PAKISTAN: Commander of Pakistani forces in the restive Swat valley says militants are in disarray and on the run

Record ID: 613213

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Commander of Pakistani forces in the restive Swat valley says militants are in disarray and on the run
  • Date: 9th December 2007
  • Summary: (BN12) MINGORA (SWAT), PAKISTAN (DECEMBER 08, 2007) (REUTERS) AERIAL OF MINGORA, MAIN TOWN IN SWAT MILITARY AMBULANCE ENTERING CANTONMENT AREA SOLDIER INSIDE PICKET SURROUNDED BY BARBED WIRE
  • Embargoed: 24th December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: War / Fighting,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA5L0YOVW3HCZI4NB5SW1UV5J05
  • Story Text: No tourists are hitting balls down the fairways of the Kabal golf course in Pakistan's Swat valley these days.
    The army has taken over the course as it battles hundreds of Islamist militants who had tried to impose Taliban-style rule in the valley in North West Frontier Province.
    A helicopter gunship is at the ready on one of the brown fairways on Saturday (December 08) while on another, a battery of six 130 mm artillery guns that can hurl a shell 33 km (20 miles) have been dug in, their long barrels pointing towards distant mountains.
    The Swat valley, about five hours drive on mountain roads from Islamabad, had been a tourist destination until this year when well-armed militants appeared and began to enforce their brand of hardline sharia law.
    Led by a young, charismatic cleric called Fazlullah, the militants, many, like Fazlullah, believed to be veterans of Afghan fighting, attacked the police, closed girls schools and video shops and tried to destroy Buddhist ruins.
    The police melted away when challenged and soon the militants held sway over a string of small towns along the Swat river, including Kabal.
    Last month, the army launched an offensive which the commander in charge said had succeed in clearing the militants from most of the valley, sending them and Fazlullah running into remote valleys to the northwest.

    "We have met a very good success, Allah be praised, but I'm taking this as an initial success only. I understand that the threat is scattered, the threat is diluted," Major General Nasser Janjua told a group of reporters in Mingora, the valley's main town.
    Janjua said his troops had killed 290 of the militants, who he said were supported by the Taliban and al Qaeda, and captured 143 in the offensive involving 20,000 troops. He said only six of his men had been killed.

    "And we want to take a good toll of them. While we continue with our offensive we want to take a good toll of them through use of winter - lot of snow in Puchar area - we want to choke their supplies and we want to carry on with our offensive based on intelligence," he said at his sand-bagged headquarters set up in a government guest house.
    President Pervez Musharraf cited rising militant violence when he declared a state of emergency on Nov. 3.
    But critics say Musharraf, who until last month was army chief, has been preoccupied with his bid to secure another term in office and failed to act quickly enough to stop the spread of militancy from remote Afghan border lands to Swat and even to Islamabad.
    More than 100 people were killed in July when commandos stormed a radical mosque complex in the capital that was occupied by well-armed militants with links to Swat.
    Janjua said Fazlullah had been able to whip up a following of about 5,000 people with his calls for strict Islamic law broadcast over his private FM radio station.
    The cleric also paid young men 200 rupees ($3.3) a day to fight for him, Janjua said.
    But most of Fazlullah's recruits from the valley had melted back into the population since the offensive began, leaving him with a hard core of about 500 followers, including many foreigners, Janjua said. He said some Uzbeks were with Fazlullah but declined to say where others were from.
    Janjua said it would take another three to four months to secure the valley, adding that the militants would "try to regroup and strike again, at least once."
    He said it would probably be a year before tourists ventured back to the valley, some, no doubt, hoping to get in a round of golf.
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