MIRAMSHAH, Oct 1: After overcoming stiff resistance from militants, security forces on Saturday moved into the embattled Khattaki village in the remote tribal region of North Waziristan and began house-to-house search, witnesses and officials said.
They said that the army, backed by helicopter gunships, moved into the Khattaki village at around 3.30am and began conducting the house to house search.
“No exchange of fire has taken place since then but the search operation continues,” an official said.
Khattaki lies about 7km west of Miramshah, the regional headquarters of North Waziristan, and has seen fierce clashes between security forces and militants.
Officials said that at least eight members of security forces, including an army major, had lost their lives in two days of fighting. They put the death toll of militants at 35.
However, the casualty figures on both sides could not be independently verified.
A source said that a nursing assistant was shot in the back and wounded when an army helicopter tried to land in Ghulam Khan, near the scene of the two days’ fighting.
The sources said that most militants had been able to sneak out and escape the security forces’ cordon, although officials said that some of them were still hiding in the area.
They said that security forces had also surrounded the compound of wanted cleric Maulana Sadiq Noor and warned those holed up inside to surrender.
“There were women and children holed up in that compound also. Therefore, security forces were avoiding the use of force,” the official said.
Corps Commander Peshawar Lt-Gen Safdar Hussain, who was in Rawalpindi, flew into Miramshah on Saturday to supervise the operation, the official said.
He said that security forces had also recovered arms and ammunition from the area.
AFP adds: Women and children have been asked to leave North Waziristan’s Khatey Killay village near the Afghan border, the military said on Saturday, as hundreds of soldiers prepared to assault the tribal town.
Authorities using loudspeakers urged civilians to flee as troops tightened their cordon around the village, local officials said.
“We have warned militants to surrender and hand over their weapons, otherwise we will use full force against them,” a military spokesman told AFP.
