By DPA
Islamabad : Pro-Taliban militants kidnapped four troops and a government officer in Pakistan’s tribal areas, while five people died as military gunships fired upon insurgents, officials and media reports said on Saturday.
The lieutenant colonel from the paramilitary Frontier Corps, three of his guards and a local state officiial were abducted as they were travelling in south Waziristan, a tribal district bordering Afghanistan where 16 troops were seized by Islamist combatants earlier this month and were yet to be released.
“Local Taliban have accepted the responsibility of the abduction,” Aaj news channel reported.
In a separate incident, scores of militants attacked a military convoy Saturday morning with rockets and assault rifles in neighbouring North Waziristan.
Gunship helicopters targeted three vehicles carrying the attackers and killed three of them and injured one. Two civilians, including a farmer, also died.
Waziristan has experienced a surge in violence since early July when President General Pervez Musharraf ordered Islamabad’s Red Mosque to be stormed. More than 100 people died in the assault.
Local tribes immediately pulled out of peace treaties with the government, and launched a series of retaliatory attacks in the border regions, which are believed to be a hotbed of hardcore militants and al-Qaeda terrorists.
Pakistan has around 90,000 troops deployed along its western border but has been unable to prevent militants in Waziristan from launching attacks at international forces in Afghanistan.