ISLAMABAD: The military operation in Swat and adjoining districts will continue until all militants are flushed out of the troubled areas. Therefore, it is not possible to give a timeframe for finishing the operation, according to Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

‘No specific timeframe can be given for such an operation,’ the minister told reporters outside the Parliament House on Tuesday.

‘Harvesting of crops has commenced in Buner and Dir areas of Malakand division,’ he said.The minister claimed that the situation in Swat was under control and militants were on the run. ‘The Swat offensive is continuing successfully,’ he said.

Mr Malik said over 750 militants and 29 security personnel had so far been killed and 70 security personnel had been injured. 

Calling for international help, he said that rehabilitating the people displaced from Swat was among the government’s top priorities. ‘The government has provided 100 vehicles for evacuating people trapped in the operation zone,’ he said.

He said the entire nation needed to help the people of Swat and take on the militants ‘who have got nothing to do with Islam’.

Referring to the issue of compensation for the displaced people of Swat and other areas, he said: ‘The government has decided to pay families of servicemen killed in action their salaries until the expiry of the duration of their service.’

Commenting on reservations expressed by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on the Swat operation, Mr Malik said that although the government had taken all coalition partners in confidence before launching the action against militants, the Maulana could not be contacted because he was out of the country.