Pakistan said yesterday troops were locked in fierce street battles with Taliban fighters in the northwest, where a rights group accused both sides of inflicting high civilian casualties.
Military officials said government forces were advancing on several fronts toward Mingora, the Taliban-held main town in the Swat valley.
The blistering offensive against Islamist militants, said to threaten the sovereignty of the nuclear-armed country, has concentrated increasingly on the valley, once a scenic tourist hot spot.
Pakistani officials said on Monday the fight had moved into the Taliban-held town of Matta as well as Kanju, which is a short distance from Mingora.
Footage broadcast on private Pakistan TV channel Geo showed armed soldiers standing outside locked shops in the main bazaar in Matta, a bastion of Maulana Fazlullah, who has led a two-year uprising to enforce Islamic law.
“Our troops are advancing in Matta town, where security forces have achieved a major success,” a military official said on condition of anonymity.
“Troops continue to close in on Mingora, from where Taliban are trying to escape, but our strategy is not to let them flee,” the official said.
He said the chief objective in coming days was “to take over the Taliban’s main headquarters in Peochar,” where commandos opened a new front last week.
The official also reported intense battles in Takhta Bund, described as the main Taliban supply route.
Another security official confirmed fighting in Takhta Bund, saying efforts were underway to cut off this route to “choke” militants in the area.
Pakistan is under tough US pressure to crush militants whom Washington has branded as the greatest terror threat to the West.
The military says up to 15,000 troops are taking on about 4,000 well-armed fighters in Swat, where Islamabad has ordered a battle to “eliminate” Islamist militants who advanced 100km from the Pakistani capital.
Jet fighters and attack helicopters — which residents blame for collateral damage and civilian casualties — hit suspected militant positions overnight, officials said.
US-based Human Rights Watch blamed Taliban militants using “human shields” and Pakistan military strikes for a high loss of civilian life.
It quoted residents as saying that Taliban militants laid mines in Mingora and “prevented many civilians from fleeing, using them as ‘human shields’ to deter attack.”
The group also said Pakistani forces “appeared to have taken insufficient precautionary measures in aerial and artillery attacks that have caused a high loss of civilian life.”
Authorities say more than 1,000 militants and at least 49 troops have been killed in a three-pronged onslaught launched in the districts of Lower Dir on April 26, Buner on April 28 and Swat on May 8.
Pakistani commentators have praised the military for moving into towns in Swat, saying operations would be deadly but were vital for the military to flush out Taliban strongholds.
“This is the first time the army is doing something like this against Taliban militants,” defense and political analyst Talat Masood said.
“Even US troops never engaged in street battles in Afghanistan,” he said.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS