By DPA
Islamabad : Pakistan security forces Thursday captured 52 pro-Taliban militants in the restive Swat Valley in the country’s northwest as militant commanders gave the government an ultimatum to pull out from the area or risk an “all-out war.”
“Security forces have apprehended 52 suspected militants during search operations in the Shakardara area of Swat Valley this morning,” a statement by the Pakistan army said.
The Swat district, previously a popular tourist destination, has been a battlefield since late October when President Pervez Musharraf sent government troops to rein in heavily armed followers of a radical Islamic cleric named Fazlullah.
Fazlullah incited an armed campaign to enforce Taliban-style Islamic law in the valley, taking over numerous villages and even some towns.
Army officials say they have killed more than 300 militants and cleared most of the area, but attacks on security forces continue, including numerous suicide bombings.
The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a newly-formed umbrella organization comprising several groups of pro-Taliban fighters in Pakistan’s tribal areas, said Thursday that it had extended an earlier Dec 15 deadline for the withdrawal of government troops from Swat until Jan 5.
If they do not halt operations, “we will attack the government everywhere and it will be an all-out war,” TTP spokesman Maulvi Omar said.
The TTP is headed by Baitullah Mehsud, a militant commander whose men were believed to have carried out attacks on Pakistani forces as well as cross-border raids against NATO-led international forces in Afghanistan.
Musharraf, in an address to the nation Wednesday night, blamed Mehsud and Fazlullah for the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last week, though he did not offer any evidence.
“I can say I’m sure that these are the people who have martyred Benazir Bhutto,” the Pakistani leader said, adding that both men were previously involved in several suicide bombings against civilian and military targets.