Pakistani security forces on Saturday launched a major operation against pro-Taliban militants in Khyber Agency tribal area along the Khyber Pass, the gateway to Afghanistan and close to provincial capital Peshawar.
Several thousand troops, tanks and armoured cars were moved into the region sealing the entire area. Helicopter gunships were also used to bomb pickets of militants. Eyewitnesses reported pitched battles between troops and militants of Lashkar-e-Islam (Army of Islam) in Bara area of the Khyber Agency. An indefinite curfew was clamped on Bara as security forces stepped up patrolling and blocked all entry and exit roads. They reportedly seized two main centres of Lashkar-e-Islam.
Army spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas told reporters that the operation was designed to cleanse the area of miscreants who had indulged in criminal acts of violence, killings and kidnapping. Media teams, who were able to show clips of early movement of troops and tanks, were quickly evicted from the area for security reasons.
Situation in Khyber Agency has been tense for the past several days during which 60 persons have been killed and more than 80 injured. Officials said the area had been centre of violence by sectarian militants and criminal elements and they recently seized control of some villages in the outskirts of Peshawar causing a panic that the Taliban may overrun the town.
The spokesman, however, termed as the recent media reports that Peshawar was about to fall to the Taliban as grossly exaggerated.
