One of the top al Qaeda leaders, Tahir Yuldashev, has been injured during a military operation against the miscreants, a spokesman of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Saturday.
In a statement, the spokesman said intelligence sources and other information gathered from those apprehended during operation indicate that over sixty miscreants have been killed, while scores of them injured since March 16.
"Sources have confirmed that Tahir Yuldashev, one of the top al Qaeda leader along with his facilitators was also injured in that operation and is now hiding some where," he added.
Yuldashev is the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and was accused of a series of bomb blasts in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, in 1999.
Over 160 miscreants have been arrested so far.
Dilating upon the situation in Wana area, the spokesman said the operation is in its final stages and its objectives have been largely achieved.
"A hardened den of miscreants has been completely dismantled", he said while adding, those locals giving refuge to foreign elements have been uncovered and earlier reports of the presence of foreign elements in that particular area are confirmed.
He said arms and equipment recovered from the area indicate the involvement of these elements in terrorist activities in the country.
"A variety of explosives, time bomb devices, communication equipment and wide-range of weaponry retrieved from the stronghold, the type of fighting, trenches and tunnel in the area are indication of their involvement in terrorist activities," he said.
Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan described as inhuman the point-blank shooting of eight soldiers deployed in its largest operation yet against al Qaeda terrorists and promised a "thought-out" response.
The bodies of the eight men were found in a ditch on Friday around eight kilometres from the site of a March 22 ambush by terrorists on a military convoy which left 12 soldiers dead and 20 others wounded.
The killings were "inhuman, cold-blooded murders," Major-General Shaukat Sultan said, adding the government was considering its response.
"Our response will be very well thought out and it has to be based on pragmatism rather than any kind of emotional outburst," he told AFP.
"We would not like innocent civilians to get killed at the same time."
Meanwhile five rockets slammed into a village east of Wana that is inhabited by the Mehsood tribe which supports the government campaign against al Qaeda, Sultan said.
Two civilians were feared dead in the attack, which officials believed could have been carried out in retaliation for the tribe's support of the military campaign.
Pamphlets have been circulated in the tribal territory warning elders of serious consequences if they cooperate with the authorities, residents said.
"Pamphlets are being circulated in the area, urging the tribesmen to join hands with al Qaeda and Taleban and vowing to attack those who do not comply with the order," Wana resident Ameer Khan told AFP by telephone.
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