| But first, you have to fight them. |
The action was visible as Cobra helicopters pounded positions outside the village of Tang Khatta, a short distance from Khar, Bajaur's main town, and ground troops fought an hour-long gun battle. Militants have regularly attacked the village compounds with rockets since they were pushed out two weeks ago.
The sound of explosions and machine guns were audible from behind Tang Khatta's thick mud walls as soldiers traded fire with the Taliban across fields hemmed in by barren mountains. The army claims it has killed over 1,000 militants in Bajaur, a place described by commanders as the "centre of gravity of the insurgency".
"The threat from Bajaur radiates in all directions," said Maj Gen Tariq Khan, the commanding officer of the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force engaged in the bulk of counter-insurgency operations in the tribal areas. "If we dismantle this here and destroy its leadership then 65 percent of militancy will be controlled. If they lose this, they lose everything."
Khar and its surroundings are deserted. Soldiers have taken over the area's numerous schools and nearly a third of Bajaur's one million people have fled the fighting. At Tang Khatta militants took cover in fields of half-harvested maize, caves and dried-up ravines a mile away.
"I wish I could take you there but they are in the nullahs [ravines]," Colonel Javaid Baloch told a group of journalists taken to the village on a visit organised by the military.
But fighting did not all go the army's way. Three officers - one of whom lost both his legs - were seriously injured.
The battle for Bajaur began only after 2,000-3,000 militants overran a paramilitary post at Loi Sam, which the military has not yet retaken. "It was like putting your hand into a wasp's hive," said Maj Gen Khan.
Militants have dug into areas with fox-holes, tunnels and trenches and over 65 troops were killed and 200 wounded. The Taliban have gathered reinforcements from the Waziristan tribal areas. Others are coming from Afghanistan. "We caught 200 crossing the border with rocket launchers from Afghanistan," said Maj Gen Khan, who appeared angry at America's failure to control the frontier. "But there is no such effort to stop them".
| It's your frontier. Why don't you control it? |