الحمد اللہthe Operation is moving on fast pace. Many regions have been cleared and refugees have started to return to their homes. انشاءاللہ, soon, the country wil be rid of this menace and cancer we call TTP.
ISLAMABAD, May 19: The army has made progress in its campaign to secure Sultanwas and is confident that the Buner area will be cleared of militants on Wednesday.
“Security forces have succeeded in clearing almost half of Sultanwas and the rest is most likely to be cleared by Wednesday,” military spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas told Dawn on Tuesday.
When the operation was launched in Buner the army said there were 400 to 450 militants in the area and said the operation would be completed in one week. But the resistance put up by the militants surprised the forces and they could not secure Sultanwas and Pir Baba areas even after three weeks of all-out action.
Maj-Gen Abbas said the operation Rah-i-Raast was making progress and 16 militants had been killed on Monday and Tuesday. An army officer and three soldiers lost their lives and 16 soldiers, including an officer, suffered injuries.
He said that security forces were consolidating their positions in Peochar valley where heliborne troops had given a new dimension to the operation. Troops were carrying out search and destroy operations in the area. Two militants were killed and one soldier was injured during clashes.
He replied in the negative when asked if Maulana Fazlullah had been killed. But, he said, the Taliban chieftain in Swat was on the hit-list and security forces were trying to break into the security network around him.
The army spokesman said that troops had surrounded Matta and were conducting cordon and search operations.
Major Abid and a soldier were killed and seven personnel injured during clashes with militants near Nazarabad, north of Matta.
Maj-Gen Abbas said that security forces had cleared over 40 hideouts of militants in Kanju and areas near Takhtaband bridge.
Fourteen militants and two soldiers were killed and eight others injured in clashes in Takhtaband.