ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s security forces Wednesday killed a senior militant commander in Swat valley, as troops swooped for the holed-up Taliban leaders, the military said.

Nisar Ahmed, alias Ghazi Lala, was a close aide of Swat’s Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah and served as his local commander in the Matta area.

“Nisar was killed in a gunfight early on Wednesday,” said an army spokesman in Mingora, the main town of the valley in the north-west of Pakistan that used to have a thriving tourism industry two years ago.

The government had announced a reward of 10 million rupees ($120,000) for his capture, dead or alive. Ahmed, in his early 40s and an expert in making remote-controlled bombs, was on the most wanted list of militants in Swat.

The spokesman said Ahmed’s son was arrested during the clash. He did not give any further details.

Taliban violence swept across Swat in 2007 when Fazlullah and his loyalists began an armed struggle to enforce Islamic sharia rule in the region.

Government forces launched a full-fledged offensive in April after the militants violated a peace deal by refusing to disarm, and expanded their hold to nearby districts.

The US widely hailed Pakistan’s operation that has reportedly killed more than 2,000 insurgents, but Fazlullah is still at large.

The military-issued death toll cannot be confirmed independently.

Human rights groups have accused the security forces of torturing detainees and committing extra-judicial killings, charges that the army has denied.