[Dawn] The military took control of the last resistance point in Shahu Khel, leaving seven militants dead and scores of them injured after a gun battle on Monday. The death toll of militants rose to 20 after clashes with security forces over the control of Shahu Khel in Hangu district. The security forces also arrested 16 fleeing militants and shifted them to an unknown location for interrogation.
The migration of women and children continued from various parts of the Upper Orakzai Agency to safer places in Hangu as militants and security forces were braced for another long encounter in the area.
Large number of troops started consolidating their position in Shahu Khel to target hideouts of banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in Upper Orakzai Agency.
Official sources said that the military had moved in artillery and were establishing a base camp along the border with Orakzai Agency to make more precise strikes at the hideouts of the militants.
This would be the first time that the military's ground troops would enter any part of the Orakzai Agency in the past eight years if everything went according to plan.
Earlier only gunship helicopters and jets were sent to the area, which pounded the hideouts of militants in bazaars and houses resulting in heavy civilian casualties.