Check post attack in South Waziristan kills soldier

The attack took place yesterday night.

ISLAMABAD: Militants in the Ladha area of South Waziristan attacked an army check post and killed a soldier just hours after the government cancelled a round of talks with the Taliban, a security official said Tuesday. The check post attack came overnight on February 17.

"A soldier embraced shahdat (martyrdom) due to terrorist fire last night on a security forces check post in Ladha," a senior security official said.

The peace talks are in crisis two weeks after they began following a claim from the Mohmand Agency chapter of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on February 16 that they had executed 23 soldiers who were kidnapped in June 2010. The paramilitary soldiers from the Frontier Corps (FC) vanished after the TTP attacked their checkpost in Mohmand tribal district on June 17, 2010.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had called the deaths "heinous" and warned they would impact attempts at reconciliation, while government peace negotiators pulled out of scheduled talks.