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Pakistan will defeat Taliban, must win hearts: PM
Thu May 14, 2009 9:41am EDT
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By Robert Birsel
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan will defeat the Taliban militarily but could lose the public relations war if it fails to help the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the fighting, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said on Thursday.
The army launched an offensive in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, last week after the United States accused the nuclear-armed country's government of "abdicating" to the militants.
At least 830,000 people have fled from their homes, joining more than 500,000 displaced by earlier fighting in the northwest.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, visiting a camp for the displaced, said Pakistan needed massive international help to avert a tragedy.
Gilani said the government planned a conference of aid donors but said he also expected the Pakistani people to help.
"Militarily we will win the war but it will be unfortunate if we loose it publicly," Gilani told the National Assembly.
Most political parties and members of the public support the offensive, despite widespread doubts about a close alliance with the United States in its campaign against militancy.
But opposition will grow if many civilians are killed in the fighting or if the displaced are seen to be enduring undue hardship.
The offensive was launched when President Asif Ali Zardari was in Washington assuring the United States his government was not about to collapse and was committed to fighting militancy.
Pakistani action against militants in its northwest is vital for U.S. efforts to defeat al Qaeda and stabilize neighboring Afghanistan.
About 15,000 members of the security forces are facing about 5,000 militants in the Swat region, the military says.
The military said there had been heavy fighting in a Taliban stronghold in the Peochar valley, a side valley running northwest off the main Swat valley, and in an area near the region's main town, Mingora, which the Taliban still hold.
"The operation is progressing well ... We have achieved considerable progress," military spokesman Major-Genral Athar Abbas told a briefing.
Abbas said 54 militants and nine soldiers had been killed in the previous 24 hours. That would take the toll to more than 800 militants and 45 soldiers. Reporters have left Swat and there was no independent confirmation of the casualties.
The military has said there have been no reports of civilian casualties in its actions as soldiers were targeting militants in mountains and urban warfare had not started. Though Abbas said that would come. Continued...
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