Anti-terror operation in Pak leaves 80-odd militants dead

ISLAMABAD, Oct 30 (UNI): Eighty-odd suspected militants were killed when Pakistani security forces carried out an anti-terror operation in the country’s tribal region of Bajaur, bordering Afghanistan’s Kunar province, today.

The Pakistan army’s Cobra gunship helicopters, in the pre-dawn operation, hunted down some 80-90 suspected militants, who were hiding in a religious seminary.

Chief military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan confirmed the operation while talking to mediapersons, but did not give the exact number of casualties.

He said the operation was conducted on intelligence reports about the presence of militants in the seminary.

However, Pakistan’s private Geo TV quoted officials as saying that most of the 80 suspected militants were killed in the operation.

Some other private channels, including Aaj TV, however, put the death toll in the operation at 50.

The reports about the operation followed resignations by two ministers in the Northwestern Frontier Province (NWFP), which is currently ruled by the six-party Islamic opposition alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Ammal (MMA).

Senior minister Maulana Siraj-ul-Haq and his colleague Haroonur Rasheed announced in Bajaur, hours after the air strikes, that they are resigning in protest against the military operation.

However, no further details were available, but observers believe that the resignations by two important cabinet ministers may create serious political ripples for the alliance, which is already making efforts to form a grand opposition grouping against the ruling Pakistan Muslim League government with the help and support of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD).

The site of the operation is said to be Mamoon area near Dama Dola village, where at least 20 suspected militants were killed in similar air strikes in January this year.

Today’s operation came amid reports of a peace deal that the government officials were scheduled to sign with the local tribesmen on the pattern of the one inked by local authorities with the pro-Taliban elements in the country’s restive North Waziristan region in September this year.

Bajaur is one of the seven semi-autonomous tribal regions of Pakistan, each called an agency.