Islamabad - Special forces on Wednesday secured a key town in an area of restive north-west Pakistan that was captured last week by militants as helicopters dropped troops to expand the push against the Taliban there, the military said. The rapid-deployment tactic came a day after ground forces, backed by helicopter gunships and jet aircraft, launched an offensive in the Buner Valley to flush out the rebels.

Islamabad, Apr. 29 : The Pakistan Army on Wednesday launched an areal offensive on the Taliban in Buner district.

The Pakistan army is said to be on its final leg of operations in Buner. So far, 70 Taliban fighters have been killed in the intensive offensive.

North western Buner district is about 100 kilometers from Islamabad.

Television reports said army troops are being parachuted onto strategic heights in different areas of Buner District of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to flush the militants out of the region.

Islamabad, Apr. 29 : The Taliban has forcibly captured three houses and ten shops belonging to people of the Sikh community in the Orakzai Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) after they failed to fulfill their demands of huge protection money.

According to the sources, armed Taliban gunmen forced all the 24 family members of one Kalyan Singh out of their houses and shops.

Islamabad- Pakistani security forces launched operations against the Taliban in an area captured last week by militants, a military spokesman said Tuesday. Meanwhile, troops finished a similar offensive in another northern district near Islamabad, killing up to 75 rebels, the military said.

Jet planes and helicopter gunships targeted militant positions in the mountains surrounding the Buner Valley in the Buner district, 100 kilometres north-west of Islamabad, Major General Athar Abbas told reporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, adjacent to the capital.

Islamabad, Apr 28 : Pakistan's Minister for Interior Affairs Rehman Malik said on Tuesday that nearly 450 militants were reportedly holed up in Buner and security forces killed 70 militants in Lower Dir.

Talking to journalists outside the Parliament, Malik said the government would take strict action against the miscreants.

He said that at least 70 militants had been killed in Dir operation so far while 450 others were still present in Buner.