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PESHAWAR (Agencies) Nineteen members of paramilitary forces were killed in Taliban attacks on a checkpost near the Afghan border, security officials said Friday.
Officials told the BBC that Afghan militants had crossed the border and stormed the army post in the Lower Dir area. Local sources said the attack by the unidentified gunmen on a checkpost in the Kharki area of Lower Dir, an area bordering Afghanistans insurgency-hit Nuristan province, was launched at around 4 am Thursday. The attackers came from across the Durand Line border and entered Pakistani territory and attacked the post with heavy weapons before storming it and overpowering the FC personnel and policemen.
Around 200 armed militants had surrounded the post, a security official said.
He said 14 of the security forces died in the ambush on Thursday, and a further two were killed in a subsequent attack on troops later sent to reinforce the position.
In the first attack, fourteen people were killed including nine Frontier Corps soldiers and five police officials, the official said, adding that five or six other members of the security forces were wounded.
However, three injured soldiers were succumbed to their wounds later during treatment raising the death toll to 19.
The sources said that contingents of the FC and the police rushed to the scene shortly after the attack but the gunmen ambushed them too and further casualties took place. The sources said later the Pakistan army gunship helicopters pounded the mountainous area in the Kharki area and soldiers were dispatched to the area to reinforce the personnel at the border.
Local police official Saleem Marwat told AFP that dozens of militants had seized control of the post on Thursday afternoon for the second time, after troops had managed to recapture their outpost overnight.
According to the BBC, local people blamed the Nato forces and the Afghan security personnel for the attack on the Pakistani border post.
Meanwhile, people from different areas of Lower Dir have started moving to safer places due to repeated attacks of militants and security forces operations.
19 troops killed in Dir attack | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online
Officials told the BBC that Afghan militants had crossed the border and stormed the army post in the Lower Dir area. Local sources said the attack by the unidentified gunmen on a checkpost in the Kharki area of Lower Dir, an area bordering Afghanistans insurgency-hit Nuristan province, was launched at around 4 am Thursday. The attackers came from across the Durand Line border and entered Pakistani territory and attacked the post with heavy weapons before storming it and overpowering the FC personnel and policemen.
Around 200 armed militants had surrounded the post, a security official said.
He said 14 of the security forces died in the ambush on Thursday, and a further two were killed in a subsequent attack on troops later sent to reinforce the position.
In the first attack, fourteen people were killed including nine Frontier Corps soldiers and five police officials, the official said, adding that five or six other members of the security forces were wounded.
However, three injured soldiers were succumbed to their wounds later during treatment raising the death toll to 19.
The sources said that contingents of the FC and the police rushed to the scene shortly after the attack but the gunmen ambushed them too and further casualties took place. The sources said later the Pakistan army gunship helicopters pounded the mountainous area in the Kharki area and soldiers were dispatched to the area to reinforce the personnel at the border.
Local police official Saleem Marwat told AFP that dozens of militants had seized control of the post on Thursday afternoon for the second time, after troops had managed to recapture their outpost overnight.
According to the BBC, local people blamed the Nato forces and the Afghan security personnel for the attack on the Pakistani border post.
Meanwhile, people from different areas of Lower Dir have started moving to safer places due to repeated attacks of militants and security forces operations.
19 troops killed in Dir attack | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online
