A police raid in Pakistan's northwest Saturday triggered a shootout that killed three officers and a terrorist militant and led the jihadis insurgents to use women and children as human shields, officials said.
The fighting occurred in Mardan town, about 30 miles northeast of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, when officers surrounded a house and asked the occupants to surrender, said Abdul Qayyum, a local police official. He would not say what prompted the raid, but said the terrorists militants were using assault rifles and that the way they resisted showed they were well trained. "They have killed three of our policemen, while we killed at least one militant," he said.
Abdullah Khan, another police official, said the militants were using some residents — including women and children - as human shields and fired without regard for civilians. Neither official would identify the suspects. |