Around 70 militants killed in Swat (Pakistan)

* Militants claim 40 security personnel surrounded, two ‘NATO soldiers’ held

MINGORA: Up to 70 militants have been killed in the Khawzakhela area of Matta tehsil in Swat district after up to 600 pro-Taliban militants attacked security personnel near Dheri Bagh at around 4:00 am on Thursday, NWFP Home Secretary Badshah Gul Wazir told reporters.

Clashes between security forces backed by helicopter gunships and militants near Khawzakhela continued on Thursday, with 11 civilians reported to have been injured in the crossfire. Online reported that the militants had taken control of the Khawzakhela Bazaar, while a BBC report claimed areas west of Mingora were under militant control.

Addressing a joint press conference at the NWFP Information Department, Wazir said security forces had suffered no casualties in the clash.

Militant claims: However, Sirajuddin, a spokesman for rebel cleric Fazlullah, said only one or two militants had died. He claimed that 40 security personnel had surrendered in fighting in Khawzakhela.

Wazir denied that security personnel had surrendered. NWFP IG Sharif Virk said there was some tension at a police station that had been surrounded by militants, but security forces there were confident they could resist and had been provided with rations.

The militants also claimed to have arrested two foreigners, believed to be journalists. Sirjauddin claimed that the arrested men were “NATO soldiers”.

Home Minister Shahzada Gustasap told the press conference that the government was trying to mobilise the public against militancy through jirgas in all districts. “We are trying to resolve the crisis by engaging all the parties,” he said. staff report

A lot of fighting in this area recently. Here’s another report from last week....

ISLAMABAD, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) — The security forces and militants exchanged fires in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan on Friday with casualties feared, a local TV channel DAWN NEWS reported.

The security forces deployed a large number of Frontier Corps in Swat valley of NWFP and several explosions were heard in the area, the DAWN NEWS report said.

Helicopters also shelled areas near a religious seminary of Maulana Fazalullah, who was leading thousands of supporters, the report said.

The army spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad was quoted by DAWN NEWS as saying that the security forces acted under the directives of the provincial administration and it was not a military operation.

“The army is in a standby position and if the provincial government makes a request, then they will also join the operation against miscreants,” Arshad said.

The security men took position on mountains and took over a militants’ training camp in Khawzakhela Tehsil. At the same time, heavy gunfires were also reported in Imamdheri of Swat valley which was the headquarters of Fazlullah.

The government sent about 2,500 soldiers to Swat a few days agoto “curb the activities of the Maulana Fazalullah and his followers,” Arshad said.

Maulana Fazalullah is leading a banned group “Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi”, which means Movement for the enforcement of Prophet Muhammad Islamic laws. The movement was launched by his father-in-law Sufi Muhammad in 1992 and was banned by President Pervez Musharraf in January 2002.

More.....Sounds like operation maul Maulana ....

Swat residents continue to move to safer places

* Displaced families living in tents await NWFP govt’s assistance

Staff Report

PESHAWAR: Hundreds of Swat residents have fled to Mardan, Nowshera and Peshawar districts after fighting resumed between security forces and insurgents loyal to rebel cleric Maulana Fazlullah in Swat.

“We left our property to save our lives from the shelling of gunship helicopters and crossfire between security forces and militants,” Pervaz Khan, who is from Matta tehsil in Swat, told Daily Times.

Khan has been living with his family in a tented home near Peshawar’s Ring Road area for the past three days. He said that hundreds of residents from 59 villages, which house around 5,000 fighters of the influential cleric, had left their houses.

Ali Khan, head of a nine-member family in the Charbagh area of Swat, has also set up a tent near Ring Road on the city suburbs. He said businessmen from Punjab and other parts of the country had also stopped their businesses in Swat and moved to Peshawar or other parts of the province.

Swat resident Mohammad Jan, currently living in Mardan district, told Daily Times that he had left his property in Swat and was now living in a tent with his 11-member family.

He said around 50 families were living in tents and rented houses in Mardan and that the government had yet to provide them any help.

He said that before launching an operation against militants in Swat, the NWFP government had announced the setting up of a permanent camp in Barikot Town for the displaced people, but added that the “announcement proved to be lip-service”.

According to sources, over 70 security personnel and more than 40 militants were killed, and over 150 people injured in the past 10 months in Swat district.

Swat, with a population of over 1.2 million, last witnessed an operation by paramilitary forces in 1994-95 when the Frontier Cops led by Maj Gen Fazal Ghafoor took over madrassas of the defunct Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Maulana Sufi Mohammad, who is the father-in-law of Maulana Fazlullah. Sufi Mohammad has been in the Dera Ismail Khan Central Prison for the last six years on charges of taking about 10,000 jihadis to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban against the US-led coalition forces and Northern Alliance.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\11\02\story_2-11-2007_pg7_10

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