Security forces killed 18 militants including two key commanders of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Swat chapter on the seventh day of the deadly clashes in Bajaur Agency.
Earlier this week, more than 200 militants had crossed the border from Afghanistan and stormed the Batwar area of the troubled agency and claimed to have inflicted heavy casualties on the security forces.
On Thursday, security forces along with peace militia of Salarzai backed by aerial assistance advanced into the area and recaptured it from the militants.
“Eighteen militants were killed and several of their bunkers destroyed, when artillery and gunships pounded their positions,” an official of the security force said, adding that two militant commanders of TTP from Swat chapter identified as Khatir and Taurabi were also gunned down.
A doctor at the Agency Headquarters Hospital, Khar said the two wounded volunteers of the Salarzai peace militia were now in stable condition.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Bajaur Agency has started collecting donations for the victims affected by the skirmishes. The political administration officer was yet to take steps for providing relief to the militancy-hit families.
A large number of people had left their houses in Batwar and surrounding areas earlier this week when the fighting between the militants and security forces raged.
A local journalist Irfanullah said that a large number of people from the affected area have left their homes and taken shelter with their relatives or were housed at government institutions.
So far no NGO or government authority has extended assistance to these militancy hit families, he said.
“Some of them have even reached Khar, the main town of the agency, on foot, but here too, nothing could be done for them,” he said.
During a news conference, a local leader of PTI Jalaud Din and Anwer Zeb announced Rs100,000 and 50,000 respectively for the victims.
They announced that they would provide shelter to the 50 affected families and appealed to the well off circles to extend help in this moment of distress.
On Wednesday, Member of National Assembly Akhunzada Chattan said that the number of fleeing people from the volatile Batwar has reached 7,000. According to unofficial estimate, more than 10,000 people had been uprooted as a result of the ongoing fight.
Addressing a news conference at Peshawar Press Club, JUI-F Bajaur Agency chapter secretary general and former senator Abdur Rashid demanded of the government to stop the offensive and hold talks with the militants immediately for a long term solution.
He called upon the government to take urgent steps for shifting of the displaced people to camps across K-P.
He said the government was conducting military operations in tribal areas to restore law and order. However the ground realities were totally different.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 31st, 2012.
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