35 soldiers go missing in Mohmand Agency

More than 30 Pakistani troops were missing after an attack earlier in the week by Afghan Taliban on a border post.

More than 30 Pakistani troops were missing on Wednesday after an attack earlier in the week by Afghan Taliban on a border post, with the militants claiming to hold dozens of soldiers captive, the Pakistan Army said.

Major General Athar Abbas, spokesman for the Pakistan Army, confirmed the Monday attack and said 40 Frontier Corps troops were missing after the post on the border between Mohmand and Bajaur agencies was overrun by Afghan Taliban.

Militants handed over five troops to the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, but the whereabouts of the remaining 35 were unknown, he said.

Other sources put the figure of missing soldiers at 50-plus after the attack on the checkpoint in Mohmand Agency, close to the border with Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday.

Suspected militants stormed the Gwar Pari post in Mohmand Agency on Sunday. The same day, a Taliban spokesperson had claimed that they had killed seven soldiers and captured 10. But officials refused to confirm the Taliban claim, saying that “we have not seen the bodies.”

“Sixty-five troops were manning the post, of these 11 have returned, while the remaining are still missing,” an official said on condition of anonymity.
Afghan authorities, meanwhile, said 10 Pakistani soldiers, one of them wounded, had entered Kunar province over the past few days. “We handed them to the Pakistan consulate in Jalalabad,” border police commander Muhammad Afzal said.

“It is very likely that some soldiers might have crossed into Afghanistan,” another senior security official said.

In the neighbouring Bajaur Agency, at least 38 suspected militants were killed in an attack by security forces in the Khar sub-division, officials said. At least 10 paramilitary troops were also killed in the attack, AFP news agency quoted security officials as saying.

Local administration official Tahir Khan said helicopter gunships and long range artillery opened fire, following intelligence reports that some militants had infiltrated from Mohmand Agency.

Eleven militants have been arrested and a large cache of arms and ammunitions recovered in the operation.

Security forces started the operation in Anzarai, Massai and Ghundo areas of Khar tehsil. Sources said a large number of militants were present in this region and were using remote mountainous areas as their hideouts.

They said the area offered the militants easy escape routes in case of attacks by security forces.

“If their (militants) positions are attacked in Mohmand, they come to Bajaur and if they are attacked in Bajaur then they go to Mohmand,” a resident told The Express Tribune.

Bajaur administration chief Zakir Hussain Afridi confirmed the official death toll to reporters as he showed 18 bodies of suspected militants.

Security forces destroyed two militant hideouts and arrested 23 militants during clashes, he added.

Security forces claimed victory against militants in Bajaur Agency in February 2009 but violence returned when the military switched attention to fighting militants in South Waziristan and Swat.

Troops mounted another offensive in Bajaur on March 3 and announced an end to the two-year-long military operation codenamed Sherdil (Lion Heart).

Officials said suspected militants had issued pamphlets warning their comrades not to surrender or accept government job offers.

Posters have also been pasted in markets and at mosques, local administration chief Adalat Khan told AFP.

“The move appears to be a Taliban effort to terrorise people and say they are still present in the area,” he said.

The government fixed June 30 as a deadline for militants to surrender in return for jobs on the local police force, officials said.

Failure to surrender would see their homes destroyed, they added.

In the adjoining Swat district, two peace committee members were killed by unidentified militants.

The incident happened in Charbagh Magwlatan village, 28 kilometres away from Mingora city.

The dead men – Bahadar Khan and Bacha Khan -- were cousins and active members of the local peace committee. After the incident, security forces surrounded the area and started a search operation, killing five Taliban in clashes. (Agencies with additional input from Manzoor Ali Shah)

Published in the Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2010.