SWAT, Oct 31: Security forces used helicopter gunships to attack militants’ positions as a tenuous ceasefire in effect in troubled Swat areas since Monday collapsed on Wednesday.
There were no independent reports about casualties but a spokesman for the militants told Dawn that their two fighters had been killed and 11 others injured.
(AFP quoted officials as saying that 20 militants were killed when security forces targeted their positions. Up to 18 militants were killed when they came under fire from the gunships, NWFP Home Secretary Badshah Gul Wazir told the news agency.
In a separate attack, two other militants were killed and six wounded when the security forces used helicopters and artillery units to shell their hideouts, Mr Wazir said.)
The ceasefire collapsed when militants torched a police post in Gwalerai and escaped with a van. They also attacked a dispensary of women health workers and took away two vehicles.
A police station in Kabbal came under rocket attack on Tuesday night. Five rockets were fired on the camp of a paramilitary force and a bomb went off outside the camp of the Frontier Reserve Police in Saidu Sharif, damaging its outer wall.
A senior government official in Peshawar said the security forces had to respond with force after overnight incidents.
“The militants had set up checkposts in Sambat, Baryam and Baidara, checking vehicles and capturing government officials going home. They blindfolded them and whisked them away,” Home Secretary Badshah Gul Wazir told Dawn.
“This is not on. There can be no talks with these people. These elements are not amenable to talks. The government needs to first subdue them and then we can sit across the table and discuss what their problems are,” he said. “The government has to establish its writ.”
The security forces responded with heavy artillery fire and gunship helicopters pounded militants’ positions on hill in Khwazakhela and Matta.
Mr Wazir said checkposts of the militants at three points had also been targeted, forcing them to flee the area. However, local people said the checkposts were intact and the militants continued to patrol the area.
The resumption of hostilities prompted more people to flee their homes and move to safe places.
The situation is precarious in Matta where a police station is virtually under siege. A policeman holed up in the station told Dawn by phone that they could not even leave the place to get food and they were waiting for the government and security forces to come to their rescue.
The militants are also occupying a hospital in Matta and have taken up positions near a roundabout in the sub-district of Swat.
Local people said the militants and the security forces were in an eyeball-to-eyeball position across the Saidu Sharif airport, closed by the Civil Aviation Authority two years ago for not being profitable.
There were no independent reports about casualties but a spokesman for the militants told Dawn that their two fighters had been killed and 11 others injured.
(AFP quoted officials as saying that 20 militants were killed when security forces targeted their positions. Up to 18 militants were killed when they came under fire from the gunships, NWFP Home Secretary Badshah Gul Wazir told the news agency.
In a separate attack, two other militants were killed and six wounded when the security forces used helicopters and artillery units to shell their hideouts, Mr Wazir said.)
The ceasefire collapsed when militants torched a police post in Gwalerai and escaped with a van. They also attacked a dispensary of women health workers and took away two vehicles.
A police station in Kabbal came under rocket attack on Tuesday night. Five rockets were fired on the camp of a paramilitary force and a bomb went off outside the camp of the Frontier Reserve Police in Saidu Sharif, damaging its outer wall.
A senior government official in Peshawar said the security forces had to respond with force after overnight incidents.
“The militants had set up checkposts in Sambat, Baryam and Baidara, checking vehicles and capturing government officials going home. They blindfolded them and whisked them away,” Home Secretary Badshah Gul Wazir told Dawn.
“This is not on. There can be no talks with these people. These elements are not amenable to talks. The government needs to first subdue them and then we can sit across the table and discuss what their problems are,” he said. “The government has to establish its writ.”
The security forces responded with heavy artillery fire and gunship helicopters pounded militants’ positions on hill in Khwazakhela and Matta.
Mr Wazir said checkposts of the militants at three points had also been targeted, forcing them to flee the area. However, local people said the checkposts were intact and the militants continued to patrol the area.
The resumption of hostilities prompted more people to flee their homes and move to safe places.
The situation is precarious in Matta where a police station is virtually under siege. A policeman holed up in the station told Dawn by phone that they could not even leave the place to get food and they were waiting for the government and security forces to come to their rescue.
The militants are also occupying a hospital in Matta and have taken up positions near a roundabout in the sub-district of Swat.
Local people said the militants and the security forces were in an eyeball-to-eyeball position across the Saidu Sharif airport, closed by the Civil Aviation Authority two years ago for not being profitable.
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