By Xinhua,
Islamabad : A Taliban commander has been killed in the military offensive launched by Pakistan’s security forces Sunday in a northwestern district, a media report said Monday.
“Maulana Shahid is confirmed to be killed in the military operation,” Dawn TV channel quoted Taliban sources as saying.
Pakistan’s military Sunday launched an operation against the Taliban in Lower Dir district of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) hours after the militants ambushed an army convoy and killed a soldier.
The military operation had killed 26 militants, according to a military statement.
Taliban commander Maulana Shahid is among the dead. He is said to be in charge of Lower Dir district.
Lower Dir is one of the districts of NWFP’s Malakand division, where sharia, or Islamic law, was introduced after February’s peace deal.
“The government has no option but to take action against Taliban,” said Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik Sunday.
A spokesman for Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi(TNSM), whose chief Sufi Mohammed brokered the Taliban peace deal, said the operation by the security forces in Lower Dir is a violation of the peace deal, adding that “the government is responsible for the damage”.