By DPA
Islamabad : Security forces in Pakistan Sunday killed 24 militants and gained control of a strategic road tunnel, while 31 rebels were seized in restive Swat valley in the country’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), the army said.
Heavily armed fighters captured the Friendship tunnel near the town of Darra Adam Khel on the Indus Highway Friday evening when government troops launched an offensive in the area to recover four trucks carrying ammunition that rebels had seized.
The military said it flushed out militants from most parts of the mountainous area Sunday after fierce fighting in which heavy artillery and helicopter gunships were used.
“Reportedly 24 miscreants have been killed and many more fled leaving behind huge quantity of arms and ammunition,” the statement said.
However, the military’s chief spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said some militants were still holed up around a couple of peaks.
“It is a mountainous area and the operation will proceed slowly but our troops are making advance,” Abbas said.
In three days of fighting, pro-Taliban militants had suffered more than 70 casualties while government forces lost seven soldiers. Ten troops were also taken hostage when the rebels attacked the road tunnel and blocked the highway.
The Indus Highway, which connects NWFP with central and southern Pakistan, is also routinely used by the army for transporting supplies and troops from the garrison town of Kohat to the tribal areas, where the military is fighting the Al Qaeda terrorists and pro-Taliban militants.
Mass exodus is being seen in the Darra Adam Khel area with hundreds of families evacuating to Kohat in the wake of heavy artillery shelling and aerial attacks by Cobra helicopters.
The security forces have directed the non-combatant tribesmen to hoist white flags on their rooftops to avert collateral damage. On Friday, a rocket fired by the troops narrowly missed a school van.
Violence spread in many tribal districts, including South Waziristan, where another military operation was underway against a pro-Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, who has been blamed for masterminding the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
The security forces are targeting the hideouts of thousands of tribal warriors loyal to Mehsud with the heavy artillery but the locals say the civilians are suffering from the government’s assault.
Thousands of families have fled to the safer places in the town of Tank in neighbouring NWFP. Many of them said they had to travel through the mountains for 20 hours in the freezing temperatures to reach the town and some couldn’t make it.