Check post attacked: Eight troops, 20 militants killed in Orakzai clash

Attackers came from Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency

HANGU/ BAJAUR:

At least eight paramilitary troops were killed and four injured when militants stormed a check post in Lower Orakzai Agency Saturday morning, officials said, adding that the deadly attack triggered retaliatory action from the security forces which left 20 militants dead.

Around 50 heavily armed militants attacked the Zawan check post in the Sherin Darra area of Lower Orakzai around 3am, a security official said. The attackers had crossed over from the Aka Khel area of Khyber Agency’s remote Tirah Valley where a military operation has been under way since mid-October, he added.



Tirah Valley, a potpourri of extremist groups of different hues, is strategically located on the confluence of borders between Khyber, Orakzai and Kurram tribal regions. Reportedly, several Taliban militants fleeing Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan Agency have sneaked into Khyber using this route.

The official said the Orakzai Scouts personnel manning the check post successfully repulsed the first attack. The militants temporarily retreated, regrouped and mounted another attack – this time overrunning the check post. Six scouts were killed and as many injured in the attack, two of which succumbed to their injuries while they were flown to a military hospital in Kohat.



The attackers retreated after reinforcements reached the site from other security check posts in the Sherin Darra area, the official said. The paramilitary troops, aided by helicopter gunships, chased the retreating militants and killed around 20 of them before they could reach their hideouts in Tirah.

He said that the security forces blocked all the entry and exit points of the area and launched a search operation. However, it wasn’t immediately known if any suspects were detained. The official added that militants from the Mangal Bagh-led banned extremist outfit Lashkar-e-Islam could be involved in the attack.

The official said security check posts have frequently been attacked in the area due to its proximity with the restive Tirah Valley. Taking advantage of the difficult mountainous terrain, they sneak in from Tirah, attack security check posts and return to their hideouts, he added.

On Friday morning, Hawaldar Yasin of Orakzai Scouts was killed in a sniper attack by militants on the same check post, while a day earlier militants had also attacked this check post, killing one soldier.

It was the second deadliest attack on the security forces since Operation Khyber-I was launched in the troubled Bara and Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency on Oct 17. Eight paramilitary troops were killed in a fierce clash during a major clearance operation in the Spin Qamar area of Bara on Wednesday. Twenty-one militants were also killed in the clash, according to the military.

Separately, a Levies official was killed and another was injured in roadside bomb attack in Bajaur Agency Saturday morning.

A Levies patrol vehicle hit an improvised explosive device planted on a roadside in the Kamar Sar area of Mamond tehsil, an official of the region’s political administration told The Express Tribune.

One Levies man, identified as Wahab Khan, died on the spot and another received shrapnel wounds. The injured was shifted to the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Khar. Levies personnel rounded up some suspects in a search operation that followed the blast.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack. Bajaur Agency shares a border with eastern Afghan province of Kunar where TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah and his fighters have found sanctuaries.

They have been using their Afghan bases as a springboard for launching attacks in the border areas of Pakistan.


Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2014.