RAWALPINDI, Nov 17: The army will launch a major operation “any time from now” to clear militants loyal to a pro-Taliban cleric from a scenic northwestern valley, a general said on Saturday.
Maj-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, Director General of Military Operations for the Pakistan army, said he hoped the mountainous Swat area would be reopened for tourism by the end of December.
He said five days of clashes in which the army reports around 100 militants have been killed are only a prelude to the impending large-scale offensive.
“Our bases have been strengthened in Mingora and Bisham and we are going to launch a major operation,” Gen Pasha told journalists at army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, referring to two main towns in the region. “The operation will start any time from now. The concept is to clear Swat of militants,” he added.
“For the moment we are just picking up anybody visible and pounding any known hideouts with helicopters.”
Insurgent advances in and around Swat have embarrassed the government of Gen Musharraf, who cited growing militancy as one of the key reasons for imposing emergency rule.
Gen Pasha said that up to 500 militants were believed to be holed up in the Swat valley, led by a “hardcore” of 50 mostly foreign militants, especially Uzbeks. He said most of them had come from the tribal zones of Waziristan and Bajaur, which have previously been pinpointed by US officials as a breeding ground for Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The general added that the army would use “surgical strikes” to avoid civilian casualties. “Our main goal is to avoid collateral damage. “We would have finished the job (already) in two days or even two hours if there were no civilians there, we absolutely want to avoid civilian casualties.”—AFP
