By DPA
Islamabad : Pro-Taliban militants abducted 10 policemen in an overnight raid on a security checkpoint in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) as the toll in the ongoing sectarian clashes in the tribal belt has risen to 32, a media report and local government official said Thursday.
Dozens of heavily armed fighters surrounded the checkpoint in Bannu district, disarmed 10 security personnel and took them away before blowing up their building with explosives Wednesday evening, the Dawn newspaper reported.
Five members of a local football team who were returning to their village after training were injured in the blast as they were passing by the checkpoint.
Meanwhile, efforts were underway to secure the release of 16 people, including four soldiers, who were apparently abducted by pro-Taliban militiamen in the tribal district of Darra Adamkhel earlier this month, the newspaper said.
The kidnapping spree in Darra Adamkhel started in late November, days after sectarian clashes between Sunni and Shiite Muslim tribesmen broke out in the neighbouring tribal district of Kurram Agency.
Around 150 people, including 13 paramilitary troops, were killed and more than 400 people were injured in the long clashes, which stopped after the sides agreed to a ceasefire.
The fragile peace eventually collapsed when Sunni militants entered Parachinar city, the main urban settlement in Kurram district, and ransacked the shops and houses of Shiite Muslims.
Thirty-two people were killed in clashes Wednesday, taking the death toll to 45 since last Saturday.
Pakistan’s tribal belt has become a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and pro-Taliban fighters who fled Afghanistan after US-backed forces took over the country in 2001.