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 Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan after the militants took control of them since the start of the year. Background 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 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. Operation Attack on Lower Dir 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 operation was launched on April 26, after the Taliban, in violation of the peace agreement, attacked security forces and government officials and closed roads for the movement of government and FC convoys. In some villages, the Taliban had looted shops and tortured villagers to gain their support, adding that a jirga had also been forced to back them. Officials said the forces were gaining ground against the Taliban and their hideouts in Kalkot, Islam Dara and Hoshyari Dara were targeted. Paramilitary troops and helicopter gunships bombed suspected Taliban bases during the operation. Eight soldiers and around 50 militants were killed in two days of fighting. The operation mostly cleared the Lower Dir