PESHAWAR, July 23: Army wound up its week-long operation in the troubled Hangu district on Wednesday evening after flushing out militants and taking control of the area, said the military spokesman.

The Director-General of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, said: “Security forces have achieved the desired objectives and operation was halted on Wednesday evening.”

He told Dawn by phone from Islamabad that the army had accomplished its task, but would stay in the violence-hit district as long as the provincial government wanted. The army, he said, had been able to restore confidence of the populace after clearing the area of “miscreants”.

Asked about the aims of the operation, the army spokesman said the government’s writ had been re-established, possession of all police stations and check points had been retaken and the area was now under the control of the security forces.

Army and paramilitary forces had launched a joint operation against militants in several parts of Hangu district on the request of the provincial government on July 14 two days after the Taliban ambushed a convoy of the Frontier Constabulary in Dorai, near Zargari, killing 15 personnel. Several parts of the district are still under curfew.

Gen Abbas said that about 20 militants had been killed in the operation and 30 others had been arrested. Many of them had been released, he added.

He said that security forces had destroyed hideouts of the militants in Zargari, Doaba and Neryab areas of Hangu.

Security forces launched a full-scale operation in the area when militants besieged a police station in Doaba town on July 9 after the arrest of seven suspected militants, including an associate of Baitullah Mehsud.

On Tuesday last, Tehreek Taliban Pakistan had also given a deadline to the provincial government to wind up the operation by Wednesday or face action.

Abdul Sami Paracha adds from Kohat: Sources said talks between the jirga and senior government officials remained inconclusive in Kohat on the second consecutive on Wednesday.

The jirga, comprising MNA Pir Haider Ali Shah, MPA Mufti Janan and district nazim Khan Afzal, was asked by regional coordination officer Omer Khan Afridi to wait for a reply from the Chief Minister’s House which was in touch with the corps commander for a decision on ceasefire.

The jirga had returned on Monday night after meeting the Taliban leadership in Orakzai Agency and conveyed the charter of demands to the provincial government through RCO.

Both the local administration and the NWFP government were in a fix because of a lukewarm response from the federal government to their request.

The nazim of Hangu district, Khan Afzal, said the Ulema-led jirga would not be able to initiate peace talks with Taliban unless the military agreed to a ceasefire.

He expressed a fear that “if the jirga is sent to Taliban and the military starts firing, then all peace efforts will be rendered futile and the militants may react in a ferocious manner by killing the hostages”.

HIDEOUTS SHELLED: Helicopter gunships continued shelling the hideouts of militants in Tora Waria and Zargari hills till Wednesday afternoon.