ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani Army came to the help of a pro-government militia fighting Taleban in a northwestern district yesterday as the United States said Pakistan was gaining in its offensive against the militants.
The Pakistani military launched a major offensive in the former tourist valley of Swat and neighboring districts northwest of the capital in late April after Taleban militants took advantage of a peace pact to conquer new ground.
In retaliation, the Taleban have stepped up bomb attacks and are suspected of being behind a suicide blast at a mosque in the Upper Dir region, near Swat, that killed about 40 people on Friday.
Outraged by the attack, villagers formed a militia, known as a Lashkar, of about 500 men and began fighting the militants at the weekend in a bid to force them out of their area.
About 27 militants have been killed in the fighting, police and the military said. The villagers’ action is the latest in a series of instances of people turning on the Taleban in recent weeks, underscoring a shift in public opinion away from the hard-line Islamists.
