Pakistan - Swat valley offensive

Offensive to end when Taliban defeated, says PM

Article published on the 2009-05-18 Latest update 2009-05-18 11:18 TU

Children in an IDP camp run for UNHCR good donations
(Photo: Reuters)

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has told an ad hoc meeting of the country's major political parties that the Swat valley offensive will continue until peace has returned to the area and internally displaced people have returned home.

"The operation against the terrorists is progressing very successfully and those who destroyed the peace of the nation are fleeing in disguise," Gilani said in an opening address to the conference at his official residence.

"Troops will remain in the region until peace is ensured and all the displaced people return home."

The leaders of the country's main parties, including Muslim League leader Nawaz Sharif and Fazlur Rehman of the Islamic Jamaat-Ulema-Islam, attended the meeting. Gilani called for them all to reconcile, and to put behind them the bitter political conflict which preceded the offensive. He urged them to make a united effort to reconstruct the area.

Pakistan's army says that its fighter jets and helicopters continue to bombard Taliban hideouts, and that troops are closing in on the main town, Mingora. It claims that more than 1,000 Taliban fighters and 45 soldiers have been killed during the operation.

But some civilians who had fled the fighting are reported to be returning to the area. Government officials in the North-West Frontier Province capital, Peshawar, say that hundreds are going back. They are leaving the lowland areas because of the heat, poor conditions in camps or overcrowding in homes where they have been staying.