Members of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed and militants from South Waziristan tribal region are fighting alongside some 5,000 Taliban fighters in Pakistan's restive Swat valley, chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said on Friday.
The military estimates there are about 4,000 to 5,000 militants in Swat and they have been joined by fighters from
South Waziristan and "splinter groups of the Jaish-e-Mohammed" from Punjab, Abbas said a day after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called in the armed forces to eliminate terrorists and extremists.
The Taliban in Swat are "battle-hardy" militants who had learned from fighting the security forces over the past few years, Abbas told
Dawn News channel.
Noting that the people had seen the "real face" of the Taliban in Swat in the recent past, he said: "The people have
now realised that their agenda goes much beyond the Nizam-e-Adl (Regulation) or Shariah courts.They have a design to expand their objectives and therefore the reason for going into Buner and Dir (districts)
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