KHAR/GHALANAI, Aug 6: Security forces recaptured on Wednesday the strategic Lowi Sam area in Bajour agency which has been a stronghold of local Taliban for sometime.

Backed by artillery and helicopter gunships, troops pounded militants’ positions with mortar shells, sources told Dawn.

The militants fired rockets from the adjacent areas of Bhai Cheena and Niag Banda. There were no reports of any casualty till the filing of this report.

The agency’s assistant political agent Mohammad Iqbal Khan confirmed that the forces had re-established control over Lowi Sam, some 12 kilometres from Khar, after ten months.

Hundreds of Frontier Corps and Bajaur Levies personnel, backed by artillery and armour, advanced to the Lowi Sam area and occupied the checkposts which had been abandoned by the Levies about 10 months ago.

According to sources, Lowi Sam, a trade centre of the agency, remained closed on Wednesday during the movement of tanks and armoured personnel carriers.

The forces erected barricades on link roads and routes used by the militants and started setting up bunkers at various places.

The sources said local people welcomed the forces. However, the movement of tanks created panic in the area with people fearing that a military operation was being launched.

Lowi Sam link Khar with Nawagai and Peshawar. After Taliban took control of the location, the government’s writ was confined to civil Kalony Khar where most of the offices and residences of the political administration are located. The Taliban had set up a Markaz and Sharia court in the area.

Paramilitary forces vacated the Ghazi Beg check post and moved forward to Afghan border because people started mass exodus in fear of a possible military operation in Mohmand agency on Wednesday.

The FC was manning the Ghazi Beg checkpost, some 25 kilometres north of Ghalanai, the sources said, adding that it had advanced to areas along the Afghanistan border to double the number of troops on the checkposts.

Thousands of tribesmen have left their homes in Ghazi Beg, Atokhel, Qandaharo and Khwayzai tehsils and are moving to other places fearing severe clashes in the region.