Exchange of fire: Security officer killed in TTP attack

LAKKI MARWAT:

A security official was killed and five others, including a high ranking official, were injured in a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan attack on a security convoy in the Frontier Region (FR) Lakki Marwat on Monday, said a government official.

However, independent sources from the area claimed that three security personnel were killed while two were injured in the attack.

A government official while talking to The Express Tribune said that a convoy of security forces, on a routine trip, was ambushed by militants in the mountainous region of Madi Khel, a buffer zone between the North and South Waziristan agencies.

The official said that the forces exchanged heavy gunfire with militants, forcing them to flee. He added that after the incident, security forces launched a search operation in the region. However, no one was arrested.

Casualties were rushed to the Combined Military Hospital in Bannu.

Meanwhile, talking to the journalists from an undisclosed location, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) South Waziristan spokesperson Asimullah Mehsud claimed  responsibility for the attack on the forces convey, adding that the group had killed 10 personnel and injured three others. “Our fighters destroyed four vehicles and injured three of them,” the spokesperson said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2012.