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‘Only five to 10 per cent of the job is remaining and hopefully within two to
three days, the pockets of resistance will be cleared,’ Syed Athar Ali,
secretary of defence for Pakistan, said at a regional defence meeting in
Singapore.
His comments came after the military said on Saturday that Pakistani forces had
regained full control of Mingora, a week after re-entering the main town in the
Swat valley to dislodge thousands of Taliban fighters.
Recapturing Mingora would raise the prospect that some of more than 2 million
people who have fled the conflict zone could soon begin to go home, alleviating
a humanitarian crisis.
The United States and other Western allies have been heartened by the army’s
show of resolve in Swat. There had been fears for the security of nuclear
weapons if the Taliban threat had been allowed to spread any closer to the
capital.
Around 300,000 people lived in Mingora until the Taliban occupied the town in
early May when the army first launched an offensive in Swat.
Militants have carried out a series of bomb and gun attacks in cities during the
last few days, in a bid to take the heat off their comrades retreating in Swat.
There are expectations the army will turn its focus on the South Waziristan
tribal region once Swat has been pacified. |
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