Swat residents asked to evacuate

October 8th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The bullet-riddled bodies of 15 suspected Taliban militants were found Thursday in Pakistan's Swat region, an official said. "I can confirm that 15 bodies were found today (Thursday) and our information is that they are militants," Geo TV quoted army spokesman Major Mushtaq Khan as saying.

September 24th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Problems for people in Swat and Malakand Divisions are far from over as the crime rate in the valley has witnessed a sudden rise in the recent past. With the incidents of kidnapping for ransom increasing, local residents say it is the remnant Taliban fighters who have taken to the petty crimes in order to survive.

August 17th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - An editorial in a Pakistani daily has said that victory over the Taliban in the Swat and Malakand Divisions of the country's North West frontier Province (NWFP) can only be accepted and certified after it is confirmed that the top leadership of the insurgents is defeated and eliminated. According to the editorial in The Dawn newspaper, the demand of the hour is that the security forces 'do more' to reclaim the Swat once and for all.

August 17th, 2009 UK authorities evacuate 2 villages after bomb findLONDON — British authorities say they will evacuate two small villages in northern England after a World War II-era bomb was found buried in a nearby field. North Yorkshire Police say that more than 1,000 people will be moved from their homes in the hamlets of Ebberston and Allerston on Tuesday afternoon before the 500 pound (225 kilogram) explosive is made safe.

August 3rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Wali of Swat, Miangul Aurangzeb, foresees no chance of a lasting peace returning to the Swat Valley for decades to come. The octogenarian, who would have been ruling Swat had it not been merged with Pakistan in 1969, feels extremely sorry for the horrific events that the people of this region have faced and how 'law-enforcement agencies have let it happen'.

July 19th, 2009 Possible audio of Swat Taliban chief surfacesISLAMABAD — Pakistan's army is investigating whether the leader of the Taliban in the northwest Swat Valley, said to have been wounded in an airstrike, delivered a recent radio address, a spokesman said Sunday. A local resident said the voice on the recording Tuesday was definitely Maulana Fazlullah's, but that he sounded somber and sick.

July 7th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Prime Minister's advisor on Interior Affairs, Rehman Malik has said that the major Taliban leadership has been wiped out from Swat. Talking to media persons here, Malik claimed that the military offensive being carried out in the North West Frontier Province's (NWFP) Swat and Malakand Divisions have been successful with top commanders of the Taliban killed.

June 29th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, has said that it is too soon for Pakistan to declare victory in the Swat Valley, where the Army has purportedly put the Taliban insurgents on the back foot. Holbrooke, attending a G8 conference on stabilizing Pakistan and Afghanistan in Italy, said in an interview that it was too early for Pakistan to announce victory in Swat.

May 17th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Security forces engaged in the operation against the Taliban in restive northwestern Pakistan have advised residents of a town in Swat Valley to evacuate and move to some safer place by noon Sunday, Geo TV reported. 'Matta town residents have been directed to safely move out of the town by 12 noon today (Sunday),' the military said in a statement, which was also announced on local FM radio.

May 15th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistani Army said Friday it had killed 55 Taliban militants while three soldiers died in fresh fighting in the northwestern district of Swat. 'Fifty-five miscreants have been killed in various areas of Swat during the last 24 hours while 3 security forces personnel died and 11 others were injured,' the army said.

May 5th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Some 500,000 people are to be evacuated from Swat in Pakistan's restive northwest ahead of an expected military operation against the Taliban, a provincial minister said Tuesday. Large numbers of people were already being evacuated the Swat Valley, Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), said at a press conference in capital Peshawar.

May 5th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - With the Taliban reportedly establishing control over Mingora, the largest city in the Swat Valley, government has asked residents to vacate the region. The District Coordination Officer (DCO) of Swat urged civilians to leave the region and migrate to safer places, the Dawn reports.

April 22nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - NWFP Governor Owais Ghani has briefed foreign diplomats at the Foreign Office on the deal with militants in Swat. "The problem [afflicting the region] lies in Afghanistan and unless you settle the issue there, it will be difficult to create peace in Swat and other border regions of Pakistan," Ghani said.

April 9th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The chief of Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), Sufi Mohammad has announced the end of the Swat peace camp to protest against the federal government's non-supporting attitude towards the Nifaz-e-Shariat or the peace accord. He said that though the provincial government is sincere with regard to the peace deal, the federal government is not.

December 24th, 2008 JAIPUR - Mass movement of Pakistani troops was reported Thursday along the Rajasthan border, sources in the state's home ministry said. Confirming a message in this regard from the Intelligence Bureau, the sources told IANS that the state government has been asked to be on alert, especially in the villages bordering Pakistan.