Pakistan Army has sent 2,500 paramilitary troops into Swat Valley to combat followers of a militant cleric calling for Taliban-style rule, a military spokesman said.
Army deploys 2,500 troops in settled area in NWFP to combat Taliban-style rule
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Army has sent 2,500 paramilitary troops into Swat Valley, an area famous for its tourism, and in the country’s northwest, to combat followers of a militant cleric calling for Taliban-style rule, a military spokesman said on Wednesday. This is a clear sign that the troubles of the tribal areas have now infected the settled areas of North West Frontier Province.
Troops were deployed on Tuesday and were setting up checkpoints across Swat where violence has flared this summer, army spokesman Major Gen. Waheed Arshad said. Militants responded by detonating a remote-controlled bomb near a convoy heading into the valley late Tuesday. Arshad said four soldiers were lightly wounded and security forces had detained seven suspects.
The army said the deployment would curb the activities of Maulana Fazlullah, a militant leader who reportedly has used FM radio broadcasts to call for jihad, or holy war, against Pakistani authorities.
Fazlullah is the leader of Tehrik Nifaz-e-Sharia Mohammed, or Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law, a group which sent thousands of volunteers to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban against the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
Checkpoints manned jointly by paramilitary Frontier Corps. troops and local police are to ‘’ensure law and order, to assist the civil administration and ensure that Fazlullah and his band of criminals stop terrorising innocent civilians,’’ Arshad said.
The army already sent regular troops into Swat, which lies about 30 miles north of Peshawar, in July as part of a crackdown on militancy spreading across the region. The deployment prompted a string of deadly bombings and suicide attacks on security forces in the area.
The government of President Musharraf has struggled to combat Islamic extremism that has spread from the Afghan border across Pakistan’s northwest, where bin Laden is believed to be hiding.
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