Operation Black Thunderstorm

Operation Black Thunderstorm
Part of the War in North-West Pakistan
After the operation, the personnel of Pakistan Armed Forces hoist the Pakistan flag at the highest point of the Valley.
Date 26 April 2009 – 14 June 2009 (1 month, 2 weeks and 5 days) Location Swat Valley, Buner, Lower Dir, Shangla District, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province Result Decisive Pakistani victory Districts returned to government control Many Taliban commanders captured or killed Failure to capture or kill Maulana Fazlullah
Belligerents
Pakistan  Pakistan Army  Pakistan Air Force  Pakistan Navy	TTP TNSM
Commanders and leaders
LGen. Masood Aslam Air-Mshl. Hifazat Khan MGen. Ijaz Awan MGen. Haroon Aslam MGen. Sajjad Ghani MGen. Tariq Khan	Maulana Fazlullah Sufi Muhammad  (POW) Maulana Ameer Izzat (POW) (KIA) Syed Wahab (POW) Maulana Muhammad Alam (POW) (KIA)
Units involved
9th Infantry Division Pakistan Navy Northern Command Pakistan Marines 50th Airborne Division SSG Division No. 25th Squadron Night Strike Eagles Army Rangers Division Pro-government tribes
Strength
30,000 - 45,000 Regular and Airborne Forces 500+ SSG Division	5,000
Casualties and losses
150 + killed, 95 captured (18 rescued), 317 wounded (Military claim)	1,475 killed (23 foreign militants), 114 captured (Military claim)
Unknown number of civilians killed 3.4 million displaced

Decisive Pakistani victory

Pakistan

TTP

Operation Black Thunderstorm was an aggressive military operation that commenced on April 26, 2009 conducted by the Pakistan Army, with the aim of retaking Buner, Lower Dir, Swat and Shangla districts from the Taliban after the militants took control of them since the start of the year.

A temporary ceasefire was called in the Malakand region on February 16, 2009. The provincial government agreed to allow the implementation of Sharia in the region once violence had stopped.Sufi Muhammad traveled to Swat to discuss peace with Fazlullah and his followers, who agreed to observe the ceasefire. On February 24, 2009 Muslim Khan, spokesperson of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) publicly announced that his group would observe an indefinite ceasefire. The ANP, the governing party of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sent the bill to President Asif Ali Zardari, who delayed signing it into law until "the writ of the government [had] been established." Soon after that the militants expanded their territory into other districts and by mid-April they took Buner, Lower Dir and Shangla. With the Taliban takeover the militants came within 60 miles (97 km) of the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad. It was the closest that Taliban forces ever got to capturing the Pakistan capital, Islamabad. This raised the alarm among western countries, particularly the United States, that a collapse of the country and a Taliban takeover was playing out. The government was highly criticized for making peace deals with the militants. Therefore, the Pakistani government launched an operation in late April to retake all territory lost in the previous months.

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Wikipedia