TIMERGARA Troops claimed on Wednesday to have killed 10 militants in Maidan area of Lower Dir on Tuesday night.

According to reports reaching here, militants' hideouts in Zaimdara, Shagai, Dabako, Babagam and other place of upper Maidan came under shelling.

A man told this correspondent that the Taliban were fleeing Maidan and only a few hardcore militants were offering resistance.

He said the Taliban who had come from Waziristan were not seen patrolling the area for over a week. “They have either been killed in the operation or have returned to Waziristan,” he added.

Troops have cleared the Peshawar-Chitral road and a swathe from Chakdara to Timergara and set up two checkposts in Talash. They distributed pamphlets warning people against sheltering the Taliban.

“Houses, streets and villages from where security forces are attacked will be considered as Taliban's posts and would be destroyed,” the pamphlet said.

Hundreds of families from Maidan, Swat and Haji Abad were seen crossing the Chakdara bridge. Because of curfew, they were stranded in villages of Adenzai tehsil.

Haji Mohammad Rasol Khan, who heads the Dir jirga, told Dawn that a delegation had urged the authorities to allow curfew relaxation for longer periods to enable the displaced people to return to their homes.

Meanwhile, security forces arrested the chief of Al Badar Mujahideen Pakistan, Bakht Zamin Khan, and his son Hafizullah, but released them five hours later.