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| Warplanes launch attacks on militants in Dir Upper |
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Monday, May 18, 2009
By Delawar Jan
PESHAWAR: Security forces launched an operation against militants in Dir Upper on Sunday as warplanes dropped bombs in five villages of the remote Doog Darra area to target suspected hideouts of the militants allegedly led by an Afghan commander.
Sources said the strikes killed a child and a woman and injured several people but there was no word about the militants’ casualties. Dir Upper became the sixth district of the Malakand Division out of the seven where security forces launched military action against the Taliban militants.
A full-scale military operation is under way in three districts — Swat, Buner and Dir Lower — while the forces have also hit the suspected locations of the militants in Shangla, Malakand Agency and now Dir Upper. Chitral is the lone district where there is no military operation at the moment.
Locals said that warplanes launched the first aerial attack in the area nestled in lofty mountains at around 4:25 pm and targeted the suspected positions of the militants. They said the jetfighters carried out two more strikes in Doog Bala, Panaghar, Maluk Khuar, Miana and Shatkas, the five villages of Doog Darra where militants have been present for months.
As the attacks were launched in the evening and the area was a remote one, sketchy information was coming out about the human and material losses. It is learnt that two mosques, one of them also serving as a seminary, two houses and a health facility came under attack from the warplanes. There were also reports that the bazaar was also pounded where some shops were damaged. Sources in Dir Upper said that the militants, three of them Afghans, were holding a meeting in bazaar but it could not be ascertained whether they were targeted or not.
People said that smoke was seen billowing from the area after the aerial attacks. A woman and child were reported killed in the strikes while six others were wounded. The injured were rushed to hospitals. However, residents of the area said that the district headquarters hospital was poorly-equipped to cope with the emergency situation. There were also shortage of doctors due to which the critically injured were referred to Timergara and Peshawar.
Though the militants have not been able to appear in public and affect the social life, their attacks on the law enforcers led to tension in Dir Upper. District courts stopped functioning weeks ago while all banks in Dir were asked by the authorities to close all branches on May 7, which created a lot of problems for the people. District Nazim Sahibzada Tariqullah Sunday said that due to closure of courts, people were languishing in lock-ups and jails even in minor cases of section 107. He demanded of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to order reopening of the courts.
After the aerial strikes, thousands of people of the area moved out to safer places. They were not able to take along with them their belongings due to fear of bombardment. Locals said that they were moving towards Sheringal, a main town on the Kohistan strip. There was no word from the military sources on the casualties in these strikes. The security forces were checking all vehicles going in and coming out from the area at Khwago Oba entrance to Kohistan region where Doog Darra is situated.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
