By NNN-PTI
Islamabad : Nine persons were killed and two others injured as Pakistani security forces continued their operations against pro-Taliban militants in the restive Swat valley of the North West Frontier Province.
Seven members of a family died when their house was hit during overnight shelling by security forces on suspected militant positions at Kabal tehsil in Swat. The bodies of two persons, who are believed to have been shot, were also found by security forces, Dawn News channel reported today.
Two others were injured during the ongoing operations, it said.
Curfew was relaxed across Swat district from 7 am to 6 pm for the second consecutive day.
The security forces are currently focussing on militants in the Matta and Kabal regions of Swat. They have targeted suspected militant positions with artillery over the past two days.
In the past two days, nearly 60 militant followers of radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah had been arrested by the security forces.
Fazlullah, blamed by President Pervez Musharraf for a series of suicide bombings in Pakistan, is currently on the run.
Nearly 300 militants have been killed in Swat since the security forces were sent there in October last year to quell the activities of Fazlullah and his men, who were running a parallel administration in about 60 villages.