BANNU: Four Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel and three militants were killed in two separate attacks when militants attacked a checkpost jointly manned by police and FC personnel in the Miran police precincts in Bannu as well as a checkpost in Tiarza on Wednesday.Miran police station duty officer Qudratullah told Daily Times by phone that unidentified militants attacked the Norar checkpost, 12 kilometres from Bannu, at around 2:45am on Wednesday. He said that three FC men died in the attack, while three attackers were killed and two injured in retaliatory firing.
However, the attackers managed to take their injured accomplices with them. Qudratullah said the militants attacked the checkpost from two sides and used rockets and other weapons. He said there were 10 FC personnel and seven policemen present at the checkpost at the time of the attack. The dead officials are havaldar Saeed Amin, lance naik Ishaq Ali and sepoy Bedar Bakht. In another incident in South Waziristan Agency, militants fired rockets at the Tiarza checkpost, injuring six soldiers, military spokesman Maj Gen Wahid Arshad told Daily Times.
However, sources in Wana told Daily Times that one soldier was killed when militants fired at a military transport helicopter that was landing at the Tiarza helipad. Maj Gen Arshad rejected the report, saying that the militants attacked the security checkpost and not the helicopter.
He told AFP that the soldier later died of injuries sustained during the battle. Meanwhile, MNA Maulana Mirajuddin of the MMA has reached an undisclosed area in South Waziristan to hold talks with militants who recently kidnapped 15 FC soldiers.