Counter-insurgency: Six militants killed in Orakzai

Militants attacked a security checkpost; security forces retaliated.

ORAKZAI:

At least six militants were killed and three security personnel were injured in a clash following an attack by militants on a security check post in Ismail Zai tehsil of the Upper Orakzai Agency on Saturday.

Sources told The Express Tribune that the clash came after militants attacked a security checkpoint in the Kurunchi area of Upper Orakzai Agency. Three security personnel, the identities of whom could not ascertained, sustained injuries in the attack. Sources said that the security forces retaliated, killing six of the attackers.

Talking to The Express Tribune, sources said that the clash came in the area close to the Mamozai area of the Upper Orakzai, the last remaining stronghold of the militants in this region.

Security forces had launched an operation in the Orakzai tribal region in March last year after reports that militants fleeing Operation Rah-e-Nijat (path of deliverance) in South Waziristan and the tribal regions were shifting to Orakzai.

Separately, security sources said that three suspected militants were arrested from Mukhtarkhel area of the Landikotal tehsil of the Khyber Agency. Sources said that the forces raided a house in the area and arrested three persons, who were later shifted to the Landikotal fort for interrogation.

Meanwhile, three militants were arrested by the security forces in the Dellay area of Teshil Kabal, Swat.

According to official sources, security forces launched a search operation after getting a tip-off regarding the presence of some suspected militants in a house in the Dellay area of Tehsil Kabal.

The security forces besieged the area and arrested three militants. They recovered huge amounts of weapons from their custody. Two of the three militants were identified as Abdullah, a resident of Ningolai, and Minhaj, a resident of Dellay. The arrested militants were wanted by the law enforcement agencies for targeted killings and anti-state activities.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2011.