ISLAMABAD - The Swat Taliban chief, Mullah Fazlullah has been grievously injured in the ongoing military offensive, and is on his ‘death bed’, a BBC report has claimed.

According to the report, BBC reporters gathered information about Fazlullah’s condition through the several residents of the Swat Valley, whom they had interviewed recently.

“Maulana Fazlullah was actually hit in two airstrikes, and is critically wounded. He is now stranded in Imam Dehri without any access to medical assistance and is close to death,” said Wasif Ali of Mingora.

Ali, who has close relations with the insurgents, also confirmed reports about the death of top Taliban commander, Shah Duran in an airstrike.

arlier, the Army had also claimed that Fazlullah was hit, but it could not confirm the reports.

“Maulana Fazlullah has been hurt in an airstrike.But we cannot confirm his exact condition at the moment,” the ISPR spokesperson Major General Athar Abbas had said.

Ali, who stayed with his family in the Valley during the whole military operation, said that some of the severest battles between the security forces and the insurgents took place in the initial days.

He said the Taliban fighters were engaged in an intense battle with the army, but slowly they were forced to retreat.

“It was when they pushed the Taliban off the emerald mines. The gunships were right on top of my homes when they opened fire on the militants.We hid in the bathrooms and prayed for it to end. Many of the Taliban were killed in that onslaught, while the rest melted away,” The Nation quoted Ali, as saying. (ANI)