Heavy Pakistani anti-terror casualties

Dawn ^ | March 18, 2004 | Dawn journalist

[CanadianLibertarian]

PESHAWAR, March 17: The government has ordered regular troops and paramilitary forces to move immediately to the South Waziristan tribal region as suspected militants fired rockets into a scouts fort, officials said.

They said orders had been given to Pakistan Army and the paramilitary Frontier Corps to immediately dispatch more troops into South Waziristan to reinforce the single army brigade stationed at Zari Noor and the over 4,000 militia force.

The officials would not give the exact number of troops to be moved to the troubled region for security and operational reasons, but said the reinforcement would help take decisive action against foreign militants and locals harbouring them.

Orders had also been issued to move helicopters and heavy pieces of artillery and other armoury to the region in a bid to launch a series of operations.

"Orders have been given for the troops to move. If it takes them fifteen hours to move they will not take fifteen hours and one minute. We are going to resume operations to flush out these militants and take the whole campaign to its logical end," the official said.

"Our operations will resume and it will be tackled with whatever it takes," said this official. "Plans have been worked out and we are going to move shortly".

Knowledgeable sources said future operations would be carried out by a combination of regular and paramilitary troops. The paramilitary would still spearhead the operations because of their knowledge of the area and local customs but the army, which had hitherto been on standby, would now provide cover.

Hundreds of people, including women and children, were seen leaving the scene of the Tuesday's bloodiest clashes in Kaloosha, 15km west of the regional headquarters Wana, and adjoining areas.

"People are fleeing the area using whatever they can get, tractors and trucks, fearing a retaliatory action from the government," a resident reached on phone in Wana said. "The situation is very tense," said.

Officials in the Fata secretariat on Wednesday said the fighting had left 15 Frontier Corps militiamen dead and 22 injured. This raises the overall death figure to 16, including one army soldier who was killed when attacked on the way to the scene of the battle. Five army soldiers were wounded.

The government claimed on Tuesday that 24 suspected militants had been also killed and among them 19 were foreigners. However, only two bodies have been retrieved.

"They don't leave their dead behind if they can help it and it appears that they took along bodies of their comrades while evacuating the area," said a security official.

Charred military vehicles, including 13 trucks, three pick- ups, three armoured personnel carriers and four pieces of light artillery, littered the scene of the battle.

There was still no word about 19 missing paramilitary soldiers and two tehsildars. Security officials said that six of those missing appeared to have died and the rest had been taken hostage by the militants.

"There is a deadlock on that issue. We suspect that six of those missing might have been killed but their bodies have not been found. We have no idea as to what has happened to them," said the official.

He said the authorities in the region had refused to negotiate with militants for a possible swap. "There will be no negotiations with the militants. Authorities in the region have spurned any offer for negotiations," two senior officials confirmed to Dawn.

Reliable sources had informed this paper that militants had approached the authorities in Wana to seek release of their comrades in arms being held in return for the paramilitary soldiers held hostage.

Officials said that a pick-up truck that had broken through the paramilitary cordon amid hails of bullets was later found abandoned after it had hit a wall. "Whoever there was in the vehicle has been wounded," said one official. But a security official told Dawn the pick-up truck was the one that had remained in the use of Nek Muhammad, one of the five key suspects accused of harbouring and sheltering foreign militants.

The officials said that foreign militants fired rockets into Mehsud area on Tuesday night after local tribesmen refused to let them pass through their territory and move into the Shawal Mountains.

They said that militants riding in pick-up trucks had sought to pass through the Mehsud area in Tiarzai tehsil but were turned back by armed tribesmen holding positions.

The rockets did not cause any damage except one, which fell on a house of a local resident, identified as Wazir Jan. Some rockets fell near a school and a fort occupied by the Scouts but did not cause any damage.