Authorities retrieved 15 bodies of army commandos killed in clashes with tribal militants near the Afghan border through a pro-Taliban cleric in North Waziristan on Monday. Tricked into talks: “I was called to the military base [in Miranshah] where army officers told me I have to accompany them to Shawal to recover the bodies of killed militants. But when we reached Shawal, they changed their story,” Qari Muhammad Roman, head cleric at a mosque in Miranshah, told Daily Times on Tuesday. Roman, who says militants killed in clashes with security forces are “martyrs”, said what the army officers said in Shawal “shook him”.
“I was told that they had brought me to help them retrieve bodies of fallen commandos,” he said. He said the army told him to make arrangements for the burial of 18 militants killed in a clash with security forces, so he had raised over Rs 10,000 from local tribesmen for the purpose. Roman said army officers told him that the commandos, airdropped over the area to take back the Sur Narai checkpost, had run into militants at a hilltop. “The militants attacked the commandos, killing 15 and wounding two others, while one soldier is still missing,” he said. Chief military spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad said he had no information that a soldier was missing.
The bodies were taken to Shawal base in a truck, from where they were airlifted to Military Hospital in Bannu district, sources in Miranshah told Daily Times. “Most bodies were bullet-ridden and one of them was beheaded,” the cleric said. “The two wounded soldiers were lying close to the bodies when we reached there.”
Gen Waheed said 14 militants were killed in clashes on Monday, but the cleric said he had not found a single body of the militants to take back to Miranshah, nor had the militants asked for their comradesÂ’ bodies in return for the soldiersÂ’.
Four soldiers injured in rocket attack: Four Pakistani soldiers were injured early on Tuesday when militants fired rockets at their camp in Datta Khel village in North Waziristan, AFP quoted a security official as saying. Residents said gunship helicopters hovered in the sky periodically but they did not hear any firing. Online reported that three tribesmen were released after a week in the captivity of local Taliban for allegedly providing facilities to security forces. They were released after negotiations with a jirga headed by MNA Merajud Din.
FC soldiers kidnapped: Local Taliban kidnapped two Frontier Constabulary (FC) (Shawal Rifles) soldiers in the Razmak subdivision of North Waziristan on Tuesday as they were strolling outside the army fort of the Razmak subdivision, around 70 kilometres south of Miranshah. One of the soldiers belongs to Swat, while the other belongs to Mardan. Taliban spokesman in North Waziristan Ahmedullah Ahmedi claimed responsibility for the soldiersÂ’ abduction. However, Gen Waheed said that he had no such reports. In neighbouring South Waziristan, militants are still holding around 250 soldiers who were captured late last month.