20 rebels killed in Pakistan after truce collapse
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — Pakistani helicopter gunships strafed Islamic militant positions in the northwestern Swat Valley as a shaky truce collapsed on Wednesday, killing 20 insurgents, officials said.
Supporters of a firebrand cleric leading a campaign for Taliban-style Islamic law in the former tourist region had called a ceasefire on Monday after four days of clashes that left 60 rebels and several troops dead.
But the militants launched several attacks overnight and fired at an army chopper hovering over the town of Matta on Wednesday, prompting the gunship to attack various rebel positions, officials said.
Up to 18 militants were killed when they came under fire from the gunships and security forces at an illegal checkpoint they had set up in the Matta area, North West Frontier Province Home Secretary Badsha Gul Wazir told AFP.
In a separate attack, two other militants were killed and six wounded when the security forces used helicopters and artillery units to shell their hideouts, Wazir said.
A spokesman for the hardliners earlier said only one of their fighters was killed and one injured.
Police said the militants had torched a checkpost in the valley and detonated a remote-controlled bomb near a police station in Swat's district headquarters of Saidu Sharif late Tuesday.
They also seized a police vehicle and another belonging to the health ministry, police officer Mohibullah Khan said.
The violence in Swat has fuelled fears of a spillover from the troubled tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, and comes amid general instability following a suicide attack on former premier Benazir Bhutto's homecoming on October 18.
Pakistan moved 2,500 troops into Swat last week to counter radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who is also known as "Mullah Radio" for his speeches on his private radio station, in which he calls for a holy war on the authorities.
A day after the deployment, 30 people were killed in a bomb attack on a paramilitary vehicle in the region, which formerly drew tourists from around the world to see its ancient Buddhist heritage.
Provincial chief minister Shams-ul-Mulk Wednesday told a delegation from Swat that travelled to Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, that the militancy would be tackled with an "iron hand."
Around 900 people staged a "peace march" through the valley's Kanju village on Wednesday, demanding government action and offering to negotiate with the militants.
But a supporter of Fazlullah known as Mullah "Nidar," or fearless, said in a speech over the radio station that the militants would respond with full force if the government launched any major operation in Swat.
"We may also use suicide attackers if needed," he warned.
Demanding the enforcement of Sharia law and the withdrawal of troops from the valley, the cleric's spokesman, Maulana Sirajuddin, said: "We will retaliate if we are attacked."
The troubles in Swat started during a wave of violence that swept the country in July after government troops took on militants who occupied the hardline Red Mosque in Islamabad and a peace deal collapsed in the tribal belt.
Two people were killed Wednesday when a shell hit a hotel in Miranshah, the main town in the tribal region of North Waziristan, during the latest in a series of clashes between security forces and militants there, officials said.
But a survey by the US-based WorldPublicOpinion.org group said Wednesday that despite the bloodshed, less than half the Pakistani public backs the use of force in the region.
A massive majority opposes the involvement of foreign forces, such as US and NATO troops based in Afghanistan, while there is also low support for military ruler President Pervez Musharraf, it said.
The poll, which surveyed 907 urban Pakistanis, was released a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up just a few hundred metres (yards) from Musharraf's army office in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
