A displaced Pakistani man at Swabi Camp prepares to return home. Photo Courtesy: AFP.
Wed-Jul 15, 2009
Peshawar / Agence France-Presse
Pakistani troops have killed six militants in the Swat valley, where the government has started bussing home thousands of those displaced by a military offensive, officials said.
Officials say the pace of returns to the northwest district has quickened in recent days although many civilians are fearful about security after two months of fierce fighting between government troops and Taliban militants.
* Swat refugees have started returning: UN
"Six militants were killed when troops retaliated and returned fire after a rebel attack on an army checkpost in Kabal town on Tuesday night," a military official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
A senior police official in Swat confirmed the incident and said there were no army losses.
On Tuesday, the military reported killings in Swat for the first time in days, announcing that nine militants were shot dead in the last 24 hours.
Pakistan says more than 1,700 militants and around 160 security personnel were killed in operations to crush the Taliban in northwest districts since late April, but the death tolls are impossible to verify independently.
The army launched a massive offensive under heavy US pressure in late April in Buner and Lower Dir, before focusing the fight on militants in Swat, where the Taliban concentrated a two-year rebellion to enforce sharia law.
Last week, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani unveiled plans to start sending home the nearly two million people displaced by the conflict and said the military had "eliminated" the extremists.
Elsewhere in North West Frontier Province, two policemen were killed and five wounded in a bomb explosion in the town of Bannu.
"A police vehicle hit a remote-controlled improvised explosive device, which was planted alongside the road, killing two policemen and wounding five," local police official Iqbal Marwat told AFP.
Islamist militants bitterly opposed to the government's alliance with the United States, whose troops are fighting a Taliban insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan, carry out daily attacks on security forces in the northwest
Officials say the pace of returns to the northwest district has quickened in recent days although many civilians are fearful about security after two months of fierce fighting between government troops and Taliban militants.
* Swat refugees have started returning: UN
"Six militants were killed when troops retaliated and returned fire after a rebel attack on an army checkpost in Kabal town on Tuesday night," a military official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
A senior police official in Swat confirmed the incident and said there were no army losses.
On Tuesday, the military reported killings in Swat for the first time in days, announcing that nine militants were shot dead in the last 24 hours.
Pakistan says more than 1,700 militants and around 160 security personnel were killed in operations to crush the Taliban in northwest districts since late April, but the death tolls are impossible to verify independently.
The army launched a massive offensive under heavy US pressure in late April in Buner and Lower Dir, before focusing the fight on militants in Swat, where the Taliban concentrated a two-year rebellion to enforce sharia law.
Last week, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani unveiled plans to start sending home the nearly two million people displaced by the conflict and said the military had "eliminated" the extremists.
Elsewhere in North West Frontier Province, two policemen were killed and five wounded in a bomb explosion in the town of Bannu.
"A police vehicle hit a remote-controlled improvised explosive device, which was planted alongside the road, killing two policemen and wounding five," local police official Iqbal Marwat told AFP.
Islamist militants bitterly opposed to the government's alliance with the United States, whose troops are fighting a Taliban insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan, carry out daily attacks on security forces in the northwest
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