Islamabad Pakistani security forces secured control over Nato’s main supply route into Afghanistan yesterday and drove back Islamic militants threatening Peshawar, the capital of volatile North West Frontier Province (Zahid Hussain writes).

The government offensive in the Khyber region destroyed several militant hideouts, killing a senior militant commander in Bara district. Pakistani forces also occupied militant posts on the surrounding hills and imposed a curfew in the area. “It has been a successful operation. The writ of the Government has been established,” Rehman Malik, a senior Interior Ministry official, said.

More than a thousand army and paramilitary troops, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, launched the offensive in the Bara district on Saturday.

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