Sustained cross-border raid: Fighting rages in Bajaur for fourth day

Two militiamen, six insurgents killed as security forces fan across Batwar area.

KHAR:

Fighting continued to rage in the Bajaur tribal region for the fourth day in a row in what appears to be the first sustained cross-border raid by Taliban insurgents.

On Monday, two volunteers of the Salarzai peace militia and six militants were killed when security forces, aided by tribal militiamen, continued their hunt for insurgents in the mountainous Batwar area.

A security official claimed that militants have been forced to retreat to their bases in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar. “We’ve reclaimed several areas,” he added.

However, the official admitted that the troops and militiamen were facing stiff resistance in some of the areas where artillery and helicopter gunships were being used to target the militants. “Several trenches of militants have been destroyed in the blitz,” he claimed.

Local sources said that a large number of residents are caught up in the fight – while dozens of families have fled to other parts of Bajaur Agency.

Military officials claim to have killed more than 31 insurgents since Friday when the cross-border raid was launched. He also confirmed the death of three security personnel and two militiamen thus far.

“Though most of the area has been cleared of militants, the operation is ongoing in some villages of Batwar,” one official told The Express Tribune.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, however, disputed the official claim. In a message emailed to journalists, the group’s spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan gave an exaggerated death toll for security forces.

He claimed that they were in possession of eight bodies and some vehicles of security forces. Ehsan further claimed that they were in control of the area and fresh fighters were joining them.

Former senator from the region, Hafiz Abdur Rasheed, has appealed to both sides for a ceasefire so that local villagers could evacuate to safety.

Kurram Agency raid

Meanwhile, two security personnel were wounded in an attack on a check post in the Masozai area of Central Kurram Agency.

After the attack on the military check post, security forces killed eight insurgents in retaliatory action. The claim, however, could not be verified independently.

Around 5:30 pm more than 15 militants attacked the check post with small and heavy weapons, a security official told The Express Tribune. Two troops manning the post were wounded and were rushed to a hospital in a nearby military base.

A Peshawar-based senior security official said that although the counter-militancy operation in Kurram has been completed successfully, sporadic attacks on check posts of security forces continued in Central Kurram Agency.

(With additional reporting by our correspondents in Mohmand and Kurram agencies)

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2012.