LANDI KOTAL, May 8: The bullet-riddled bodies of two suspected militants were found in Bara while two more militants were killed when rival groups clashed in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency on Tuesday.

Officials said that bodies of Taj Mohammad and Haider were found at Niazi Market early on Tuesday morning. The unidentified killers had left a chit with the bodies, warning locals that anyone found assisting or harbouring activists of proscribed militant organisation Lashkar-i-Islam (LI) would meet the same fate.

Local sources said that both the deceased went missing on Monday when they were leaving their homes after local administration served notices on Shalobar tribesmen to vacate the area.

Though nobody claimed responsibility for the killing of the two persons belonging to Shalobar and Sipah tribes, Hussain Afridi, a spokesman for LI in Bara, told local journalists by telephone that they were killed by the relatives of Hazrat Khan, one of their dissidents.

Hazrat Khan was publicly beheaded in Spin Qabar Chowk a month ago after he was kidnapped along with his relatives. He had rebelled against LI some two months ago and was reportedly assisting security forces in their operation against the militant organisation in Bara.

Meanwhile, two members of a banned militant group were killed and four other injured when they clashed with the rival group in the remote Tirah valley of Khyber Agency on Tuesday.

Sources said that clashes took place between Ansarul Islam and Lashkar-i-Islam in Toor Zangal area when both groups tried to capture each other’s positions. It was learnt that both sides used heavy weapons against each other that resulted in killing of two members of Ansarul Islam and injuries to four others. — Correspondent