By KUNA
Islamabad : About 220 militants have been killed and more than 50 arrested in the ongoing offensive in Pakistan’s northern Sawat valley since the military took command and control from the law-enforcement agencies after President Pervez Musharraf proclaimed the state of emergency in the operation, said an official here Sunday.
Nearly 220 militants have been killed and over 50 arrested, including foreigners and dozens who were wounded in the last 15 to 20 days, military spokesman Waheed Arshad told KUNA on Sunday.
He said the arrested foreigners are of Afghan and Uzbek origins.
The spokesman also said no major activity has been taking place in the region over the past two days and that the operation has been successful.
He said normal life has been restored, the population is coming back to their houses, and militias have been dismantled.
The military took command of the operation in Sawat after President Musharraf imposed emergency rule in the country due to the worsening security situation in the border areas, especially Sawat, and judiciary interference in executive affairs.
The operation, launched against supporters of Maulana Fazlullah, has killed two local commanders including Fazlullah’s brother and took control of dozens of villages and police stations that Islamists had captured.
Maulana Fazlullah has been preaching Taliban-style strict Islamic law in the scenic and once-peaceful valley and detailing attacks on Pakistani security forces in his speeches on illegal FM radio.
Pakistan has around 90,000 troops in the tribal belt combating Taliban and Qaeda fighters who fled Afghanistan in 2001, as well as their Pakistani supporters.