Anti-Taliban offensive continues despite bombings

Pakistani forces pressed deeper into Taliban territory along the Afghan border today claiming to have killed 42 militants in the latest stage of the assault.

The push into South Waziristan’s unforgiving mountains has triggered a bloody backlash in the form of suicide attacks from militants, who are determined to bring the war out of the remote, north-western region and into the country’s cities in hopes of eroding public and political support.

But South Waziristan is seen as a major test of Pakistan’s will and ability to tackle the north-western strongholds of al Qaida-allied extremists. The army already has been beaten back from the region three times since 2004.

Pakistan has been criticised in the past for not cracking down on Islamist militant groups it once nurtured as proxies to fight in India and Afghanistan. It remains unclear whether the army has committed enough troops to the current campaign to hold the territory it is seizing.

The army said troops were progressing well on three fronts in South Waziristan, but were meeting resistance.

It said that over the last 24 hours, 42 militants and one solider had been killed. Since the assault began, the army claims to have killed 231 insurgents and lost 29 soldiers. It has given no figures for civilian casualties, but those fleeing have said they have also occurred.

The army has deployed 30,000 troops to South Waziristan against an estimated 12,000 militants, including up to 1,500 foreign fighters, among them Uzbeks and Arabs. The UN says some 155,000 civilians have fled the region.

Meanwhile, authorities announced the arrest of a previously unknown man they described as the head of the Pakistani Taliban in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province.

Qari Ishtiaq was detained in Bahawalpur, a city closely associated with a militant group once harnessed by the state to attack targets in India, said Mian Mohammad Mushtaq, the head of the civil administration in Bahawalpur district.