Pakistani helicopter gunships attacked Taliban bases near the Afghan border yesterday as the army urged Nato forces to seal the frontier to stem cross-border movement of militants.
Pakistani forces launched an offensive to wrest control of the lawless South Waziristan region on Saturday after militants rocked the country with a string of bomb and suicide attacks, killing more than 150 people.
Six people were killed in two suicide bomb attacks at the International Islamic University in the capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday, prompting authorities to order the closure of schools and colleges across the country.
Remote and rugged South Waziristan is a global hub for Islamist militants.
The offensive is being closely followed by the United States and other powers embroiled in Afghanistan.
The government forces initially faced light resistance but fighting has intensified as soldiers approach the militants’ main sanctuaries in the mountains.
Government forces attacked the militant strongholds of Makeen and Ladha with helicopter gunships and artillery yesterday, security officials said.
Qari Hussain Mehsud, a senior Taliban commander known as “the mentor of suicide bombers”, called the BBC on Tuesday to take responsibility for the attacks on the Islamic University and said the militants consider all of Pakistan now to be a war zone.
The army reported fierce fighting for the control of Kotkai, Hussain’s hometown and also the birthplace of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud.
Security forces briefly took control of Kotkai in fighting on Monday night but militants recaptured it in a counterattack.
So far Pakistan’s media and public seem behind the offensive, but attitudes could change if Taliban attacks on urban targets are stepped up.
The News daily splashed the university attack across the front page with the headline “Godless kill in God’s name”.
As government forces pressed ahead with the Waziristan offensive, the military called on Nato troops in Afghanistan to seal the border “to prevent cross-border movement and flow of weapons”.
Pakistan Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC) chairman Gen Tariq Majid made the call during talks with Britain’s chief of defence staff, Sir Jock Stirrup.
Pakistani newspapers have in recent days reported that Nato forces had abandoned border posts opposite South Waziristan, raising the possibility of Afghan Taliban coming to help their Pakistani comrades, or of Pakistani Taliban fleeing.
Gen Majid called for “synchronisation of effort on both sides and sharing of real-time intelligence”.
The army says 115 militants and 16 soldiers have been killed since the offensive was launched on Saturday.