KHYBER: Three militants were killed in an encounter with the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) sleuths in the mountainous region of Shagai in Jamrud tehsil here on Saturday.

A press release issued by the CTD said that a raiding party along with two activists of the proscribed Lashkar-i-Islam (LI), who had been under the department’s custody for some time, was on way to some hidden caves near the old Torkham road in Shagai hilly area when they came under an attack by a group of six to seven armed men, suspected to be also affiliated with the LI.

The statement said that the CTD party immediately took positions and retaliated to the fire, which resulted in the killing of one of the attackers and two of the LI activists under their custody.

The two killed militants, who were in the custody of CTD, were identified as Abdul Jabbar alias Usman and Umar alias Umaray, both hailing from Malakdinkhel tribe of Bara.

Both the killed militants had confessed during interrogations that their colleagues had concealed a large quantity of arms and ammunition in the hilly area of Shagai for carrying out sabotage and terrorist activities.

The statement identified the suspected militant killed from the attackers as Asim, but it couldn’t be immediately known as to where from he belonged to. The crossfire continued for about 45 minutes.

The CTD also claimed to have recovered some arms and ammunition after the encounter, including a Kalashnikov with loaded magazines, hand grenades, torches, batteries and daggers.

Bodies of the militants were later shifted to the Khyber Teaching Hospital in Peshawar with the CTD having started an investigation into the incident.

The incident was the second in Khyber during the last week as a facilitator of the Ali Masjid mosque blast, Abuzar Afridi was killed in a similar fashion in Sur Kamar locality of Jamrud.

Abuzar Afridi was also in the custody of CTD and was killed in crossfire with suspected militants when the CTD sleuths were taking him along for a raid on a suspected hideout, where militants had stored arms and ammunition.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2023