Pakistan’s security forces have launched an operation against militants in Bajaur district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province near the Afghan border, displacing more than 20,000 families, local officials said Tuesday.
Residents reported that helicopters targeted militant hideouts in remote areas close to the frontier. No official statement has been issued by the federal government on the start of the operation in Bajaur, a former stronghold of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Saeedullah, a local government official, said the operation was not on a large scale and that only militant hideouts were being targeted to minimise civilian casualties. He estimated that more than 55,000 people, roughly 20,000 families, had fled their homes in recent days fearing the fighting.
Many of the displaced are sheltering in government buildings and schools, with authorities providing food and other basic supplies, he said.
Bajaur was the site of a major Pakistani military operation in 2009 against both domestic and foreign militants, which displaced hundreds of thousands of residents.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Zulfiqar Hameed said officials are still gathering data on the displaced population, and that targeted operations against the TTP are continuing.
Earlier this week, Pakistan’s army said it had killed at least 50 Pakistani Taliban fighters along the Afghan border in a four-day operation.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban of sheltering TTP militants and has called for their cooperation in tackling the group. The Afghan Taliban deny the TTP’s presence in Afghanistan, but international reports indicate senior TTP leaders are based there and directing operations from Afghan soil.
