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| 15 die in Swat, Shangla as militants pull out of Alpuri |
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Saturday, November 24, 2007
By Mushtaq Yusufzai & Musa Khankhel
MINGORA: Fifteen more people were killed in continuing clashes between the security forces and militants in the restive Swat and Shangla districts on Friday while the paramilitary Mahsud Scouts detained two injured Uzbek fighters clad in women dress at Fiza Gat checkpoint in Swat.
Curfew imposed by the authorities in Swat and Malakand Agency Friday caused acute hardships to the people, while the authorities again announced clamping of curfew from 2am to 9am for today (Saturday).
On the other hand, the government decided to shift district headquarters of the troubled Shangla district from Alpuri to Bisham for the time being.
Sources told The News from Shangla on telephone that fierce clashes between the militants and security forces continued Friday in which both sides used heavy weapons. The residents said Pakistan Army's Cobra helicopters were seen in the air pounding militants' positions at Kotki, Dherai, Yakh Tangi, Ghorband and other remote small villages mostly situated on hilltops.
Sources said militants vacated Alpuri, the district headquarters of Shangla, and took positions on nearby mountains. However, the residents said security forces did not enter the town so far.
Maj Gen Waheed Arshad, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) and military spokesman, told The News that gunship choppers, artilleries and mortars targeted militants' hideouts in different places of Shangla, inflicting heavy losses on them.
He said 15 militants were killed Friday, while security forces did not suffer any loss. Gen Waheed said militants fled Alpuri and shifted to nearby mountains. He said security forces reached near the town but did not enter as the militants had planted mines in the area before fleeing it.
However, the militants' spokesman Sirajuddin said they had vacated the Alpuri town on persistent demands of the people to save them from military action. He said people demanded of them to leave the town so that they were not bombed by the Pakistan Army.
Also, soldiers of paramilitary Mahsud Scouts, playing crucial role in anti-militants drive in Swat these days, detained two Uzbek fighters along with their local sympathisers and shifted them to an unknown place for interrogation.
According to sources, the two men who were clad in traditional 'burqas' (veils) were seriously injured in fighting with the security forces and were on their way to hospital when held. They were identified as Noorul Huda son of Mir Afzal and Hafiz Riazuddin son of Muhammad Shoaib and claimed to be residents of Gokan village in Daggar subdivision of Buner district.
However, security officials were dead sure about their identity and felt that both were trained Uzbek fighters who had come from the North Waziristan Agency to fight alongside Maulana Fazlullah's men against Pakistani forces.
The soldiers also took five local people into custody including two men -- driver Gul Bashar and Syed Ali Khan son of Rozi Khan - same number of women and an eight years old girl travelling with the Uzbeks in the same van (UC-378). They belonged to Charbagh area in Swat and were reportedly shifting the two foreigners to hospital.
Meanwhile, local residents in Shangla said four people, three militants and a local villager, were killed in Kotki village in mortar and artillery shelling by the security forces. They said majority of the people had already vacated their homes in the troubled areas.
The residents complained about shortage of food items in Shangla and demanded of the security forces to drop foodstuff from helicopters instead of targeting them on suspicion of militants.
Saifullah, a local resident of Dherai who reached Bisham to approach media people and inform them about suffering of the common people caused by clashes between militants and security forces, told The News that there was not even five percent support for the militants in Shangla.
But still, he complained, security forces punished innocent people and targeted residential areas. According to him, hundreds of houses had been damaged in the shelling by the security forces. A JUI-F and MMA Senator Rahat Hussain also complained about the civilian casualties.
Talking to The News on telephone from his hometown in Aloch, Shangla, he said a number of innocent people were killed and injured Friday in shelling by the forces. He said Wakeel Khan, a close relative of Jamaat-e-Islami Shangla Ameer Inayatur Rahman, was also killed when a mortar shell hit his house in Dherai village.
Military gunship choppers, artillery and mortars continued attacking suspected hideouts of militants in Swat, where the authorities imposed curfew from 5am to 2pm. All markets, government offices and educational institutional remained closed due to strict curfew.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
