Pakistani soldiers retake key town
As the government's offensive in a border district continued, Taliban fighters took dozens of police officers hostage.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Commandos dropped from helicopters yesterday into an area behind Taliban lines 80 miles from Islamabad, the capital, and regained control of a key town, the army said.
But authorities faced a fresh challenge after militants seized a police station, holding dozens of officers hostage.
Helicopters dropped troops before 8 a.m. near Daggar, the main town in Buner district, the army said. The area has seen fighting between the military and Taliban forces for several days.
The army said it had killed at least 50 militants in Buner in two days of fighting but estimated that 500 fighters remain. The offensive might last another week, the military added, given that troops are running into resistance in mountainous areas.
"We assure the nation that the armed forces have the capability to ward off any kind of threat," military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told reporters at a briefing in the city of Rawalpindi.
Officials in the Pakistani capital said a suspected U.S. missile strike killed five people in Pakistani territory along the Afghan border.
The missile strikes from unmanned drones are highly unpopular in Pakistan, reviled as violating the nation's sovereignty.
Abbas said the army had destroyed two ammunition depots that held arms for the militants but still had not managed to reach several towns in Buner that remain Taliban strongholds, including Pir Baba and Ambela.
Eighteen police and paramilitary personnel seized by the Taliban in the Pir Baba police station Tuesday were freed yesterday, but about 50 hostages remain in the hands of militants.
"The army has implemented this operation pretty well, but unfortunately the Taliban got a hold of some police stations before the troops got there," said Zafar Hilaly, an analyst and former ambassador. "And knowing the way the Taliban operate, this could mean long, drawn-out negotiations."
Taliban spokesmen could not be reached for comment.
The government has been trying in recent days to push the militants back into their base in the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan from at least two adjoining districts, Buner and Dir.
Taliban fighters since early April have sought to expand their influence beyond Swat. They were apparently emboldened after the government agreed in February to a peace deal that granted them the right to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, over residents in Swat and surrounding areas in return for laying down their weapons.
Most militants failed to put away automatic weapons, however. This challenge, combined with strong U.S. pressure and growing alarm among Pakistan's own middle class, pushed the government to mount the ongoing military operation, analysts said.
The Taliban issued an order to journalists this week to "shun propaganda." Analysts said the statement had a tone of desperation as the militants have watched their once-favorable domestic support fall sharply since they expanded beyond Swat.
"The mood in Pakistan has changed among the middle class and the talk-show hosts, where before it was generally supportive of the Taliban," said Hilaly, the analyst. This veiled threat pressing for favorable coverage "doesn't come from strength," he said, "it comes from weakness."
The idea of Islamic law, which under the Taliban's sway would likely be harsh, has prompted exceptional soul-searching in Pakistan, with critics calling the deal a "surrender."
But the perception that Pakistanis are needlessly dying in a war for America is so widespread that many people would rather stay silent about the Taliban than appear to back the United States, said Mohammed Hanif, an author and commentator.
At a rally in Lahore on Tuesday, a few hundred participants spoke out against the Taliban, but their signs also condemned the American missile strikes.
