Taliban kidnap 10 soldiers as Pak forces continue advance

The militants said that the hardliner cleric Sufi Mohammad,who brokered the deal,will bury it. The cleric has been caught up in the fighting in his home town in Dir and has not been heard of for the past four days.

Security forces blazed away with their tanks and armoured carriers to clear pockets of Taliban defences on the north side of the Ambela pass which they had captured on Thursday night. Over 140 militants and about a dozen security personnel have died so far in the fighting since the weekend.

“We are clearing Taliban pockets and effecting a land linkup with Daggar,the main town of Buner,” chief Military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said. Army had airdropped commandos behind the Taliban lines to retake the Daggar town on Wednesday.

But in a swift retaliation,Taliban militants stormed into the paramilitary headquarters of Frontier Corps in Dir and snatched 10 soldiers.

Local officials were quoted by TV channels as saying upto 60 heavily armed Talibans barged into the building on Friday morning and took away the soldiers. The bulk of the force headquartered there was out conducting operation.

Taliban earlier in Buner had held more than 80 soldiers hostage,While the special forces managed to free 18 of them,52 police officers and para-military personnel are still in militant custody.

Seven militants were killed in fighting in Darmal area of Dir district,which the military had earlier said was in the control of security forces. The operation against the Taliban was also continuing in Buner district,which had recently been taken over by militants from the Swat valley.

The militants on Thursday destroyed a camp of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary in Buner and took away weapons and an armoured vehicle.

Two paramilitary platoons that had been besieged at Jawar Camp on Wednesday night were allowed to leave after they surrendered to the militants,the Dawn newspaper reported.

The Taliban took away an armoured personnel carrier and a “large haul of weapons” before destroying the camp and a check point,sources were quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The rebels also set ablaze a police station at Pir Baba town in Buner and took away a police vehicle. The Taliban had sent four suicide car bombers to target troops in Dir district on Wednesday and two of the vehicles were destroyed by the security forces.

Abbas said it could take the troops another week to complete their operation in the area as they are facing a stiff fight from pockets of resistance.

The Pakistani security forces are using artillery,jets and gunship helicopters to bombard militant positions across Buner district. The ground forces are also being backed by tanks.

However,residents of Buner said militants had control of Ambela Chowk,Pacha,Nawagai,Pir Baba,Sultanwas and several other key areas in Buner. Amidst stepped-up air strikes,ground forces backed by tanks and artillery positioned in Rustam area of Mardan district have attacked targets in Buner.

Helicopters targeted militants in Sultanwas town where they have set up a makeshift headquarters in the house of a tribal elder after forcing his family to leave. The Taliban blew up two bridges near Ambela in a bid to block the movement of troops. The militants have reportedly planted improvised explosive devices along main roads.

The fighting has displaced hundreds of families in Dir and Buner. Observers have estimated that over 30,000 people have fled the area. Media reports said people in Daggar were facing a shortage of food and essentials items because of a curfew in the region.