Islamabad: Pakistan’s military said on Saturday troops had won back control of the main town in a key northwestern district from the Taliban in what would be a major achievement in a month-long offensive.
The announcement came three days after the military vowed to wipe out the Taliban from Mingora, the administrative and commercial hub of the mountainous Swat valley—a region torn apart by a two-year Taliban uprising.
“Mingora is cleared and secured,” chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said. “Security forces control the city. The Mingora fight is finished,” he said.
Abbas said that Mingora was cleared on Saturday but emphasised the battle was far from over in the mountainous district, where government forces are locked in a fight against Taliban guerrillas. “We’re only talking about Mingora. Much more fight in Swat is left,” the military spokesman said.
Armed Taliban extremists bent on imposing Islamic law had for weeks patrolled the streets of Mingora, but a Taliban spokesman said earlier in the week that the fighters were withdrawing from the city to prevent civilian deaths.
Cushioned in the hills, the city once bustled with activity, filled with local merchants and tourists who came to relax in the scenic mountains. Residents trapped in Mingora by the fighting said there was no electricity, food and water were scarce and that gunfire reverberated through the sand-bagged streets. AFP
‘JuD linked to Qaida’
For the first time, Pakistan government on Saturday admitted that the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, blamed for the 26/11 attacks, has “prima facie” links with al-Qaida, as it justified the detention of JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and another top leader after the terror strikes on Mumbai. Submitting his arguments on Saeed and Col (retd) Nazir Ahmed’s petition against their detention, attorney general Latif Khosa told the Lahore HC that the government had received “evidence” that showed the JuD “prima facie has links with al-Qaida”. AGENCIES
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