ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military will finish its offensive against Taleban militants in the Swat Valley and ensure peace, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said yesterday as he rallied the support of political parties.
The offensive, launched this month as international alarm grew over an intensifying insurgency, was making progress and every effort would be made to help the more than one million people displaced by the fighting, he said.
“The operation against the terrorists is progressing very successfully and those who destroyed the peace of the nation are fleeing in disguise,” Gilani said.
“Troops will remain in the region until peace is ensured and all the displaced people return home,” he said.
Pakistani jets and helicopters bombarded militant targets in Swat, where troops entered strategic towns in a pincer thrust toward the Taleban-held capital of the northwest valley.
Pakistan’s deadly offensive against Taleban fighters entered a fourth week yesterday with troops battling on three fronts in the districts of Lower Dir, Buner and Swat where more than 1.1 million people have been displaced.
Gilani convened a cross-party conference in Islamabad, reiterating calls for the Taleban to disarm in what he has called a fight to “eliminate” militants threatening the nation’s sovereignty.
Fighter jets and attack helicopters pounded militant hide-outs and supply lines in the region. The military says its troops are closing in on Mingora, the capital of Swat under Taleban control, and have issued a map showing security forces in a pincer movement of troops pushing down from the north and up from the south.
