WANA, Oct 23: Security forces and elders of the Mahsud tribe began a joint search operation in the Spinkay Raghzay area of the South Waziristan tribal region on Saturday where authorities believed local and foreign militants were holed up, officials said.
They said that hundreds of regular and paramilitary troops and a 30-member group of the Mahsud tribe had started combing the area, but no suspect was found.
Commander of 11th Corps Lt-Gen Safdar Hussain also visited the troubled area on Friday and inspected various positions which had been secured by the security forces.
According to an official source the security forces had recovered weapons and ammunition from the fortress-like mud houses in the Spinkay Raghzay, which had been encircled by the troops for the last five days.
The weapons and ammunition recovered during search operation were: 15 anti-tank mines, three Russian-made hand grenades, six rocket, one Klashnikov and 1,700 rounds.
Residents said that the troops searched 10 houses, a leather factory and residential quarters, but no arrest was made.
The authorities suspected that militants used the factory and its residential quarters as a shelter and carried out attacks on the security forces.
However, residents and factory workers denied the official claim. A resident said that the number of civilian casualties might be higher as till now due to clashes the tribesmen had no access to the troubled areas where the civilians got stuck up.
Independent sources said that intense artillery shelling and engagement of the helicopter gunships had caused massive damage to the private property and a number of shops, three residential quarters and a small ghee factory reduced to rubble. A mosque and a seminary have partially damaged due to the bombing.
The security forces and the tribal elders will resume search operation on Sunday morning.
According to unconfirmed reports one soldier was killed and six others wounded during an overnight exchange of fire between the army and the militants in Karwan Manza.
Unidentified men killed two members of the tribal peace committee Yousaf Khan and Khuna Khan in the Sarwekai sub-division on Friday evening. Residents said that two veiled men opened fire on the peace committee members near Berwanda bazaar and escaped.
Reuters adds: Tribesmen launched a house-to-house hunt for al Qaeda-linked militants in a tribal region near the Afghan border on Saturday.
The troops cordoned off the Spinkai Raghzai area in The South Waziristan region after days of intense fighting in which the military used helicopter gunships to pound suspected militant hideouts.
Spinkai Raghzai is known as a stronghold of Abdullah Mehsud, whose men kidnapped two Chinese engineers this month.
Mehmood Shah, head of security for the tribal region, told Reuters that authorities suspected Abdullah's men were holed up in a madrassah, or Islamic school, in the area but he was not sure whether Abdullah was among them.
"Whether he is there or not, the whole operation has been launched to hole him up in one corner and deny him the territory," he said.
The authorities have vowed to arrest Abdullah after the Oct. 9 kidnapping of Chinese engineers that tested ties with China, one of Pakistan's closest allies.