By Xinhua,
Islamabad : More than 30 militants were killed in a security force offensive early Saturday in the restive Swat valley of northwest Pakistan while a suicide attack on a police station claimed 20 lives, media reports said.
The insurgents were killed during the operation in Kanju and Kabbal area, News Network International (NNI) news agency quoted military’s spokesman Major Nasir Ali as saying.
Two soldiers lost their lives in the operation, he said.
The security forces used gunship helicopters to shell positions of the rebels, Ali said, adding that the troops destroyed an illegal FM radio station of Taliban at Matta area.
Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan rejected the army claims of casualties and claimed that Taliban killed 20 soldiers, according to NNI.
An army statement said that a suicide attack took place at a police station in Matta area, killing two policemen and injuring 11 others including two civilians.
At least 20 people were killed Saturday morning when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a police station in northwest Pakistan’s Swat valley, PTV reported.
The administration clamped curfew in the valley soon after the terror strike.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or Pakistan Taliban Movement claimed responsibility shortly after the suicide bombing at the police station in Charbagh area killing 20 people, the PTV quoted the police as saying.
Paramilitary soldiers were in the police station at the time of attack.
The injured were rushed to hospital.
This was the third blast since Monday when Pervez Musharraf quit as the country’s president.
A suicide bomber Tuesday blew himself up at a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan in northwest Pakistan, killing about 30.
On Thursday the Taliban attacked Pakistan’s main ordnance factory in Wah Cantonment in Punjab province, killing at least 70 and injuring dozens.