Islamabad: Pakistani army commandos airdropped from helicopters on Wednesday retook the key main town of Daggar as other security force formations advancing under the cover of fighter jets and heavy artillery pushed back Taliban from most of Buner district, killing at least 50 militants.
The army in separate operations also managed to free 18 of the 70 police and frontier constabulary personnel being held hostage by the Taliban in the region and cleared the militants from a number of police stations and public buildings which they had wrested.
Chief military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said one security personnel was killed and three others were killed in the fighting.
He said the commandos who had been airdropped had linked up with police and frontier constabulary personnel in the Daggar town which has a population of 25,000.
The district coordination officer was also airlifted to the town to take over the reins of administration which had been paralysed after nearly 400 to 500 heavily armed Taliban occupied the region.
Fighters jets and helicopter gunship struck well entrenched Taliban defences, atop mountains in various hamlets of Buner, just 60 kilometres from Islamabad as security forces forced the Taliban militants to move back to Swat valley.