[Dawn] Dozens of snuffies coming from Afghanistan took scores of villagers hostage in Pakistain's northwest Thursday, sparking fighting that killed at least 10 people, Pak officials said.The snuffies who staged the cross-border attack appeared to be targeting members of an anti-Taliban militia in Katkot village near Pakistain's Bajaur tribal area, said Tariq Khan, a local government official.
Pakistain has railed against Afghan and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
forces for not doing enough to stop Afghanistan-based snuffies from launching cross-border attacks, but has received little sympathy. The US and Afghan governments, on the other hand, have long complained that Pakistain allows sanctuary to snuffies fighting in Afghanistan.
The snuffies who attacked Thursday came from Afghanistan's Kunar province
... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country.....
and took hundreds of villagers hostage, including anti-Taliban militiamen, said Khan.
The Mighty Pak Army surrounded the village and killed eight krazed killers, prompting the faceless myrmidons to retaliate by shooting to death two militiamen, he added.
Soldiers have retrieved scores of villagers, but dozens more are still held by the snuffies or trapped in their homes by the fighting, said Khan and two security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The army called in gunship helicopters for support but have not used them yet for fear of civilian casualties, said Khan.
The information could not be independently verified because the area is largely off-limits to news hounds.
The Pak military launched a massive offensive against the Taliban in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
's Swat
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...Valley in 2009, and many snuffies were captured and imprisoned.
The leader of the Taliban in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, escaped and is believed to be based in eastern Afghanistan, where he has been sending fighters back across the border to attack northwest Pakistain.
The Pak Taliban have killed thousands of soldiers, police and civilians over the past few years, declaring war on the government to get it to break ties with the United States and establish Islamic law throughout the country.