On Sunday May 18, 2008, I had the opportunity to accompany a team of national/international media persons, who were flown into the remote former Baitullah Mehsud territory of Spinkai Raghzai (South Waziristan) by ISPR. We witnessed a human tragedy of epic proportions. The village was devoid of any human life apart from army soldiers patrolling to keep the miscreants at bay. The houses in Spinkai Raghzai village indicated that their occupants had left in extreme urgency, not even bothering to take their valuables with them. Earlier at Dera Ismail Khan, the GOC 14 Div. Major General Tariq had briefed us that not a single civilian casualty had occurred because leaflets were dropped asking the civilians to vacate or face the wrath of the army. Those who stayed behind were killed or forced to retreat. 200,000 internally displaced persons (IDP) were provided refuge in different camps. The media team, led by its host the DG ISPR, Major General Athar Abbas had the opportunity to interact with a group of IDPs. They narrated their sad plight, the torture they received at the hands of Baitullah Mehsud and his band, who tried to impose Talibanisation on the hapless residents by terrorising them with the threats of dire consequences. Mehsud's men, especially the infamous Qari Hussain alleged to be the master-mind behind the campaign of suicide bombings in Pakistan was engaged in indoctrinating and training suicide bombers. Brigadier Ali Abbas, the commander of the brigade, that had carried the brunt of the attacks in Spinkai Raghzai area as part of Operation Zalzala launched on January 21, after Baitullah Mehsud razed the Sarararogha Fort, showed the ruins of two suicide-bombing-jacket factories and training schools. Earlier, General Tariq informed the media that 52 children had been recovered from the clutches of Mehsud's men, who had been trained as suicide-bombers. The children were so innocent that asked they stated that when they grew up, they would become fighter pilots or lawyers, doctors and so on; oblivious of the gory end planned for them. They have been handed over to an NGO "Save the Children" for better upkeep and enabling them to return to normal lives. The IDPs told this scribe that Mehsud's men would entice the children to come to the training camps under the pretext of teaching them how to ride motorbikes. Once in their clutches, they would use every trick to follow their diktat. The father of one recovered "suicide-bomber" tearfully told me that a child, who lost his nerve and wanted to return home, was publicly slaughtered by his mentors to strike terror in the hearts of the naive and innocent souls. Children between the ages of 12-20 were regularly indoctrinated, being issued with Shahadat certificates, promising a place in paradise along with forty close relatives. The children were taught Pashto hymns with wordings like "Oh Allah, I am coming to you but in pieces, O comrades bid me farewell..." and so on. The GOC 14 Div showed us videos of the so-called nurseries for producing suicide-bombers. In a specifically gruesome scene, a young boy was urged to slit the throat of a uniformed Law Enforcing Officer. He gleefully obliged chanting "Allah-o-Akbar", raising the severed head of his victim. In another video, a young trainee was made to kill another boy, shooting him at point-blank range. The training videos comprised lessons in rigging incendiary explosive devices (IEDs) from domestic utensils like water coolers, stuffed with explosives, assembling suicide bombing jackets and other deadly weapons. The IDPs, surviving barely at subsistence level in the make-shift camps, with one voice said that they supported the Pakistan Army and the Government of Pakistan and were keen to return to their homes. DG ISPR explained that the Pakistan Army was relocating its positions to dominating heights to enable the IDPs to return. Unmindful of the human tragedy, the foreign media teams accompanying us were more concerned with whether Baitullah Mehsud was facilitating attacks on NATO troops in Afghanistan? The DG ISPR and GOC 14 Div. logically explained that the territory occupied by Baitullah Mehsud was not contiguous to Afghanistan and the Waziris of the North were hostile to him. The deserted village of Spinkai Raghzai and the rubble where once its marketplace had stood and has since been demolished under the FCR prescribing collective punishment were ample proof of the human misery and suffering of the people of Waziristan, calling for civilisation to take cognisance of their wretchedness and providing a lasting solution to their heartrending predicament.