LANDI KOTAL: Two activists of a pro-government peace committee were killed in clashes with suspected militants in a border region of Tirah valley on Friday.

Sources said that suspected militants attacked an outpost of the Zakhakhel peace committee in Sokh area, close to the Afghan border. They said that the volunteers of the peace committee also retaliated with firing.

The crossfire continued for nearly three hours during which two of the peace committee volunteers identified as Mohammad Razzaq and Murad Ali, hailing from Bazaar Zakhakhel area, were killed.

The attackers later fled to Afghanistan. Their affiliation could not be immediately ascertained as nobody had claimed responsibility of the attack.

The Bazaar Zakhakhel peace committee had a long running animosity with the outlawed militant group, Lashkar-i-Islam (LI), and both the groups had fought against each other for nearly five years when the LI was based in Tirah valley till 2014.

The LI with its chief Mangal Bagh has since shifted to the bordering regions

of Afghanistan and has conducted similar attacks against the Zakhakhels in recent times, inflicting human losses on them.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2018