The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Peshawar

Pakistani forces pounded militant hideouts and squeezed arms and food supply routes in the troubled northwestern Swat valley, killing more than 30 insurgents, officials said Sunday.

Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said one soldier had also been killed and three wounded in clashes with pro-Taliban fighters loyal to a radical cleric in the region.

A 24-hour curfew slapped on the area has been extended indefinitely as the security forces try to root out militant positions, provincial official Amjad Iqbal told reporters.

"The strongholds of militants are being hit. Troops have demolished their bunkers and destroyed a checkpost," he said.

Iqbal said a key supply route had been blocked and an arms depot discovered in a school had been destroyed.

He said earlier that artillery and mortar had shelled militant positions in the towns of Kabal and Shangla through the night.

The unrest in Swat erupted in July when forces of hardline cleric Maulana Fazlullah demanding the introduction of Islamic Sharia law occupied several villages.

Clashes between the security forces and Fazlullah's men have left more than 220 militants dead since last week, the military said. It put army casualties at about half a dozen soldiers.

President Pervez Musharraf, who cited growing militancy as one of the key reasons for declaring emergency rule on November 3, ordered the army to purge the area of rebels after they had made sweeping gains in recent months.

People are continuing to flee the fighting, however, and authorities have set up four tent villages for the displaced, provincial minister Imtiaz Gilani told reporters.

The Swat administration has also set up a refugee centre in a school in the region's main town of Mingora.

Bazaars, schools and banks have remained closed since last week, and some residents are reporting food shortages.

Intelligence officials said food supplies to the areas where militants are holed up had been stopped and any kind of movement was already disallowed to prevent weapons and other supplies reaching them.

Authorities have also set up their own FM radio station to counter militant propaganda by Fazlullah -- nicknamed Mullah Radio because he uses a pirate FM radio station to call for a holy war on government forces.