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90 militants killed in S Waziristan clashes |
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TANK: About 90 militants were killed in fierce clashes with the security forces in the South Waziristan Agency (SWA), the military said on Friday.
Also, sources said that all arrangements had been finalised for a massive offensive against the militants hiding in the Mehsud-populated areas of South Waziristan and in this regard thousands of fresh Pakistan Army contingents were taken to Razmak in North Waziristan who, at any time, could enter the nearby Makin area.
According to military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas, from 50 to 60 militants were killed near Ladha Fort while 20 to 30 militants were killed in fighting near Chagmalai. Maj Gen Abbas said dozens of militants moved to Ladha Fort at 10 am on Friday and attacked the military base. Only small arms and rockets were used in the attack, he added.
“There were a large number of miscreants who started gathering around the north of the fort. The security forces used artillery, mortars and small arms fire, killing 50-60 miscreants while the rest of them fled,” said Gen Abbas.
He said gunship choppers were called to pound the militants’ positions following an attack on a military convoy travelling on the Jandola-Wana Road near Chagmalai. He said though they were not fully aware of the militants’ losses, the intercepted messages suggested that 20-30 fighters of Baitullah Mehsud had been killed.
He said fighter aircraft were sent to the areas being used as hideouts by the militants, adding that the planes did not bomb the areas. “These fighters flew over the areas only for reconnaissance and took pictures during the mission,” explained Maj Gen Abbas, who is also the Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
The spokesman said four soldiers were injured in the militant attack on the convoy and two vehicles were also damaged. He said the militants attacked the Ladha FC Fort on Thursday night with rockets and small arms, but didn’t cause any human or material loss to the soldiers.
The security forces, based in the fort, retaliated and fired artillery shells on the places from where they were fired upon. Meanwhile, Maulvi Omar, who is a spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud, phoned media from an undisclosed location and denied losses in Friday’s action. He claimed their men were still in control of the Seplatoi Fort.
Sources told ‘media’ that fighter aircraft and Army’s gunship choppers pounded a number of possible militant hideouts in which local residents claimed dozens of people, including militants and non-combatants, were reportedly killed and injured.
Some of the towns inhabited by the Mehsud tribesmen targeted by the warplanes and gunship helicopters were Seplatoi, Chagmalai, Srarogha, Ladha and Makin areas. Also, a senior official of the political administration in Jandola town, the gateway to South Waziristan from FR Tank, told ‘media’ that security forces on Friday morning retook the control of paramilitary Seplatoi Fort, which was captured by the tribal militants earlier Thursday without facing any resistance from the troopers based there.
He said around 52 Pakistan Army commandos landed at the British-era Seplatoi Fort from military choppers who, after exchange of heavy fire, recaptured the paramilitary base. According to officials, eight militants lost their lives while fighting the commandos in and around the fort.
They, however, did not provide the details of the losses suffered by the soldiers. Also, tribal sources reported heavy fighting between the security forces and the militants around the Chagmalai town, which turned the entire region into a battlefield.
“Both sides have been using heavy weapons against each other since Friday morning, but it is hard to get accurate information about their losses,” said a local resident Ghulam Rasool from Chagmalai.
Residents of the town suffered the most as they were packed between the security forces and the tribal militants. The forces had taken positions on hilltops mainly inhabited by the Bhittani tribe while the militants were reported to have taken positions on the opposite mountains in the Mehsud area.
Maulana Esamuddin, who brokered the February 7, 2005 Srarogha peace accord between the government and Baitullah Mehsud, while talking to ‘media’ on telephone feared that hundreds of residents, stranded in the area, could suffer further if they were not given a safe passage by the security forces.
The Maulana claimed the local villagers from Chagmalai told him that a number of houses had been targeted by the fighter aircraft and artillery shelling, which inflicted heavy losses on the civilians.
People complained of severe shortage of food items in the town as the government had imposed a complete ban on taking food stuff to South Waziristan two weeks ago as a punitive action for allowing the militants to operate in their respective localities.
Meanwhile, the sources told this scribe that all arrangements had been finalised for a massive offensive against the militants hiding in the Mehsud-populated areas of South Waziristan and in this regard, thousands of fresh Pakistan Army contingents were taken to Razmak in North Waziristan who, at anytime, could enter the nearby Makin area.
“The troops would be deployed at Makin, Asman Manza, Karwan Manza, Srarogha, Kotkai, Serwakai and Tiarza,” said the sources. In a related development, a six-member tribal Jirga, headed by Malik Janan Haibat Khel, brought two bodies of the slain FC soldiers from Sararogha to Jandola. The bodies were later handed over to a senior FC official at the fort.
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