2 govt. troopers, 6 militants killed in fierce clashes in northwestern Pakistan
At least six militants and two government troopers have been killed in an intense gunfight in a northwestern Pakistani tribal district bordering Afghanistan, military and local security officials said.
According to a military statement, the deadly clash occurred in South Waziristan's Spina Mela village on Saturday when security forces, tipped off about the presence of militants in the rural area, attacked the militants’ hideout.
Following an exchange of heavy fire, two soldiers lost their lives and six militants, including a most wanted criminal accused of murdering a number of local elders and tribesmen, were gunned down, it added.
The soldiers also managed to seize weapons, ammunition and devices, through which militants were in communication with handlers across the border in the Afghan province of Paktia, the military further said.
Recently, the civil rights group Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) has been calling for ridding the restless region near Afghanistan's border of militants with purported links to Taliban. There have also been clashes between the PTM fighters and militants in the recent past.
A number of ethnic Pashtun activists were killed earlier month in an attack by Taliban militant group and a following police operation in the region. Pashtun activists accused security forces of firing indiscriminately at protesters after Taliban attacked a PTM gathering.
The movement seeks compensation for the alleged state-organized killings of thousands of Pashtuns during the so-called US-led war on terror, which Pakistan joined in 2001, and also during a crackdown by the Pakistani military against militant positions in tribal areas between 2009 and 2014.
Pakistan and Afghanistan regularly accuse each other of sheltering their enemy insurgents. The two sides also accuse each other of not doing enough to stop militants engaging in cross-border raids.
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