TIMERGARA, Aug 3: Two sepoys of Dir Levies were killed when armed men attacked a checkpost at the Zulam bridge, about 10km north-east of here, on Sunday.

The assailants who came in a car from Bajaur Agency via the Arang road were not stopped by the Bajaur Levies when they entered Dir and nor when they returned to their area after the attack.The deceased sepoys were identified as Yaqub Khan and Mohammad Zamin.

Two other people, police constable Iqbal Nawaz and passerby Zahir Shah, who were injured, were taken to the Timergara DHQ hospital.

Dir Lower DCO Suhail Khan told Dawn that the attackers were criminals, and not Taliban.

“They were either carrying arms or other contraband items and when security personnel signalled them to stop they opened fire,” he said.

The Zulam bridge over the Panjkora river links Bajaur with Dir Lower and is guarded by the Bajaur Levies at one end and by their Dir counterparts on the other.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Maulvi Omar claimed responsibility for the attack, the first on security forces in Lower Dir.

Talking to journalists on phone from an unspecified place, he said the Taliban had already warned that attacks would be carried out anywhere in the country if military operations in Swat and Waziristan were not stopped.