PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — At least 10 civilians were killed when Pakistani troops shelling suspected militant positions hit houses in the restive northwestern valley of Swat, police said.
Officials meanwhile said Thursday they had captured the brother of a fundamentalist cleric who is leading an uprising in the scenic tourist spot to press for the imposition of harsh Islamic Sharia law.
The mortar shells landed on four dwellings in the town of Allahabad late Wednesday, killing 10 people and wounding 18 others, a local police official said.
Police and residents said a two-year-old boy and his mother were among the dead, who otherwise were mostly males aged 16 to 22.
The shredded bodies of two victims were covered in white sheets, witnesses said, adding that residents were protesting against the deaths.
The army has launched a major offensive in Swat in the past two weeks to drive out followers of Maulana Fazlullah, the radical cleric in charge of the militants.
The civilian casualties overnight came as Pakistani forces continued to pound the positions of the hardline cleric, who is also nicknamed "Mullah Radio" because he used a private FM station to call for holy war.
Security forces captured Fazlullah's brother during the ongoing operation, military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.
"We caught Fazlullah's brother, he was fleeing," Arshad said.
Another 40 or so militants were arrested in different areas in the valley, provincial government spokesman Amjad Iqbal told reporters.
They included a nephew of Maulana Sirajuddin, the rebels' main spokesman, and a 20-year-old student carrying an explosives-packed "suicide jacket," both of whom were travelling in the same car when they were detained, he said.
Fazlullah himself has gone underground and his loyalists have fled several towns, including his main centre, Imam Dheri.
Around 250 militants have been killed in the valley since the troops launched their operation to purge the area of militants, officials said.
President Pervez Musharraf, who cited the growing militancy as one of the reasons for declaring emergency rule on November 3, ordered the army to re-establish government control in the area.
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