Islamabad, September 01: At least five Islamist militants were killed and 12 arrested Tuesday in a security operation in Pakistan’s north-western tribal area along the Afghan border, officials said.
Hundreds of soldiers from the Frontier Corps paramilitary force launched a raid at daybreak after imposing a curfew in the Khyber district’s Bara area.
“Our troops faced stiff resistance from the terrorists, and during an exchange of fire, five militants, including two commanders, were killed,” corps spokesman Major Fazalur Rehman said.
“Three soldiers were injured while the security forces destroyed three hideouts of the militants,” he added.
The operation was aimed against Lashkar-e-Islam, a militant group that has close links with the Taliban.
The organization is believed to be behind a number of terrorist attacks inside the Khyber district and the neighbouring city of Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province.
The fighting came five days after a suicide bomber detonated himself inside a checkpoint at the Torkham border crossing in the Khyber district, killing 22 officers of the tribal police, locally known as Khasadars.
The border crossing is located on the main land route used to ferry almost 75 per cent of the fuel, food and military supplies to US and NATO forces in Afghanistan from Pakistan’s port of Karachi.
Taliban militants have attacked NATO supply convoys, disrupting supplies, several times this year.
—Agencies