At least 30 security personnel were killed in pre-dawn attack of Afghan militants on Pakistani check-posts in district Chitral, security sources said on Saturday. In the exchange of fire, nine Afghan militants and 25 security personnel - 16 personnel of Frontier Corps, 9 police and levies - embraced martyrdom as hundreds of militants from Afghanistan attacked from as many as seven border check-posts in Chitral.
The security forces returned the fire. The militants had attacked seven posts manned by the Chitral Scouts in Arandu, an area adjacent to Nuristan province of Afghanistan. The militants seized the village of Godibar after they destroyed the checkpoints. A member of the paramilitary forces said troops called in a helicopter gunship. According to the residents of the area, Taliban attacked border checkpoints at Arson, Dameel Nisar, Bodebar and Mirkani. The attackers blocked Arando Road near border area of Bodebar, causing immense difficulties towards ensuring provision of essential items to the affected area.
Meanwhile, Mian Iftikhar Hussein spokesman for the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, termed the attacked an open aggression on the country. In a statement issued here on Saturday, he slammed the brutal aggression and stressed upon Nato forces in Afghanistan to take concerted steps on their part to stop such kinds of incursion into Pakistani territory in future.
He said that according to initial reports, 30 jawans of Chitral Scouts, Police and FC have embraced martyrdom in the onslaught of militants on Mirkani, Scout Fort, Khuti, Goribardarhast and Langoorbut while many personnel of the law enforcement agencies were missing.
DPA adds: According to local paramilitary commandant Colonel Haroon Rashid, the attack was carried out by between 400 to 500 Taliban, who entered from Nuristan province of Afghanistan. Rashid said the government forces killed 12 militants during the attack. However, a local police official, who did not wish to be named, said the attackers numbered merely two dozen. The police official said that the following the attack an ammunition store at the border post also exploded, which caused "a lot of damage." It was not clear whether the attackers were Pakistani Taliban operating from Afghanistan or they were Afghan militants.
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