Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Sunday that the Taliban commander in the northwestern Swat valley had been surrounded and would soon be captured.
The statement came as 13 Islamist insurgents and three paramilitary soldiers died in two incidents of violence in the tribal region that borders Afghanistan.
Maulana Fazlullah, supported by hundreds of fighters, rose in rebellion against the government in 2007 to enforce strict Taliban-like laws in Swat, a scenic mountain district 140km from the capital city, Islamabad.
Security forces launched a full-fledged air and ground operation against the militants in Swat and its nearby districts in late April, after they flouted a peace pact under which government agreed to impose Shariah rule in return for end to the insurgency.
The military says more than 2,000 fighters have been killed but the claim lacks independent confirmation.
“The back of anti-state and anti-Islam elements has been broken,” Malik told reporters in Islamabad after holding a meeting with tribal leaders from the country’s restive north-western region bordering Afghanistan, where government forces are pursuing anti-Taliban offensives.
Malik said troops were closing in on Fazlullah, adding that “he can’t run.”
The minister’s remarks came two days after the military announced the capture of Fazullah’s spokesman Muslim Khan.
According to the army, Khan was arrested along with four other militants, including a senior leader, near Swat’s main town of Mingora.
Meanwhile, a missile fired from a suspected unmanned US plane slammed into a car in a Pakistani tribal region close to the Afghan border yesterday, killing four people, intelligence officials and residents said.
The apparent US strike was the latest of more than 50 in the region since last year aimed at killing top al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders. Last month, the head of the Pakistani Taliban was killed in one such strike.
Yesterday’s attack took place about 3km from the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan, killing four people, two officials and witnesses said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they need to remain unnamed to do their job effectively.
The identities of the victims were not known.
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