This is remarkable turn around of publican opinion against Taliban and other terrorists.
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\12\17\story_17-12-2010_pg1_13
67% want military operation in North Waziristan: poll
** CAMP survey shows 64.2% have unfavourable opinion about Taliban while 36.2% believe Afghan Taliban are terrorists
- 89.1% say Afghan refugees should go back
By Iqbal Khattak*
PESHAWAR: Military will find increased support from the people in case it goes for an operation against the Haqqani network in North Waziristan, a recent opinion poll suggests.
“Support for military operations against militants increased dramatically over the last year. In 2009, only 16.8 percent respondents supported the army/security forces operation in Swat but this year 66.8 percent of the respondents supported the operation,” the opinion poll - Understanding FATA - by Community Appraisal and motivation Programme revealed.
Naveed Shinwari, chief executive of Islamabad-based non-governmental organisation CAMP, released the annual opinion poll on Tuesday in the federal capital, which did not attract much media attention.
Pressure mounts on Islamabad to go for action against safe-havens of al Qaeda, Haqqani network and Pakistani Taliban as American top general in Afghanistan Gen David Petraeus visited Islamabad on Monday and Admiral Mike Mullen followed to press military operation in North Waziristan.
Shinwari believed “success of the Swat military offensive and the repatriation of over two million internally displaced people (IDPs) to Swat moulded opinion (of tribal people) in favour of the military offensive”.
The support for military offensive against Taliban comes from IDPs, according to the opinion poll. “Approximately, 25 percent of the respondents had been displaced people. This condition significantly influenced their opinions on military strategies and the use of drones; they generally support these operations more than do the non-displaced in their respective agencies in the tribal areas,” it read.
While support for military operation grew considerably in the last one year, the support for Taliban, meanwhile, declined, the opinion poll found. “Two-thirds of the respondents, 64.2 percent, have unfavourable opinions about Pakistani Taliban while only 36.2 percent believe that Afghan Taliban are terrorists. The idea that the Afghan Taliban are Islamic heroes, who are fighting against Western occupation forces in Afghanistan, has dropped from 40.35 percent in 2009 to 20.2 percent in 2010 poll.”
The opinion poll found 42.7 percent respondents believed that foreign militant in their areas should be “forced to leave by the Pakistan Army; 25.3 percent think that they should be asked to leave by host communities; and only 2.7 percent said that they should be allowed to stay.”
Overwhelming respondents felt that Afghan refugees should go back to their country of origin. “An overwhelming 89.1 percent said they should (go back to Afghanistan). This is an upward change in sentiments since 2008.”
On the justification of US drone attacks in the Tribal Areas, the 2010 data shows that 58.8 percent of the respondents believe that such attacks are ‘never justified’. Only 24.4 percent of the respondents opined “in a qualified manner” that sometimes these attacks “are justified if they are properly targeted and excessive civilian casualties are avoided” while 4.4 percent believe that such drone attacks are “always justified”.
However, when examined by agency the variation of the ‘never’ category ranges from 99.3 percent in North Waziristan to 12.9 percent in Kurram region, which is facing sectarian violence.