ISLAMABAD, Sept 1: The army said on Monday it had routed Taliban militants in Bajaur, killing 560 Pakistani and foreign fighters and thwarting a push to make Bajaur into a militant fortress.
Maj Gen Athar Abbas, the chief of ISPR, told a western news agency about 20 members of the security forces had died and 30 were missing.
“In our view, the back has been broken,” he said. “Main leaders are on the run and the people of the area are now openly defying whatever the militants had achieved there.”
Maj Gen Athar Abbas, the chief of ISPR, told a western news agency about 20 members of the security forces had died and 30 were missing.
“In our view, the back has been broken,” he said. “Main leaders are on the run and the people of the area are now openly defying whatever the militants had achieved there.”
MISSED OPPORTUNITY: Maj Gen Abbas said many foreigners were reportedly in Bajaur before the operation, but that many had probably fled to Afghanistan or other parts of the NWFP and that the operation had turned up no trace of Al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri.
However, the prime minister’s adviser on interior, Rehman Malik, told a press conference that security forces had recently missed a chance to catch Al Qaeda’s second in command, Ayman al Zawahiri.
However, the prime minister’s adviser on interior, Rehman Malik, told a press conference that security forces had recently missed a chance to catch Al Qaeda’s second in command, Ayman al Zawahiri.
Sergeant Christopher Peavy, a spokesman for US-led forces in Afghanistan, said that while it was too soon to tell if infiltration had decreased, “we are encouraged by the operations that Pakistan’s military is conducting”.
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