the Dawn newspaper quoted military officials as saying.
Another daily 'The News' said the US had given Pakistan a deadline till July to start the military offensive in North Waziristan.
Pakistani security forces had been asked to capture five most wanted al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders -- Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mullah Omar, Ilyas Kashmiri, Sirajuddin Haqqani and Atia Abdur Rehman -- either in a unilateral or joint military action within the deadline till July -- the month when NATO and allied forces will begin withdrawing from neighbouring Afghanistan.
The US has been pressuring Pakistan to target the Haqqani network, which uses North Waziristan to conduct cross-border attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Military commanders, in background interviews with the Dawn, ruled out the possibility of a "full-scale operation like the one launched in South Waziristan and said it was unfeasible because of difference in ground realities".
A senior officer said: "The operation will be very selective and intelligence led."
The Pakistani military's assessment is that there are "only two to three pockets having terrorist presence" that need to be cleared.
South Waziristan was a "no-go area" when the military launched a major offensive in October 2009 to flush out terrorists, the officials said.
On the other hand, North Waziristan "has a massive presence of military and there are peace pacts with tribes that cannot be ignored", they said.
The army has a division of troops stationed in North Waziristan with headquarters in Miramshah and brigade-level command centres in Mirali, Datta Khel and Razmak.
Other factors preventing an all-out assault are the region's inhospitable terrain and geographic isolation, the report said.
Though the military officials did not "explicitly talk about sparing the Haqqanis", there is still "no shift in policy about the group", the report said.
The officials were of the opinion that the "Haqqani network is more of a myth and the threat posed by it has been exaggerated".