One could always disagree with the timing of the operation and the amount of force used in the end but I believe the operation was necessary to let these nutjobs the so-called students and radical elements else-where in the country know that they would not be allowed to impose their backward views on the civil society. The writ of the government had to be established here.
A mosque is not the place to keep arms and brainwash people. Mullahs should be preaching tolerance and peaceful Islam and not brainwashing young minds in the name of teaching Islam. Sadly that seems beyond most of them
Cutting off power, water and food supplies seems like a good idea but only in theory. The media would have circulated images of women and children falling sick or dying as a result of hunger, thirst, extreme heat, lack of hygiene etc. and people would have then shouted cruelty, karbela, karbela etc.
And military operation or no operation I believe some of these extremist nutcases would have still gone on to commit suicide bombings because of resentment over failure to force the government to implement their narrow-minded version of sharia. This farce had to end. Perhaps we would not have seen so many suicide attacks but I disagree that there would have been no violence if we had dealt with this fiasco non-militarily.
It was a no-win situation for the government. The government should have dealt with this fiasco with an iron hand straightaway and not waited 6months and we won't have seen so many casualties
Perhaps the fundamental Q to ask is how these nutjobs got access to so many weapons in the end?
Well said, cutting off water and food and just waiting would just prolong the siege since they likely had food reserves inside to last them a long time.