PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — Pakistan's military recaptured a strategic peak and a key town in an intensifying offensive against pro-Taliban militants in the rugged northwest Swat valley, officials said Tuesday.
The provincial government said security forces had secured more towns and seized Najia Top, the highest peak in Swat's Kabal district which has been a stronghold of hardline cleric Maulana Fazlullah.
Residents and state television said Fazlullah's pirate radio station, from which he preaches holy war against the government, had been shut down.
Officials suspect the clandestine FM radio -- which earned Fazlullah the nickname Mullah Radio -- also operated from this area. Residents said it had ceased broadcasting Monday.
Alpuri, the main town in Shangla district, was brought back under control and troops were moving to secure the Shangla hills, which overlook a key road to China, local government spokesman Amjad Iqbal told reporters.
He said militant positions had been attacked by Cobra gunship helicopters, and the rebels "are in a state of despair and trying to flee the area."
Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said 45 militants had been killed in the past two days of clashes alone.
Updating an earlier official toll, he said 15 soldiers and 20 civilians had also died since the beginning of last week, with 40 soldiers wounded.
"Troops took control of mountains. The militants had bunkers there, they have been evacuated," he said on private Dawn television.
"The troops are consolidating their positions and are trying to make sure the militants do not return. The operation will continue in other areas where militants are hiding out."
Arshad estimated the insurgents' strength in the area at around 1,000 and said they were moving about in groups of a few hundred.
The military said communications intercepts revealed militant leaders were fleeing and their fighters were disorganised, demoralised and running out of food and ammunition.
The local government has now set up its own FM radio station broadcasting programmes in the scenic valley, one of Pakistan's top tourist draws.
President Pervez Musharraf, who cited the growing militancy as one of the reasons for declaring emergency rule on November 3, ordered the army to purge the area of rebels after they had made sweeping gains since July.
Officials said troops had seized about half a dozen towns in the past few days which had been under effective militant rule, first securing surrounding hilltops and then establishing control of the roads.
Militants were reported earlier to be resisting in the Matta, Charbagh and Khawaza Khela areas, but residents said later they had disappeared, abandoning bunkers stacked with weapons.
Clashes since the beginning of last week have left more than 250 militants dead, according to army figures earlier.
Officials Monday announced the death of three rebel commanders, including Khan Khatab, a top Fazlullah lieutenant who ran militant operations in Matta and Kabal, scenes of some of the fiercest fighting.
In Islamabad, interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema said local people were turning against the militants and some had offered to join the security forces in operations.
The fighting has driven thousands of people from their homes.
Iqbal said Monday that at least 2,400 residents had been accommodated in a number of government-run schools in the area, and the army has also set up a relief camp in the town of Risalpur.
Other residents used a four-hour break Tuesday in a curfew imposed at the weekend to slip away to safer places.
Bazaars, schools and banks have remained closed since last week, and some residents are reporting food shortages.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
