At least 60 militants, 5 security personnel killed in ‘Rah-e-Nijat;

At least sixty terrorists have been killed while five security men lost their lives and 11 others sustained wounds in ongoing military offensive ‘Rah-e-Nijat’ in the embattled South Waziristan tribal area for the last 24 hours, said ISPR in a news release here Sunday.

The security forces pounded heavily Taliban bases from the air and targeted their leader’s hometown on Sunday, intensifying a major offensive against the militants as a result 60 militants killed in the operation so far, although the region is cut off from the outside world and information on militant casualties is impossible to independently verify.

More than .1 million people have fled South Waziristan down to the settled districts Dera Ismail Khan, Tank and Bannu in order to escape the fighting where they had to stay with relatives or renting accommodation as the government camps might not sufficient to deal the huge number of the displaced people.

On the second day of the offensive, Taliban armed with rockets and heavy weapons put up strong resistance at Sharwangi, an area of impenetrable forest high in the mountains as fighter jets bombed positions, officials said.

The details revealed that Jandola, Kotkai and Sararogha area upto Mandana, Kund and Tarakai have been secured by security forces where 30 terrorists have been killed and several injured.

The security personnel erected a checkpoint en route to Kotkai, the home town of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakeemullah Mehsud, said in a statement.

It is worth mentioning that ground forces launched the three-pronged push on Saturday, starting a much-anticipated assault in a bid to crush networks blamed for some of the worst attacks that have killed more than 2,250 people over the past two years.

‘The resistance is not as stiff as we were expecting, maybe because we are still moving and not yet reached the strongholds of the Taliban like Kotkai, Makin, Ladha and Kanigurram,’ one military official said.

About 20,000 to 25,000 troops headed into action after Pakistan vowed to act after attacks left more than 170 people dead in less than two weeks.

Jets carried out fresh air strikes on Sunday at Ladha and Makeen in the north, backing up troops who encountered resistance on the ground, a military official said on condition of anonymity.

‘The operation will continue until the objectives are achieved. The army has blocked all entry and exit points of Waziristan,’ said army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas.

Commanders have outlined an offensive lasting six to eight weeks, with the goal of finishing before the onset of harsh winter snows.

There are an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 TTP fighters in South Waziristan and up to 25,000 across Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt, which has a history of fierce independence and a powerful culture of revenge.

Its tribesmen famously resisted the British in the 19th century and its mountain terrain is pockmarked with goat tracks, caves and thick forest.

‘War in Waziristan will not be a simple one. Waziristan is like a black hole,’ Rahim Ullah Yusufzai, a tribal affairs expert said.

Pakistani officials say the number of displaced could rise to 200,000 people, who are staying mostly with relatives or renting rooms in the neighbouring districts of Tank and Dera Ismail KhanIsmail Khan.