November 27, 2008	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 28, 1429

PESHAWAR, Nov 26: Three militants were killed – two in a clash with villagers and one in an encounter with police – in different areas of Peshawar on Wednesday. Two villagers were also killed and six injured in the clash with militants after their attack on a local nazim’s house.

A large number of militants had stormed the nazim’s house in the Adezai area here early Wednesday morning, police and local people said.

A police official said Adezai Union Council Nazim Abdul Malik was a supporter of the Taliban, but after his detention by security forces on Aug 6 along with 14 other people he switched over to the government side.

The nazim, he said, was released on Oct 21 after he took oath on the Holy Quran that he would no more indulge in anti-government activities. The conditional release of the nazim, the official said, had infuriated the Taliban, who attacked his house for what they called his ‘desertion’.

He said houses of two Taliban leaders, Raaj Wali and Shahidullah, had been demolished by security personnel, adding the families of the Taliban had already shifted to other places.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Nisar Khan Marwat told Dawn that the bodies of the two militants were found in the area and one of them was identified as Sarbiland of the Daggar area in Buner, and the other one was said to be hailing from the Waziristan Agency. The bodies were shifted to the local mortuary.

In the fight with the Taliban after the attack on the nazim’s house, Khair Gul and Sher Mast were killed and Abdul Malik, Mohammad Ali, Gul Malik, Abdul Khaliq, Asma, daughter-in-law of Khair Gul, and her minor son Khalid injured. The injured were taken to the Lady Reading Hospital.

The nazim told Dawn that about 150 militants armed with rocket launchers and mortar shells attacked his house at about 2am. He said his men retaliated and the clash continued till 5pm.

In the meantime, he said, police and Frontier Constabulary personnel also reached the site and the militants fled. He claimed that blood stains in the area showed that many militants had been killed in the clash but the Taliban had taken the bodies with them.

About the killing of the two local people, he said they were neutral people but their houses were located at strategic places and militants had forcefully entered there to target his (nazim’s) house.

The owners of both the houses were killed when they offered resistance. One of them, Khair Gul, was reportedly dragged with a vehicle and then beheaded. The nazim nominated one Aurangzeb alias Hamza in the case.

Meanwhile, police claimed to have killed a suspected militant and arrested another in an encounter in the Ring Road area in the limits of the Peshtakhara police station on Wednesday. Police also recovered explosives and weapons from them.

SHO Fazal Mohammad Khan told Dawn that a group of suspected militants riding a jeep were trying to kidnap a man from Tajabad but police foiled their attempt. He said as the policemen signalled the outlaws to stop they opened indiscriminate fire on police and sped away. Police retaliated and one of the jeep occupants was killed, whose name could not be ascertained. The body was taken to the local mortuary.

The SHO said that during the encounter the jeep turned turtle and police arrested one accused, Naik Mohammad, in injured condition. He said the accused were associated with the Bara-based militant organisation, Lashkar-i-Islam.

Cantonment Circle SP Abdul Qadir Qamar said police had recovered two hand grenades, one Kalashnikov and one pistol from the accused.

ROCKETS: Eight rockets fired from undisclosed locations during the last 24 hours landed in different areas of Peshawar. However, no casualties were reported.

Three rockets landed on Wednesday evening in the surroundings of Landi Akhun Ahmed near the Ring Road.

An official said militants had tried to target a military terminal on the Ring Road where vehicles carrying containers for Nato forces in Afghanistan were parked, but they missed the target. He said the rockets seemed to have been fired from the Khyber Agency side.

Five rockets had been fired on Tuesday night, one of them damaging a house in the Saeedabad village.