PAKISTANI HELICOPTER gunships pounded a Taliban-controlled emerald mine and other positions in the Swat valley yesterday, killing dozens of insurgents as fighting intensified across the North West Frontier province.
Amid expectations of an imminent army operation, fighters dug into positions across the main town, Mingora, as terrified residents fled the valley on foot across mountain paths.
Taliban reinforcements have been pouring into the area from adjoining districts since Monday, many arriving under cover of night and, in some cases, crossing into the battle zone by boat.
As President Asif Ali Zardari met President Barack Obama in Washington, his government was bracing for a flood of up to 500,000 internal refugees, making it the largest displacement crisis in Pakistan’s history.
The army said it killed more than 60 Taliban fighters in Swat and neighbouring Buner, a district 60 miles from Islamabad where a major anti-Taliban drive has been under way for the past nine days.
Four soldiers were killed due to fighting and a roadside bomb, a military spokesman said, but local reports suggested a higher toll.
Taliban fighters attacked two major army bases near Mingora – one on the town golf course, where artillery guns are stationed, and a second at a deserted airfield. The army struck back with a helicopter gunship assault on an emerald mine on the edge of the city that has provided the Taliban with illegal revenues in recent months and served as a militant camp. The military also launched mortar assaults. Residents cowered inside their homes, terrified of getting caught in the crossfire.
According to reports, 80 children were trapped in the basement of an orphanage with an army position on the roof. In Mingora, militants control all major government buildings, including the electricity grid station and the office of the Malakand commissioner, a senior civil servant with authority over one-third of the province. Residents further up the valley said the militants had looted three banks.
Embattled hospital officials said ambulances were not operating due to Taliban patrols on the streets, and many doctors had fled the valley, once one of Pakistan’s main tourist destinations.
“We are facing the worst time in our history,” said one official.
A permanent curfew prevented many residents from fleeing, but some managed to clamber into overcrowded buses. Others escaped on foot across fields and mountain paths.
Thousands fled on Tuesday, some towards hastily erected government camps south of the valley.
Khalid Khan Umerzai, commissioner of the nearby Mardan division, said that 35,000 people had so far registered in three camps, but others had found shelter with relatives.
The last battle in Swat, over a period of 18 months from late 2007, saw the militants fight the army to a standstill and resulted in a peace deal in February that has now collapsed.
Since then, the 15,000 security forces in Swat, a mix of regular army and paramilitary frontier corps, have been largely confined to base.
Washington has sharply criticised Pakistan’s strategy of cutting peace deals in Swat and across the tribal belt. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton called it an “abdication of responsibility”.
Previously divided public opinion has swung behind the army operations in Buner and Lower Dir districts, where the army claims to have killed more than 180 militants.
But opinion could shift again if a fresh Swat assault were to cause large-scale civilian casualties and damage. – (Guardian)