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Chitral police arrest 10 fleeing militants

The News

PESHAWAR 19 June 09.: Eleven Taliban combatants were killed in Doog Darra area of Dir Upper by armed villagers and artillery shelling by security forces as the militants started fleeing the area after giving up resistance.

Also, the Chitral police arrested 10 fleeing militants, including an Afghan national, who was in an injured condition, when they sneaked into the district to escape the villagers onslaught. The armed villagers have ringed the Taliban militants, led by Afghan commander Amir Khitab, since June 6 in the mountains in Doog Darra area.

They were heavily pounding the positions of the Taliban militants and killed a number of them. However, in recent days they intensified their offensive, launched to avenge the killings in the June 5 suicide blast at a mosque in Hayagay.

Helping the Lashkar, security forces deployed artillery guns in Panakot area near the Dir town and Beranjo in Doog Darra. The locals said firing with heavy weapons by the Lashkar and artillery shelling panicked the holed-up militants.

Sources in Lashkar and locals said the militants were attempting to escape the intensified action. ìThey (the militants) cannot fight us and have been hiding in caves. They have given up resistance and did not fire for the last five days,î Mutabar Khan, the Lashkar chief, told The News by phone.

He also claimed that the militants were now fleeing during night time to the neighbouring Chitral district where, he said, they had hideouts. On Friday, he added, 10 militants, including an injured Afghan, were arrested in Dewrai Khwar by the Chitral police. Sources in the Chitral police also confirmed the arrest of 10 militants.

ìWe will not let them escape from Doog Darra. We want them to be killed,î Mutabar said. Responding a question, he said the Lashkar had besieged them from all sides, but they were facing difficulty in plugging the escape routes completely at the Chitral border as the terrain was quite tough.

However, he said that more fighters were being sent to the area along Chitral to stop the militants from escaping. ìThey cannot bring in or take out even one kilogram of flour from other three sides, but we need to send more people of the Lashkar to the border along Chitral to check the fleeing militants,î he said.

Mutabar said they believe 80-100 militants had been left in the area, adding that they were just 400 meters away from them. ìWe will be able to eliminate them soon,î he said while avoiding giving a timeframe for the defeat of the militants.

Lashkar sources and people in the area said the armed villagers had killed six militants when they were trying to escape on Friday. The locals said that they had been seeing the militants digging graves to bury their men killed during the fighting with the Lashkar. The sources said five militants were killed in artillery shelling in Paparo Ghar, Kandao and Ghazigay. The Lashkar has so far killed at least 36 militants..

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