14 militants killed in Bajaur Agency

Security forces pound militant hideouts with heavy artillery in the Sparay area of the Mamond tehsil.

PESHAWAR: At least 14 militants were killed and six others injured on Thursday in two separate clashes with security forces in Mamond tehsil of Bajaur Agency.

Sources said that security forces pounded militant hideouts with heavy artillery in the Sparay area of the Mamond tehsil, killing at least 10 militants and leaving six others injured.

Four militants were killed in a separate clash with security forces in Manro Jungle area near the country’s border with Afghanistan. Security sources said that offensives would be launched against militants in other parts of the agency as well.

Security forces had launched a major operation code-named Sherdil (Lion-heart) in the agency to flush out Taliban militants led by Maulvi Faqir Mohammad. The operation also displaced hundreds of tribesmen and scores of such families are stilling living in Jalozai camp in Nowshera district.

Security forces claimed they had cleared Bajaur from militant elements earlier in February this year and on March 3 they took journalists on a tour of cave complexes in the militant stronghold of Damadola. Security forces raised the country’s flag after a period of nine years in February.

“We think the Bajaur operations have now more or less ended as dedicated military operations. We will switch our posture to policing operations,” Major General Tariq Khan, inspector general of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, told reporters at Damadola.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2010.