LANDI KOTAL, Dec 25: Two militants were killed and four persons, including two security men, received injuries in separate incidents in Khyber Agency on Tuesday, sources said.

They said that a militant was killed and another injured in a firing incident in Loe Shalman area of Landi Kotal.

Militants holed up in Ranay Parchaw, a border village of Afghanistan across the Kabul River near Torkham, wanted to hire some boats to cross the river into Pakistan, sources said.

The boat owners refused to lend them boats as security forces had imposed a ban on ferry service owing to movements of militants, they said. The refusal by the boat owners infuriated the militants, who started firing at them from across the border.

In retaliatory firing by the boat owners from Shalman Khula village, one militant was killed and another received injuries, sources said.

The security forces, stationed at a nearby hilltop, also reached the spot and took positions along the riverside to stop militants from crossing over into Pakistan.

In another incident, two security personnel were injured in a roadside blast in Bara.

Officials said that a convoy of security forces was on its way to Peshawar from Jansi Fort. An improvised explosive device, planted along the road, went off when the convoy reached Bachi Nihar in Sipah area, they added.

The blast injured lance naik Shaman Gul and naik Noaman. Their vehicle was also damaged badly in the blast.

Both the injured security men were shifted to a hospital in Peshawar. Security forces cordoned off the area and conducted a search operation but no arrests were made.

In Tirah, an activist of banned militant group Ansarul Islam killed his colleague Farooq Khan and injured another.

The members of the group were posted at a bunker situated on a hilltop near the border of Orakzai Agency. Reason behind the firing incident could not be immediately known. The killer managed to escape after the incident, sources said.

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