Pakistani mourners carry the national flag-draped coffin of a police officer, killed in a weekend bomb blast in Swat valley, where Pakistani troops are battling Islamic militants. (AP Photo)
Peshawar, Pakistan (CNSNews.com) – Pakistan’s military claims to have killed at least 94 Taliban militants in stepped-up operations in the North West Frontier Province’s Swat valley, following the collapse of a truce.
 
Amid reports that the militants are trying to get reinforcements into the affected area from neighboring tribal regions, the Taliban has denied the casualty claim, saying on the contrary that it had killed 70 security force members in a week of fighting, while sustaining only nine losses.
 
The military action was launched after Islamic militants last week attacked security checkpoints and killed three intelligence officials. More than 20,000 troops are reported to be involved in the fighting, targeting forces loyal to the Swat-based radical cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, head of the Swat faction of the umbrella Pakistan Taliban Movement or TTP.
 
Army Brig. Zia Anjum Bodla told reporters in Swat that the Taliban had repeatedly violated a peace agreement signed last May with the NWFP government. The military action would continue until the area was cleared of insurgents.
 
“This time we will fight decisively to achieve our ends,” he maintained.
 
Bodla said apart from the enemy casualties, at least 15 security forces and 28 civilians had also been killed.
 
The provincial government negotiated a peace agreement because, it said, a military-driven strategy to restore calm to that area had failed – a view shared by the national government in Islamabad. But the U.S. and Afghan governments and NATO officials in Kabul say peace deals in the tribal and border areas have merely worsened security inside Afghanistan, while doing little to curb violence on the Pakistan side of the border either.
 
Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan contested the military casualty figures, and vowed that the fighting would continue.
 
“[The] NWFP government has deceived us by launching the military operation and we will avenge it for this. It is following Washington’s policies but we will continue to fight against United States both in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said by phone from the Matta area.


A Pakistani security guard stands beside an anti-Taliban poster put up by a Karachi citizens' group on Aug. 4, 2008. The group is warning citizens to be aware of the growing influence of Taliban in Karachi. (AP Photo)
Inhabitants of the affected areas say that because of the influx of security forces into Matta, a TTP stronghold about 110 miles from Peshawar, Taliban fighters have started moving to other areas.
 
“They are in the mountains and they are in the villages among the civilian population,” said Matta resident Khan Nawab, who also voiced concern about the army tactics.
 
“The military is using gunship helicopters to flush them away but sometimes it kills more civilians than the Taliban,” he said. “It creates resentment among the local population and the government should consider this issue seriously.”
 
Under the peace agreement signed on May 21, the Taliban demanded the implementation of Islamic law in the area incorporating Swat, and the withdrawal of security forces and police from the valley.
 
It also expected the release of 19 Taliban fighters, and when this did not materialize, it intensified attacks against security personnel.
 
Girls’ schools were also targeted by the militants, who view education for girls as un-Islamic. The NWFP ministry of education reports that at least 58 girls’ schools had been attacked or torched.
 
“I fail to understand how you can sign peace with a group that is adamant on bringing destruction to the region and its people,” said Zia-ud-Din Yousafzai, a political analyst based in Swat.
 
He said this was the government’s last chance to put an end to the violence.
 
“We are virtually at the brink of a civil war,” Yousafzai said. “It the military fails to curb militancy then I fear people themselves will fight for their survival. They have no other choice.”
 
Taliban sources said Fazlullah has asked TTP leaders in neighboring tribal areas – the Mohmand and Bajaur agencies of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) – to send fighters to help in the fight against security forces in Swat.
 
District officials in Swat, however, said security along roads leading to the valley had been tightened. At least 30 suspected militants heading for Swat had already been captured by the security forces, they said.