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Pakistan imposes indefinite curfew in restive northwest after fresh violence
Pakistan imposed a round-the-clock curfew in a restive mountain valley in the northwest on Wednesday, and the army claimed more than 20 militants died in clashes with security forces.
- AP
- Published: 10:38 July 30, 2008
Peshawar: Pakistan imposed a round-the-clock curfew in a restive mountain valley in the northwest on Wednesday, and the army claimed more than 20 militants died in clashes with security forces.
The army spokesman's office said the curfew was declared indefinitely throughout the Swat Valley - a day after pro-Taliban militants there abducted at least 25 police and paramilitary troops. Clashes on Tuesday also left two troops and two militants dead.
The rising violence could herald an end to a controversial May peace deal between the provincial government and a militant cleric, Mullah Fazlullah, whose armed supporters last year took control of tracts of the valley before an army operation drove them out.
In violence on Wednesday, security forces clashed with militants in Sar Banda, about 20 kilometres from Mingora, the main town in Swat, a local army spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity.
He said the fighting broke out after Taliban fighters attacked a post manned by army and paramilitary forces. He said the militants were repulsed and the left the bodies of between 20 and 25 dead fighters.
It was not immediately possible to get independent confirmation of the casualty toll, or comment from a militant spokesman.
Also on Wednesday, militants burned a girls school in Gul Bagh village and set off explosives in a government-run hotel and a private rest house, damaging the two buildings, police officer Ismail Khan said.
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