8 soldier, four militants killed in Jamrud ambush

LANDI KOTAL: Eight security personnel were killed while four others  were injured when militants ambushed a patrolling party of the security forces in Jamrud on the night between Thursday and Friday, officials and local sources said on Friday.

The sources said that the incident occurred at around Thursday mid-night when a patrolling party of Swat Scouts was on its routine patrol of Malak Shaga area, the locality of Ghundi area of Jamrud tehsil in Khyber Agency. Officials said that several well-equipped armed militants,who had taken position  near the road, opened fire at the security forces riding in three vehicles.

They said that the sudden attack left eight soldiers dead on the spot and three more injured. Three vehicles of the security forces were also damaged in the incident. The security officials claimed to have also killed four militants in the retaliatory fire while arresting three alive, however not disclosed names and their affiliation with outfit group they were working for. 

Local sources said that immediately after the attack the entire Ghundi area reverberated with firing by both heavy and light weapons used by both the security forces and militants. 

Security forces used heavy artillery from Jamrud Fort while force deployed at nearby hill tops also started firing at the direction of the site of the incident, causing fear and panic among the local residents.  

“I was like a war where all kinds of weapons were used from all sides for minutes long, not only men and women but children also got up and were crying due to the indiscriminate firing”, said resident.

  

Security forces on Friday morning claimed to have killed four militants and arrested fourof their associates. The claim however, could not be independently verified.

The dead soldiers were identified as Naib subedar Taj Maluk, Lance Naik Nusrat Ali and Kashif, Sepoy Irfan, Hazrat Shah, Juma Khan, Siraj Khan and Muhammad Khan. 

Later curfew was imposed in Ghundi and surrounding areas early morning while forces conducted houses-to-house search operation in the area. As many as ten suspects were apprehended during the search operation which continued till mid-day on Friday. The Jamrud bazaar remained opened and traffic on the main Peshawar-Torkham road was not suspended to facilitate passengers to have uninterrupted movement towards their destinations.