‘Taliban crossing Pak-Afghan border to fight in Bajaur’
* Senior military official says operation to continue until Tribal Areas cleared
ISLAMABAD: Taliban are crossing the border from Afghanistan to fight against the Pakistani forces in Bajaur and other areas, and Pakistan has informed the US and other relevant authorities, a senior military official said on Monday.
“The Pakistan-Afghan border is porous and is now causing trouble for us in Bajaur,” the official who declined to be identified said.
Continued operations: He said military operations in the troubled areas bordering Afghanistan will continue until the whole tribal belt was cleared of Taliban.
“We are determined to neutralise the threat,” he told a press conference. The official rejected the impression that the army was not trained to carry out operations against Taliban. “We can finish the Swat operation in a week if there is no consideration for collateral damage,” he said.
He said the security forces had suffered a total of 1,368 casualties in the war on terror since 2001, while 3,348 personnel had been wounded. Meanwhile, 2,825 Taliban, including 581 foreigners and 2,244 locals had been killed. 1,400 Taliban were injured over the same period, which included 311 foreigners and 1,089 locals.
He expressed regret that gains made in last year’s operation in Swat had been wasted after elections. “We believe the agreement of May 21, 2008 was signed from a position of weakness,” he said.
He said 69 personnel of the security forces had been martyred in the Bajaur operation, while 239 were injured.
The official said that the operation in Darra Adam Khel had concluded successfully.
He said the tribesmen in Mamoond were raising their own militia to expel Al Qaeda and fighting was expected.
“The Mamoond valley is likely to erupt, in our view, in about 48 to 72 hours,” he said. sajjad malik/reuters
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