Peshawar: Pakistan’s military sources have said that 2500 military and paramilitary troops were suddenly deployed in Swat area, N.W.F.P, where a pro-Taliban militant group led by Maulana Fazlullah is active for past few years.
Eyewitnesses told media that the forces were suddenly positioned at government building on Wednesday morning which sealed all external roads, reported BBC Urdu news site.
They added that the schools and educational institutions were closed and the scared people thought that a military operation against the militants was likely to begin.
Maulana Fazlullah is son-in-law of Maulan Sofi Mohammad, head of the banned Tanzeem Nifaz-e-Shariat of Malakand, who had sent thousands of Pakistanis to Afghanistan for jihad against the Coalition Forces and Northern Alliance. They were later mass killed by the NA fighters. Maulana Sofi Mohammad was arrested and sent to prison after he lost all his men to the NA and returned to Pakistan.
Now his son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah is active in the area where he preaches on FM radios against the government of Pakistan. His militants were accused to being involved in attacks on schools, police, military conveys, shops, NGOs and some residents of the area who don’t like his activities.
The Maulana has warned many times to launch a jihad of suicide attacks against the government if military operation was initiated against them. A month ago, his men held policemen as hostage and demanded of the release of his militants who were captured on the charge of an explosion.
Since the Maulana’s militants are active in the area, the people are terrorized by continuously bomb explosions, suicide attacks, target killings and attacks on markets. Only one week ago, he ordered people to give him Ushar, one tenth of their products for his jihad.
The Caretaker Chief Minister of N.W.F.P. Shamsul Malik on Wednesday when talking to reporters denied that there was any preparation for military operation in Swat however; he said that if military operation was required for the stability of peace in the area, the government will launch it.