Taliban defeated in Bajaur: FC

KHAR (AFP) - Pakistan said on Saturday it had forced Taliban militants out of Bajaur in the global fight against extremism.
The six-month battle with militants in the remote Bajaur district is seen as pivotal to the country's fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Heavy artillery and helicopter gunships have pounded Bajaur, one of country's seven federally-administered tribal areas (FATA) along the Afghan border, in a bid to flush out militant bases, killing hundreds.
"We think that we have secured this agency," said Frontier Corps Inspector General Tariq Khan. "They have lost. They have lost their cohesion out here," Khan told reporters flown by helicopters from Islamabad.
Khan said some troops may be withdrawn from the area but the bulk would remain and ruled out any concessions to the militants like those given to Taliban in the restive former tourist region of the Swat valley.
"There will be a gradual reduction of the army but the army is not going to pull out for some time," Khan said, adding that in the other five tribal districts the forces would finish military operations by the end of year.
"The agreement in Swat was completely in different circumstances," he said.
Government launched the Bajaur offensive in August last year, largely in response to US pressure to stop militants attacking foreign troops in Afghanistan.
The operation has seen the deaths of 97 soldiers from the Pakistan army and the paramilitary Frontier Corps, while 404 troops were injured, he said.
Khan said about 50 percent of the militants were Afghans and some Sudanese and Egyptians had been killed in Bajaur in the initial stages of operation.
There was no independent verification of the military victory but the Taliban see Bajaur as a key strategic district they cannot not afford to lose, analysts have said.
To the east is Swat, where the Taliban have called an indefinite ceasefire following a nearly two-year insurgency, while on the Afghan side is a long frontier with the Taliban hotspot of Kunar province. Khan recommended fencing the rugged and porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent the cross-border movement of Taliban militants.
He described the ceasefire declared by the Taliban on Monday as "a face-saving statement".
"We have not accepted that ceasefire. There was no question of ceasefire, the resistance has melted, dissolved. It is not there," he said.
However, both military and civilian officials said that talks with tribal elders should be started in order to build on the military successes.
Shafir Ullah, the chief of the Bajaur civil administration, said 1,600 militants were killed during the campaign and more than 2,000 were injured while some 150 civilians also died and about 2,000 were injured in the fighting.
The pitched battles and bombardment had destroyed about 5,000 homes in Bajaur, Shafir said.
Shafir appealed for international donors to come forward with money for reconstruction and the provision of basic services such as electricity and water to 304,598 people displaced from their homes in Bajaur.
The official said more than 180,000 had returned.