WANA/TANK, Jan 8: A security forces man was killed and three others were wounded in clashes with militants in South Waziristan on Monday night and Tuesday, sources said. Three paramilitary personnel were also kidnapped.
Officials said three militants and a non-combatant were also wounded in the shelling on suspected hideouts of militants in Spinkai Raghzai and Chugmalai areas, where tensions rose after the killing of nine supporters of a pro-government militant commander on Sunday night.
Sources said that supporters of Baitullah Mehsud attacked a security picket in the Chugmalai area on Jandola-Wana road on Monday. They fired rockets at the picket. A hawaldar of the Frontier Corps, identified as Ayaz, was killed and three others were injured.The attackers took away the body and the wounded soldiers.
The security forces also fired artillery and mortar shells from their bases in Tiaraza and Jandola areas. The militants later handed over the body and three wounded soldiers to elders of the Mehsud tribe.
An official claimed that three militants were wounded in the counter-attack. Forces hit several targets with mortar shells in the Mehsud-dominated areas of Spinkai Raghzai and Chugmalai. Residential areas also came under attack.
KIDNAP: The militants kidnapped three security personnel near Mouli Khan Sarai on Tuesday. Sources said that the paramilitary men were going from Wana to Jandola in a private car when armed men intercepted their vehicle at Mouli Khan Sarai and took them away to an unknown place.
The militants fired two rockets on the Police Line in Tank on Monday night. However, no damage or loss of life was reported.
A tense calm prevailed in the troubled region following the killing of nine supporters of pro-government militant commander Maulvi Nazir. They were shot dead in two separate attacks on Sunday night.
Sources said that Nazir’s close associate Maulvi Sharif on Tuesday again warned Mehsud tribesmen to leave the Wana sub-division immediately. Earlier, they were given 24 hours by the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe to vacate the areas.
Maulvi Sharif’s brother, Noorul Islam, claimed responsibility for attacks on Maulvi Nazir’s offices. He accused Maulvi Nazir of joining hands with the government against the mujahideen and starting war against the Uzbeks.
“Maulvi Nazir is government’s agent and he will pay a heavy price for killing mujahideen,” Noorul Islam said.
Maulvi Nazir blamed Baitullah and his Uzbek supporters for the attack on his offices in Wana and Shakai and vowed to avenge the killing of his supporters.
On the other hand, Baitullah asked Mehsud tribesmen not to visit areas largely inhabited by the rival Ahmadzai Wazir tribe.
The sources said that after bloody clashes with Nazir’s group in Wana in April last year, Uzbek militants had joined Baitullah’s camp.
JIRGA: A jirga of 80 elders from the Mehsud tribe held a meeting with Baitullah’s supporters at an undisclosed location in the region on Tuesday to end the deadlock.
Officials said that the jirga, headed by former MNA Maulvi Mirajuddin and Senator Salih Shah, was constituted by political agent Fazl Rabbi to secure the release of four paramilitary men and avert clashes between security forces and militants.
The jirga members returned to Tank without making any breakthrough and would go to South Waziristan on Wednesday.
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.