ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military yesterday alleged that militants in the northwest Swat Valley have occupied civilian houses and are using residents as human shields in its fight with the army.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told reporters yesterday that there are over 4,000 militants holed up in Swat and that the government has authorized the army to clear Swat, Buner and Dir of militants.
Abbas said 147 militants were killed by security forces in the last 24 hours. He said the militants were not only using citizens as human shields but also preventing residents of Swat to travel to safer places. Half a million people have either already left the Swat Valley and nearby districts or want to leave but cannot because of the fighting.
He claimed that the militants had received over $1 billion from what he called hostile intelligence agencies to destabilize Pakistan. They also collected donations or looted private property in several parts of tribal areas. Abbas did not identify the “hostile intelligence agencies.”
He said the militants are a mixed bag of nationalities — Afghans, Tajiks, Uzbeks and local Taleban brainwashed by ill-informed people.
Pakistan has launched at least a dozen operations in the region near the Afghan border in recent years, but most ended inconclusively. To end one of those protracted offensives, the government signed a peace accord in Swat that provided for Islamic law there. But it began unraveling last month when Swat Taleban fighters moved into Buner, a neighboring district just 100 km from Islamabad.
— With input from agencies
