KOHAT A tribal lashkar destroyed two houses and three training centers of the Taliban in Ali Khel area of Orakzai Agency while Hangu jirga swapped 16 militants with five security personnel on Tuesday.

An armed lashkar of all the eighteen tribes of the Orakzai Agency were carrying out operation against the active militants involved in terrorist activities in the settled areas for the last three days.

The lashkar is commanded by a 160-member committee of the tribal elders which arrests and suggests punishments for the militants and their harbourers. The militants were mostly active in the Chappar and Feroze Khel areas of the Orakzai Agency.

Meanwhile the jirga and the Taliban swapped 16 militants with five security personnel including three policemen and two army men captured and kidnapped during the Doaba operation in August last.

The security personnel handed over to the jirga head Haji Faizullah include policemen Siraj Ullah, Ahmedullah, residents of Timergara and Sharifzada of Buner district. The army personnel were identified as Ahmed Rehman and Sardar Ahmed of 35 Punjab Regiment, Abbotabad and Thall Scouts respectively.

Officials said that there were still more than 22 government employees of various department and security personnel in the custody of the Taliban who wanted the release of their all captured men whose number was round about 110. The se militants were arrested from different parts of Hangu, and Darra Adam Khel during last nine months.