Khyber Agency: 34 militants, 3 soldiers killed near Afghan border

Three security personnel including an officer were killed and eight others injured during a search operation in Shlobar. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

PESHAWAR: At least 34 militants and three security personnel, including an officer, were killed and eight others were injured during a search operation on Thursday in Shlobar, a sub-division Bara of Khyber Agency.

Sources said that the security personnel were carrying out a search operation in the area of Malak Din Khel when militants opened indiscriminate firing.

“There were intelligence reports of militants running a training camp in the area upon which troops entered Malak Din Khel this morning. There was stiff resistance on the part of the militants and they used heavy weapons,” said a security official while confirming the casualties.

Sources said that an officer of the rank of Captain was also amongst the killed as heavy firing was heard in the vicinity. The area is home to the banned organization Lashkar-e-Islam, against whom an active military onslaught was launched some two years back. Since then a curfew has been imposed in the area.

Nine security personnel and 15 militants were killed in Bara, in the beginning of this week when militants ambushed a vehicle of security personnel. A number of mortar shells landing on house and markets have also claimed more than nine lives in the last few days as the security situation remains turbulent.

Woman, children killed in shelling

A woman and two children were killed after mortar shells hit a house in the Shlobar area. Three people also sustained critical injuries in the incident.

Earlier on Wednesday, two mortar shells were fired at a shrine and madrassa adjacent to the house of former federal minister for Zakat and MNA from Khyber agency, Allama Noorul Haque Qadri.

One of the shells did not explode but the main gate of the madrassa was damaged by the other shell.

Khyber Agency has experienced a lot of unrest after militants constructed their hideouts in the agency. The security forces have been carrying out various search operations in the area to clear out the militants.

Around 58 schools, mostly those for girls, have also been attacked by militants in Khyber Agency since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.