Five militants from across the border killed in Chitral

CHITRAL: Security forces killed five militants in a clash in the Bamburet Valley here on Wednesday, official sources said.

The sources said the five militants had sneaked into the Bamburet Valley, which is inhabited mostly by the Kalash minority community along with Muslims, from the neighbouring Nuristan province of Afghanistan. They added security forces personnel opened fire on the intruding militants and an exchange of fire took place, which lasted for several hours. “Five militants were killed in a clash with the security forces when they crossed the border and entered the Pakistani territory from Afghanistan,” an official source said.

A press release of the Pakistan Army’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the locals informed the army about the presence of the terrorists in the area and the troops conducted an operation against them early in the morning.

The statement said security forces didn’t suffer any losses during the clash. It added security forces recovered one sub-machine gun with 55 rounds, a light machine gun with 60 bullets and one repeater with 12 rounds from the slain terrorists.

General Officer Commanding, Malakand, Major General Asif Ghayyur, visited the Bamburet Valley and met local elders who thanked the army for the action against the terrorists. He asked the locals to keep an eye on their surroundings and inform the army in case of any sightings of militants intruding into their valley from across the Pak-Afghan border.

A few days ago, militants based in Afghanistan had staged an attack in the Bamburet and Birir valleys and killed two Kalash shepherds and seized and herded away hundreds of goats and sheep into Nuristan across the border. The area has witnessed such attacks in the past as well.

Meanwhile, the security forces handed over the bodies of the militants to the Chitral Police, which shifted them to the Basic Health Unit in Bamburet. The bodies would be buried after the postmortem. The sources said the slain militants believed to be aged 20-30 years were Afghan nationals belonging to the Bashgal tribe.