Control in Mohmand Agency established: Paramilitary official killed
By Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, June 23: A paramilitary official was killed and another wounded on Monday as clashes between Pakistani forces and pro-Afghan tribesmen in Mohmand Agency along the Pakistan- Afghanistan border continued for the third consecutive day.
Senior government officials in Peshawar said that the clashes occurred in the Salala Pass in Khugakhel area, barely a kilometre inside the Pakistani territory.
An ISPR press release stated that the Pakistani troops had established their presence in the entire area, except a small pocket in the Salala Pass near the border area, where some people were occupying hilltops and firing on them.
“Our forces are exercising maximum restraint,” the press release said.
According to reports, Naik Suleman Khattak of the Swat Scouts had been killed and Akbar Said, a sepoy of the Mohmand Rifles, was wounded in the Monday clashes.
Another report indicated that the firing had killed a woman in a nearby village.
The number of casualties on the other side was not known though unconfirmed reports indicated two had died during the clashes.
Government officials say the Pakistani troops have managed to evict the Khugakhel tribesmen from the right side of the Salala Pass but they were still occupying ridges on the left side.
Officials put the total number of Khugakhel tribesmen taking positions on Salala Pass at around 200.
Pakistan has rushed around 1,000 paramilitary troops, backed by armoured personnel carriers, heavy artillery pieces and helicopters, to bring the area under Islamabad’s control.
The tribesmen are using assorted weapons, including Kalashnikovs, 12.7mm machine guns and rockets, eye witnesses said.
An official of Mohmand Rifles in Ghallani, headquarters of Mohmand tribal regions, 80 km to the northwest of Peshawar, said the Pakistani troops have seized control of setup checkpoints on eight positions.
Pakistan says it is using its troops to gain access to the hitherto administratively inaccessible tribal territory to establish its writ. “So far, the tribesmen have been very cooperative”, an NWFP government official said.
Corps Commander Peshawar, Lt. Gen. Ali Jan Orakzai, IGFC, Maj Gen Hamid Khan and Political Agent Mohmand, Sahibzada Muhammad Anis are supervising the operation.
Political authorities in Mohmand are denying reports that the tribesmen are being supported from the across the border besides denying the impression that the operation was part of a joint operation with US forces in Afghanistan to flush out Al Qaeda and Taliban elements.
AFP adds: Thousands of Pakistani, US and Afghan soldiers continued coordinated operations to flush out Taliban and al-Qaeda elements hiding along the border between the two countries, AFP quoted American officials as saying.
The operation came just days after the first meeting of a tripartite commission in Islamabad that included top military officials from the three countries.
“The operation is ongoing,” Colonel Rodney Davis told reporters at the Bagram Air Base, adding that the operation’s objectives were “to kill, capture and deny sanctuary to anti-coalition forces, block the ability of anti-coalition elements to be able to go from Afghanistan to Pakistan, and to provide civil affair humanitarian assistance.”
Acknowledging that over the recent months, there had been “a lot of activity” along the Afghan-Pakistan border area, he said that “anti-coalition activity” was concentrated in eastern and the southern Afghanistan.
Davis, who described Nangrahar as formerly “an al- Qaeda stronghold,” would not give a precise number for the coalition troops involved but said it matched the number of troops in ‘Operation Dragon Fury’ launched earlier this month, which involved some 500 soldiers.
Davis said the operation was planned and conducted in close cooperation with President Karzai and local authorities.
While US and Pakistani troops were operating in the same border region, Islamabad insisted it was not a joint operation.
“There is no joint operation by US and Pakistani troops along the border,” foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan said in Islamabad.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman Khan, however, denied Monday that the operation was planned or even discussed during the tripartite talks.
