ISLAMABAD: A senior Pakistani military officer said on Wednesday that 80 percent of Miramshah, a town and administrative headquarters of the N. Waziristan Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan (FATA), has been cleared during the military operation.

Maj. Gen. Zafarullah Khan said that outlawed Tehrik-i-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, if spotted, would be eliminated without any delay.

The general said that evidence of Al-Qaeda’s presence in the region was found and the army was still facing opposition from some areas, adding that the civilian population was not targeted during the operation. The general acknowledged that foreign and local militants were residing in the area.

Bahadur is known to have links with notorious militant groups in tribal N. Waziristan, including the Haqqani network.

Jet fighters carried out airstrikes on suspected militant hideouts destroying three of them while 11 suspected militants were also killed earlier Wednesday during the Zarb-i-Azb operation in the North Waziristan tribal region, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) sources said.

More than 800,000 people have fled the major military offensive against the TTP. Tens of thousands of families have left N. Waziristan for the nearby town of Bannu.

Hundreds more have moved further afield to the towns of Lakki Marwat, Karak and Dera Ismail Khan since the attacks began in mid-June.

Officials said they were checking registrations for duplicates, meaning the figure may come down.

The military is using troops, tanks and jets in N. Waziristan and has vowed to wipe out strongholds which insurgents have used to mount countless deadly attacks in recent years.

“Some 833,274 people or 66,726 migrating families from N. Waziristan were registered in cities of Bannu and Peshawar until Tuesday evening,” Arshad Khan, FDMA director general, told AFP.