Security forces have taken control of the Namal, Shor and Sardan Top areas in Matta tehsil of the troubled Swat district in an ongoing operation against extremists on Saturday.
| TNSM's better at waving swords and rolling their eyes than they are at actually being krazed killers. |
Militants have vacated the areas of Manja, Totanoo Bandai, Shah Dheri in Kabal tehsil and Puchar, Namal, Sardan Top and Shor in Matta tehsil, which were strongholds of Mullah Fazlullah, sources added. | Security forces said they arrested 10 militants and found 2.5 tonnes of explosives hidden in a mosque in Swat. |
They said militantsÂ’ bunkers in these areas were empty, and they took their weapons with them as they moved to unknown locations. The troops imposed a curfew during their forward march in the areas from 7pm on Friday night and no one was allowed to come out of their houses. The security forces, during the operation, destroyed the houses of local militant commanders Sayed Karim, Lajbar Khan, Sahib and Bin Yamin, a close aide of rebel cleric Maulana Fazlullah. During the search operation, the troops also arrested several militants and shifted them to an undisclosed location for interrogation.
Sources told Daily Times that the security forces had also recovered a police van belonging to the Matta Police Station. In a separate incident, the security forces said they arrested 10 militants and found 2.5 tonnes of explosives hidden in a mosque in Swat, Reuters added.
| If I was looking for 2 and a half tons of explosives, a mosque'd be the first place I'd look. |
|