Seven security personnel were killed when unidentified militants attacked a checkpost in Karapa area
At least nine personnel of the Khasadar force were killed in two separate attacks in Mohmand district of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas on Thursday, officials said.
Seven Khasadar personnel were killed when unidentified assailants opened fire at a security checkpost in Karapa area of Pandyali tehsil in Mohmand Agency.
The Jamaatul Ahrar faction of banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said in a statement.
Assistant Political Agent Mohmand Agency Naveed Akbar said the militant targeted security officials late in the night while they were stationed at the Karapa checkpost. After killing seven Khasadar men, the militant managed to flee, he said.
In a separate attack, miscreants opened fire at two Khasadar personnel in Machni area of Mohmand Agency.
The incident occurred late in the night when the deceased personnel Taj Ali and Bilal were on duty at a solar tubewell in the area.
All casualties were shifted to district headquarters hospital Ghalanai in Mohmand Agency.
Akbar said that a search and strike operation was carried out in the surrounding areas where the incidents took place.
Mohmand is one of Pakistan’s seven tribal agencies near the Afghan border where the military has been battling al Qaeda and Taliban-linked militants for over a decade.
Meanwhile, President Mamoon Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took serious notice of the martyrdom of Khasadar force personnel. They sympathized with their families and called for immediate enquiry into the tragedy.
Similarly, Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and other political and social figures condoled with heirs of the martyrs.