KALAYA/MIRAMSHAH, June 26: The security forces claimed to have killed eight militants including three commanders and secured strategically important positions in Mamozai area of Orakzai Agency on Tuesday.

Official sources said that security forces also destroyed two hideouts of militants in Botakhel area of the tribal region. They said that forces launched an operation in the area, which was considered a stronghold of militants in the troubled Orakzai Agency.

Security forces backed by artillery launched offensive to flush out militants from the area, the sources said. An official said that militants vacated their positions after heavy shelling.

He said that eight militants were killed and their two hideouts were destroyed in the artillery shelling. He said that three commanders were also among the dead. The killed militant commanders were identified as Wahid Ilyas, Ihsanullah and Mohammad Din.

Also, warplanes targeted suspected positions in the area adjacent to Khyber Agency. However, no loss of life was reported from the area.

In North Waziristan Agency, four persons including two children were injured when mortar shell hit a residential compound in Spelga village on Monday night.

Earlier militants fired two rockets at the base of paramilitary forces in Miramshah. However, the rockets missed the target.

Security forces retaliated with heavy artillery and mortar firing.

The residents of the area said that a shell landed in a house in Spelga Village and injured two children, a woman and a man. The injured were shifted to the agency headquarters hospital in Miramshah.

Peshawar encounter

In Peshawar, a militant commander was killed during an encounter in Mashogagar area on the outskirts of Peshawar on Tuesday, police said.

An official said that a police party was sent to the area when they got information about presence of four militants there. The militants tried to escape in a motorcar when the law enforcers approached the area, he added.

The official said that upon seeing the police party, the militants left the motorcar and opened firing on law enforcers with automatic weapons.

During the encounter, he said, one militant was killed while his three accomplices managed to escape. The killed militant was identified as Umer, a commander of Taliban in Khyber Agency, he added.

The official said that nobody had approached police to receive the body of the killed militant commander. He said that one hand grenade, one pistol and many cartridges were recovered from the possession of the militant.

Meanwhile, police claimed to have recovered an abducted girl from Badhber and arrested a man involved in her kidnapping.

A police spokesman said that on the complaint of Mumtaz, a resident of Sar Dheri in Charsadda, police raided a house in Badhber and recovered a girl, who was abducted by Shahid.

He said that the girl was kept in chains inside a room. A case against the accused was already registered at Sar Dheri police station, he added.