LANDI KOTAL/SWABI, Aug 4: Five militants and a passer-by were killed when rival groups clashed in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency, while militants blew up a power pylon in Swabi, sources and officials said on Thursday.

They said that armed supporters of the banned Lashkar-i-Islam and Anasarul Islam exchanged indiscriminate firing when they came face to face in a bazaar in Mehraban Kali area of Kukikhel on Thursday.

The sources said that five armed men from both sides and a passer-by were killed on the spot as result of cross firing.

The Kukikhel tribe has so far resisted the existence of militants on their soil and sources said that the militants had come to the local bazaar to buy edibles.

Fighting between the two groups has been going on since April in Bazaar Zakhakhel, Nari Baba and Sanda Pal areas of Khyber Agency.

In Swabi, three bombs exploded one after the other as the suspected militants targeted the main 500 KV transmission line from Tarbela Dam to Sheikh Mohammadi grid station, Peshawar, late Wednesday night, police said.

The incident occurred just a week after the Swabi police found 12 bombs ready for use in Shahmansur area of the district.

Officials who visited the targeted point told this correspondent on condition of anonymity: “One bomb each was planted to all the four pillars of the power pylon, but luckily one bomb did not explode that saved the transmission line from a total collapse.” The unexploded bomb was defused by the bomb disposal squad, they said.

Other sources said that security officials of Tarbela Dam, who visited the site, said that the bombs were planted at Khudrai Wand at Kalabat region in the jurisdiction of Topi police station. “The pylon was bent by the explosions and the staff concerned has started the repair work early on Thursday morning,” said an official.

Insiders said that the district authorities have also deputed police force to patrol the transmission line, but all the attacks on the transmission line so far had occurred at night, which was a challenge for the police.