Swat battle 'could last another two months'
The military offensive to expel the Taliban from Pakistan’s Swat Valley could take another two months and troops may have to stay for a year to prevent them from retaking control, commanders said today.
The armed forces secured control over several key towns during the month-old campaign in the north-western region, but the fighting has uprooted three million people and triggered a series of reprisal attacks elsewhere in the country.
Chief army spokesman General Athar Abbas said it could take another two months of fighting to root the militants from all of their hide-outs in the lush, mountainous valleys of Swat and surrounding areas.
Earlier, General Ijaz Awan, a senior commander in the eight-day battle for Mingora, said the military is gearing up for a fight in nearby Kabal where top Taliban leaders are suspected of hiding.
“We have bottled them up very well, hopefully this will be a decisive battle here”, he said. “Their deaths are vital to killing their myth.”
The battle for Swat, launched in late April after the militants abandoned a peace deal with the government that gave them control of the region, is seen by the West as a test of Pakistan’s resolve.
The battle is far from over, however. On Monday scores of students from a military cadet school in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border, were kidnapped by the Taliban.
Officials said today that all 80 students and staff had been rescued by paramilitary forces within hours.
However, Javed Alam, the director of studies at the school Cadet College Razmak said today that 42 students and three teachers were still being held captive.
Some had been allowed to call their parents, though no ransom or other demands were made, he said. The captors did not identify themselves.
