Six militants from Afghanistan killed in Upper Dir: Officials

Dozens of militants had infiltrated the Afghan border to attack a checkpost.

PESHAWAR: Security officials on Monday said dozens of militants infiltrated the Afghan border to attack a checkpost in a northwestern district for the second time in eight days.

Officials said six militants were killed in the incident on Sunday.

The militants were killed after crossing into Sabir Killey village in the Soni Darr area of Upper Dir district and one of the officials told AFP that the "firefight continued late into the night".

Another official said there were reports that "hundreds of militants" were gathering in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar and might try to infiltrate again.

"Authorities have alerted local lashkars amid fears of a bigger clash," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Intelligence officials say the attackers are loyalists of Pakistani cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who fled into Afghanistan when the army recaptured the Swat valley after a two-year Taliban insurgency ended in 2009.

Swat neighbours Upper Dir, which is a key transit route between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The valley was once a popular tourism destination and unlike the semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, lies just 100 kilometres from Islamabad.

The Taliban released a video showing severed heads of 17 Pakistani soldiers who they said were killed in a similar cross-border attack on a check post in Soni Darr on June 24.

A senior official confirmed that all 17 in the video were security personnel.