BANNU:
As Pakistani troops made a new push into Shawal Valley, the
last major stronghold of Taliban militants in North Waziristan Agency,
the military claimed on Sunday that it had killed at least a dozen
insurgents elsewhere in the agency.
Taliban militants detonated an improvised explosive
device (IED) targeting soldiers who were conducting a search operation
in the Datta Khel area Sunday morning. Four soldiers were slain in the
pre-dawn attack mounted by the militants.
Security forces embarked on retaliatory action
immediately after the attack, the military’s media wing, the ISPR, said
in a statement. Twelve militants were killed in the ensuing fighting, it
added.
Three servicemen lost their lives on the spot and
another succumbed to his injuries later. The casualties were airlifted
to the Combined Military Hospital in nearby Bannu Town where medics
identified the slain soldiers as Saeedur Rahman, Muhammad Salim and
Fazal Amin.
The Pakistan Army began a major offensive in North
Waziristan, codenamed Zarb-e-Azb, in mid-June last year to drive out
Taliban and other extremist militants who launch attacks on government
and civilian targets. So far, 2,800-plus militants have been killed and
their central control and command structure and bomb-making factories
decimated.
Most parts of North Waziristan, the erstwhile stronghold
of the Taliban, have been cleansed of extremists and repatriation of
displaced tribesmen to these areas is under way. Now, the remaining
militants are holed up in Shawal Valley.
Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif visited troops at
forward-most locations on Friday and said the initial phase around the
surrounding peaks of Shawal Valley was successful and it was now time to
begin a final push into the lower areas. “We will not stop unless we
achieve our end objective of a terror-free Pakistan,” he said.
The deadly attack came a day after militants ambushed a
military convoy in the Pir Ghar area of Shawal, killing two soldiers and
wounding three others, intelligence officials told Reuters on condition
of anonymity. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The intelligence officials added that troops moving from both the
North and South Waziristan sides into Shawal Valley were encountering
tough resistance from militants. The heavily forested ravines in the
area are dotted with Taliban hideouts and the area is a key smuggling
route into neighbouring Afghanistan.
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