ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani yesterday visited the northern tribal region of Bajaur to meet military commanders and troops engaged in the ongoing operations.
He also met with local tribesmen of the area. Kayani made his first visit to tribal regions and held meetings with traditional tribal elders known as “Lingidars.” Tribal elders extended complete support to Pakistan Army and committed to engage local “Lashkars” to fight militants and foreign-sponsored operatives in the tribal region.
According to reports, Kayani was briefed in detail by Maj. Gen. Tariq, inspector general of Frontier Corps on the progress of the ongoing operations. Kayani expressed his satisfaction that local tribesmen have risen against terrorists and are fully supporting the military.
He reiterated that success in this operation was directly linked with popular support. Kayani spent considerable period of time with the troops there and had informal interaction with local commanders. He appreciated the high morale of officers and men alike. On his arrival in the area, Kayani was received by Corps Commander Peshawar, Lt. Gen. Muhammad Masood Aslam.
Meanwhile, Pakistani forces seeking to conquer the Taleban and Al-Qaeda stronghold near the border with Afghanistan killed 15 insurgents in ongoing clashes, officials said yesterday.
There was no word of casualties on the government side. It was not possible to verify the toll in the Bajaur region, where journalists cannot move freely because of poor security.
US officials have praised the operation in Bajaur, which Pakistan’s army says has been serving as a sanctuary for insurgents fighting on both sides of the border. However, it is only one of several militant hotspots in Pakistan’s border region and the army says its troops have run into stiff and well-organized resistance.
Fazl Rabbi, a local police official, said troops repelled an overnight attack by 50 militants on a camp about 10 kilometers north of Khar, Bajaur’s main town. Rabbi said militants also attacked paramilitary troops before dawn in the Tang Khata area of Bajaur.
Rabbi and another government official counted a total of 15 militants killed and more than a dozen wounded in overnight clashes. Two intelligence officials said three troops had died in fighting in the past two days. They asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to talk on the record to the media.
Also yesterday, artillery fire directed at suspected militant hide-outs in the Badali area struck two houses and killed two civilians, said Niazur Rehman, a local resident. Bajaur is the most northerly of Pakistan’s wild tribal regions, several of which have fallen largely under the control of militants opposed to the Afghan and Pakistani governments.
The army claims to have killed more than 1,000 militants in the two-month-old offensive in Bajaur and lost more than 60 troops. It has declined to estimate casualties among civilians.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said in remarks aired Sunday that he had no idea where Bin Laden was. He also reiterated his appeal to US authorities to halt unilateral raids on militant targets in Pakistani territory, insisting that Pakistani forces could be trusted to do the job.
Fighting between troops and militants in a tribal region has forced some 20,000 Pakistanis to seek refuge across the border in eastern Afghanistan, the UN’s refugee agency said yesterday. Nearly 4,000 families have fled Bajaur into Afghanistan’s Kunar province, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement.
According to Pakistani officials, the fighting in Bajaur has displaced as many as 500,000 people. Most have found shelter with relatives across northwestern Pakistan, though about 100,000 have taken refuge in camps set up by Pakistani authorities.
“In the last two weeks alone, over 600 Pakistani families have fled into Afghanistan,” the UNHCR said. “While the vast majority of them are living with their relatives and friends, there are already some 200 families who live in the open air.”
— With input from agencies
