Four militants were killed on Sunday when three Pakistan Army gunship helicopters targeted Taliban fighters. Military sources said two militants riding a motorcycle in Inayat Killay Bypass Road were targeted by the military chopper and killed on the spot.Tribal sources, however, said both the men were local residents and were on their way home in Inayat Killay when they came under attack. In the same area, local tribal sources said military choppers hit a petrol pump and razed it to the ground. Military authorities suspected that militants operating in the adjoining Mamond Tehsil and Inayat Killay were getting fuel from the petrol pump.
Similarly, military sources said two militants were killed when a chopper fired on Haji Lawang bridge in the almost peaceful Utmankhel Tehsil of the troubled tribal region. The sources said both the militants were armed and started running towards the crops when military helicopters were flying over the village.
Also, official sources said a house was targeted in Badano village where militants had hidden vehicles they had snatched from the security forces. They claimed that four to six vehicles, including jeeps and pick-ups, were destroyed in the strikes on the house.
They said choppers were also sent and directed to destroy the house of TTP spokesman Maulvi Omar but since it was located in middle of the houses and aerial strikes could cause damage to other houses and residents, therefore, the idea was dropped. The gunship choppers also bombed militants' suspected hideouts in other small villages of Mamond Tehsil and Mulla Said Banda and Pashat in Salarzai Tehsil.
There were no details about the losses suffered by the militants. This correspondent on Sunday visited Bajaur Agency's troubled spots including Seway, where the militants headquarters was located and a so-called Islamic court had been established, Chopatra, the hometown of militants' commander Maulana Faqir Mohammad, Badan village, the hometown of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Maulvi Omar, and several other places, which were once the strongholds of the Taliban fighters and where their armed men were once publicly checking vehicles at roadside checkpoints. But amazingly, the entire region is now presenting a deserted look and there are no militants on the roadside checkpoints and their famous camps. Majority of them have reportedly gone underground and shifted to their hideouts in upper parts of Mamond and Salarzai subdivisions.
In their Seway Markaz, around two dozen militants armed with AK-47 assault rifles and G-III automatic guns which they claimed to have snatched from the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) personnel near Loisam a week ago, were seen guarding the building and checking vehicles. However, when two military gunship choppers appeared in the air from Bajaur's headquarters Khar, the armed militants present around Seway Markaz became scared and started escaping into the dense maize crops.
Militants also suggested to this correspondent to flee and hide in the maize crop fields and under the shadow of dense trees. This practice of hide and seek took place several times and the militants said they had no solution for choppers and warplanes. The militants admitted that they had suffered heavy losses due to choppers and warplanes and now the thundering voice of gunship choppers created panic in the hearts of many of their colleagues.
The entire population of this sensitive region had left their homes due to bombing and shifted to distant towns of Peshawar, Mardan, Nowshera, etc. But a small number of residents left here to look after their households were critical of Taliban's harsh policies that had brought miseries and total destruction to them.