Pakistan Army Tuesday said that Miranshah, which was once a bastion of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), had been de-militantized.
“About 80 percent of Miranshah has been purged of all kinds of militant elements, while troops are rolling into Mirali, where we reckon to meet a far heavier resistance than we had put up with in the former”, said DG Inter-Services Public Relations Asim Saleem Bajwa in a press briefing here.
He also told the mediamen that a key Taliban commander, Mutiullah, had also been killed in Mirali.
Bajwa said that the militants had set up a market in Miranshah where all kinds of explosives, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and firearms were traded.
“An IED with a capability of killing 20 people could be bought for just Rs80,000 form that Barood Bazaar”, he said.
“So far we have seized/destroyed at least 15 bomb-making facilities, 250 suicide bombing vests, and no less than 23 tons of explosive material”, he said.
