44 militants and 17 soldiers among 64 persons killed in NWFP during June 22 – 28, 2009

Source: Dawn; Daily Times; The News, June 23-29, 2009.

In the Upper Dir District, four Taliban militants were killed and five others injured in a clash with a local Lashkar (tribal militia) in the Ghazi Gai area on June 27. Earlier, SFs killed seven Taliban militants in clashes in parts of the Dir and Swat Districts on June 24, while six soldiers, including two officers, were also killed. Elsewhere in the province, three Policemen, including an officer, were killed when some miscreants fired rockets and mortar shells at the Arbab Tapu check-post in the jurisdiction of Matani Police Station of provincial capital Peshawar in the early hours of June 24. Further, one member each from the Baitullah and Abdullah Mehsud groups - rival Taliban factions - were killed in a clash at Tank bazaar in the Tank District on June 24.
Six militants were killed on June 23 in the Shadas village of Maidan area in Lower Dir District when gunship helicopters targeted the house of a local Taliban commander, identified as Miftahud Din alias Shabar. Further, five army men, including a Major and Captain, were killed when a unit of the Baloch Regiment was ambushed at Charbagh in the Malakand Division at 7pm on June 23.
A Taliban commander from South Waziristan opposed to the TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud and part of an apparent plan to isolate the leader of the Pakistan Taliban from his tribesmen ahead of a likely military operation in the area was shot dead in the morning of June 23. Qari Zainuddin, a 26-year-old Mehsud tribesman, who led his own group of militants, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman in his office in Dera Ismail Khan, from where he had recently given interviews to Pakistani and international media denouncing Baitullah Mehsud as an "agent" of America and India. Qari Zainuddin, leader of the Abdullah Group, was shot dead by his guard, Gulbuddin Mehsud, Police official Salahuddin told reporters.
The ISPR Director-General Major General Athar Abbas said at a media briefing in Islamabad on June 22 that the SFs are in the final phase of eliminating terrorist hideouts and camps in Swat. Abbas said: "In the north, Biha Valley — the last stronghold of terrorists — has been fully secured and in the west, Shamozai area is being cleared. Search operations are being carried out in the secured areas to ensure that they are safe for the return of the internally displaced persons (IDPs)." The military spokesman also said various search and cordon operations were conducted by security forces whereby neutralising a number of IEDs and destroying a number of small and big tunnels, while 22 more terrorists were killed in Malakand. Athar Abbas said so far 1,592 terrorists had been killed in the operation while 60 to 70 others had been arrested. In addition, two Policemen were killed and seven people, including three Policemen, sustained injuries when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the Thakot Police check-post in Battagram District on June 22, completely destroying the check-post. The attack was the first-ever suicide attack in Battagram District. Separately, three persons, including two women, were killed and another sustained injuries when a rocket hit a house in Zardad Killay in the jurisdiction of Hovaid Police Station of Bannu District on June 22.