CHITRAL, Aug 28: Security forces pushed back cross-border invaders on Sunday and recaptured three checkposts which the militants had occupied in a pre-dawn attack after entering Southern Chitral from Afghanistan on Saturday.

Security sources claimed that the area between Mirkhani Post and Arsoon border had been cleared of militants. The claim could not be verified from independent sources.

It is feared that a large number of militants are still hiding in the thick forest in the vast area and may resurface any time.

Chitral DCO Rahmatullah Wazir, who is ex-officio commandant of border police, expressed ignorance about the situation in the troubled area.

There was no information about any militant captured by security forces. One official said that the attackers had left behind the body of one militant and it was taken to the border town of Arandu.

The road leading to Arandu from Drosh town, which had been closed on Saturday after the imposition of a curfew in the area, was opened to traffic on Sunday.

Twenty-eight security personnel, who had been killed by militants on Saturday, were laid to rest in their villages on Sunday.

Four personnel of Chitral Scouts are said to be missing, raising the number of dead or missing to 31.

Meanwhile, the Chitral chapter of Jamaat-i-Islami has decided to hold a meeting on Monday in protest against the attack in which so many security personnel were killed.

A meeting of the party presided over by its district chief Maulana Sher Azir regretted that no concrete measure was taken to prevent the cross-border attacks although several such incidents had taken place in the recent past.