Pakistani victory[2][3][4][5][6][7] Asif Ali Zardari(President) Tariq Majid(Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff) Ashfaq Pervez Kayani(Chief of Army Staff) Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed(Chief of Air Staff) Operation commanders Pakistan Armed Forces Operation Black Thunderstorm[11] was a military operation that commenced on 26 April 2009, conducted by the Pakistan Army, with the aim of retaking Buner, Lower Dir, Swat and Shangla districts from the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan after the militants took control of them since the start of the year.

[14][15][17] On 24 February 2009 Muslim Khan, spokesperson of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) publicly announced that his group would observe an indefinite ceasefire.

Operation Toar Tander-I (Black Thunderstorm-I) began in Lower Dir as the Frontier Corps (FC) killed 26 Taliban, including key commanders Maulana Shahid and Qari Quraish.

The Pakistan Army's push to retake control of Buner, which was only 100 kilometres (62 mi) away from the capital city Islamabad, started.

[22] Pakistan Army leaders hoped to trap about 500 militants in between the 50th Airborne forces and SSG Division's teams that were advancing on the ground towards Taliban positions at the valley's entrance.

6 Squadron Globe Trotters transport aircraft where hundreds of additional members of 50th Airborne Division, Special Services Group - Navy, 4th SOS Squadron, 140th Expeditionary Marines Battalion and the 1st Commando Yildiram Battalion, SSG jumped off in the dark night of 31 April,[dubious – discuss] and landed in different areas of Buner where they had taken the strategic positions.

The operation in Daggar came on the third day of the Army's offensive to roll back the Taliban advance that had caused concern not just in Islamabad – which is just 65 miles away – but also in Washington.

Major General Athar Abbas, a military spokesman, told reporters in Rawalpindi that the Army and Frontier Corps paramilitary units launched the operation in Buner district, building on a several-day offensive in the region.

The US had been repeatedly pressing the Pakistan government to take action, fearful that the militants were gaining too much ground and might even use Buner as a bridgehead for an attack on Islamabad.

[25][26] On 5 May, the third phase of the operation started as airborne troops boarded on C-130 transport aircraft, jumped off and stormed the militant-held valley of Swat.

The emerald mines were secured by the Army's 50th Airborne division by 7 May, but the militants were still holding their positions in Mingora and on a strategic hilltop overlooking the town.

On the midnight of 10 May, additional airborne troops with small teams of Pakistan Navy SEALs jumped off from C-130 transport aircraft, and attacked a Taliban hidden training camp at Banai Baba in Shangla district, which is just east from Swat.

On 12 May, Pakistani SSG commandos were inserted by helicopters into the Piochar area, a rear-support base for the militants in the northern part of the Swat valley, to conduct search-and-destroy operations.

As the military approached Mingora, the Taliban were digging in for a "bloody urban battle" against the Pakistani army's airborne forces in a hotly disputed city in the north-western part of the country.

[37] On 23 May, the battle for the capital of Swat, Mingora, started as the small teams belonging to SSG Division accompanied with Army Rangers stormed the city.

Those two aides, Muhammad Maulana Alam and Ameer Izzat Khan, were killed when militants attacked the prison transport they were in on 7 June.

[49] After a bomb explosion in Hayagai Sharki village's masjid in Dir, which killed 38 civilians,[49] local tribesmen, between 1,000 and 1,500, formed a lashkar (citizen's militia) and retaliated against the Taliban and TNSM by taking up arms and surrounding almost 300 militants.

[49] In support of the Lashkars, the Pakistan Military sent its helicopter gunships to the villages of Shatkas and Ghazi Gai where the heaviest fighting was ongoing.

[52] On 14 June, the operation ended with Pakistani troops consolidating their positions in the four districts and going after the remaining pockets of resistance, primarily in the Swat valley.

[52][53][54][55][56][57] On 13 May 2009, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani revealed on The Daily Show to Jon Stewart that Pakistan's decision to strike a peace deal with Taliban militants earlier, which effectively ceded control of large swathes of the country's northwest, was all part of a cunning plan to fool the Taliban, which is now coming to fruition with the commencement of Operation Black Thunderstorm.

The ambassador mentioned to Jon Stewart that President Asif Ali Zardari's signing of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation, which was the Swat peace deal, was nothing more than a trick to lure the Taliban from the mountains and countryside to the main towns where it would be much easier for the Pakistani military to kill or capture them.

According to a White house press release, the United States and NATO were working with Pakistan to find out who's providing the financial support and what routes were they using to smuggle the weapons.

Parliamentarian Khawaja Muhammad Asif of Pakistan Muslim League-N held a press conference in the Parliament media lounge, where he warned Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

After the convincing evidence, Pakistan, along with United States and NATO, found out the significant routes that were using to supply heavy weaponry to Talibans.

During the battle, Pakistani special forces also successfully secured NATO's supply-line trucks that were constantly targeted by the Taliban fighters.

After a day long battle, Taliban began to flee from the area at night, but while trying to escape, the SSG and the Ranger teams had intercepted their hiding locations.

An ambush led by the Pakistani special forces, the SSG and Ranger's Ninth Wing Company, killed large number of the remaining Taliban fighters.