About 50 Pakistani troops are missing in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan after fierce battles with Islamic militants that have already claimed 80 lives, the army said on Monday.
The soldiers have been out of radio contact since early on Monday in rugged North Waziristan, where the United States says Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network and its pro-Taliban allies are regrouping.
News of the missing troops comes as a fresh blow to the army, with hard-line rebels already holding more than 200 members of the security forces in another part of the insurgency-plagued ethnic Pashtun tribal belt.
”We have reports of about 50 troops missing. They are out of communications and their whereabouts have not been found,” chief military spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad said.
The soldiers went missing as they were moving from place to place following fresh clashes near Mir Ali, the second biggest town in North Waziristan, Arshad said.
Violence has spiked in the mountainous region since Pakistani security forces besieged and then raided the al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July — an operation that Bin Laden has urged militants to avenge.
The military said earlier that the death toll from fierce clashes on Sunday in North Waziristan had risen to 60 militants and 20 soldiers.
Troops backed by helicopter gunships launched an assault against militant bases and hideouts in retaliation for attacks on military convoys overnight on Friday, sparking hours of intense battles.
”Sixty militants have been killed by security forces in North Waziristan Agency since Sunday morning,” an army statement said on Monday. ”Twenty security-forces persons have also embraced shahadat [martyrdom] in the ensuing clashes.”
Local residents said four civilians also died, including three women, although the army could not confirm this.
About 30 houses were destroyed or badly damaged as troops and rebels exchanged heavy weapons fire, they said.
President Pervez Musharraf has been under mounting pressure to tackle militants who fled over the Afghan border into Pakistan after the United States-led invasion to topple the Taliban regime in late 2001.
Musharraf, a key US ally at the centre of international efforts to combat Islamic extremism, won a landslide victory in Saturday’s presidential election and pledged to continue the fight against terrorism ”100%”.
He has promised to quit the army and restore civilian rule by November 15 and on Monday his designated successor as military chief, former spymaster General Ashfaq Kiyani, officially took over as vice-chief of army staff.
Nearly 300 people in Pakistan have died in attacks since the Red Mosque crisis, most of which have been suicide bombings. A further 250 militants have been killed in clashes with security forces since then, the army says.
Pro-Taliban militants are also holding more than 200 Pakistani soldiers in nearby South Waziristan district since abducting them in late August, apparently without the troops firing a shot.
Three of them have been killed by militants to press their demands for an end to military operations in the tribal areas.
The insurgents also recently released a video of teenage militants beheading one of 15 soldiers who were kidnapped in a separate incident earlier in August in South Waziristan. The others were released.
A rights group Sunday accused the government of ignoring pleas for help from civilians living in the tribal areas who are being targeted by Islamic militants. — AFP
