DIR, June 2: At least 27 personnel of police and Dir Levies and three civilians have been killed in clashes that began after an attack by Taliban on a security post near the Afghan border early on Wednesday.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, Malakand, Qazi Jameel said 45 militants had been killed. However, their bodies could not be retrieved from the area, police said.

Upper Dir District Coordination Officer (DCO) Ghulam Mohammad said 15 policemen and 12 Dir Levies personnel had been killed.

He said that Shaltalo area, which had been occupied by militants, had been cleared. However, some militants were still there in some places and fresh contingents of security forces had been sent, he added.

Witnesses said the bodies of security personnel had been taken to a hospital in Barawal, 25km from Dir.

It was the deadliest attack by militants in the border area in Upper Dir.

Some local people said the attackers had taken away some bodies in pick-ups.

The witnesses said the militants wearing uniforms of the Afghan National Army, Nato troops and Pakistan Army stormed the post in Shaltalo and opened fire with heavy weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

The post and a school building used by security personnel were destroyed.

Official sources said 250 to 300 militants had taken part in the attack.

The attack caused panic in the area and some local people who tried to come to the rescue of the security personnel were also attacked, the witnesses said. The post had been set up five months to keep a vigil on activities of militants in the border region, the DCO said.

Funeral prayers for 21 officials were offered in Dir police lines Dir.

AP/AFP add: The militants had crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan’s Kunar region.

An official said they crossed the border on Wednesday and attacked the checkpoint manned by police and paramilitary troops.

He said many of the attackers had fled back into Afghanistan as the fighting wound down by Thursday night and the situation was now under control.

The fighting was concentrated around the checkpoint, surrounded by mountains and forest, about 6km from the border.

The military sent reinforcements and helicopter gunships to quell the attack in the area accessible on the ground only by foot.

The regional police chief said about 500 Pakistani and Afghan Taliban were involved in the clashes.

He said two women and two children had died when mortar rounds struck 15 houses.

He said 21 security personnel and 11 civilians had been injured.

“Police, army and paramilitary forces are carrying out a search operation in the area,” the official said.

A police official in Kunar said he was aware that Taliban or other militiamen had launched attacks “on the other side of the border” and they had no connection with Afghan security forces.