ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said on Sunday that over 250 terrorists had been killed in the ongoing operation in the tribal areas.

In a statement, the ISPR chief said that security forces could not freely use fire power in the tribal areas as the terror suspects or miscreants had mingled with the local population.

"Thus, it becomes difficult to ascertain as to who is terrorist and who is innocent civilian," he said. The security forces, he said, could not conduct any operation freely in these areas and tried their utmost to avoid collateral damage.

He did not rule out the possibility that some wanted people might have succeeded in escaping from the target area during the search operation.

The ISPR director-general said the fleeing terror suspects would be arrested soon even if they had found some other hiding place in the country.