MIRAMSHAH: Security officials claimed on Saturday that five top militant leaders, one of them an Uzbek national, were killed in an air assault on suspected positions in North Waziristan Agency.

Sources said the ‘commanders’ were eliminated in an air strike on Wednesday. The Uzbek national was identified as Abu Ahmad and the others as Qanooni, Sabir, Gilam and Jihad Yaar. Sabir was said to be a trainer of suicide bombers.

The official claim, however, could not be verified from independent sources because the media has no access to the volatile area.

The sources said military’s jet fighters and helicopter gunships had pounded several suspected positions in Miramshah, Mirali and Datakhel over the past three days, killing about 80 people.

Some locals claimed that women and children were among the dead.

Meanwhile, the administration relaxed curfew in Miramshah and other parts of North Waziristan for some time on Saturday. Widespread damage was visible in Machis Camp, near Miramshah, where security forces destroyed dozens of houses during a clean-up operation.

Fear-stricken people were trying to retrieve their belongings from the debris of their destroyed houses.

Authorities gave a three-hour notice to local people on Thursday to vacate their houses. Displaced families took shelter in relatives’ homes in Miramshah and villages in surrounding areas.

Gul Daraz Khan, a resident of Machis, burst into tears when he saw his flattened house. His father was killed in the air strike. “My aged father was not a terrorist,” he lamented.

Haji Pir Mohammad, another affected resident, said security forces had detained his relatives who had taken shelter in the basement of a house during the air strike.

North Waziristan, including its headquarters Miramshah, has been without electricity since Wednesday. This has led to shortage of drinking water in the area. The main transmission line has been damaged in the air strike.

Shops opened during the curfew break. However, the prolonged curfew and the closure of main roads has caused shortage of essential commodities. Offices and educational institutions remain closed. The administration had imposed the curfew on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2014