Nine Paramilitary Personnel Killed by Pakistani Taliban
Local Editor
Pakistani Taliban militants on Thursday shot and killed at least nine security forces personnel in two separate attacks in a volatile northwestern region.
Since 2007, Taliban have been waging an insurgency in the area around Mohmand, about 177 km from the capital city of Islamabad to demand imposition of a strict interpretation of sharia, or Muslim religious law.
Although several military operations reduced the number of large-scale militant attacks in the region, yet security forces and civilians are occasionally still targeted.
Senior government official in Mohmand, Naveed Akbar, said that two members of the Khasadar paramilitary force on guard duty were shot dead, followed by an attack on a village check post in Akar that killed seven.
Another government official, Khyal Nabi, confirmed the death toll, saying the bodies were being handed over to their families for burial.
Relatively, the Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
"Jamaat-ur-Ahrar accepts responsibility for both attacks with this vow that until the imposition of sharia our attacks will remain ongoing, God willing," spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said in an email statement sent to Reuters.
Earlier last month, militants killed at least 20 people, mostly students, at the Bacha Khan University, about 48 km from the sites of Thursday's attacks.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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