MINGORA, Pakistan—Seven suspected militants were killed early Sunday in a clash with Pakistani security forces in a northwest valley once controlled by the Taliban, police said.
The suspects were believed to have been fleeing a Pakistani army operation in Mohmand, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan where dozens of insurgents have been killed and arrested in recent days.
Two soldiers were wounded in the clash in the Sardam area of the Swat Valley, after residents alerted authorities to the militants’ presence. Police official Sher Alam says the alleged insurgents are believed to originally hail from Swat.
The Pakistani military largely defeated the Taliban in Swat in 2009, but encounters with militants still occur. Also Sunday, in Mohmand tribal region a paramilitary fighter was killed and two other wounded in a clash with militants during a search operation in Mitti area. Security forces also said to have detained 30 suspected people, said Zabit Khan, a local administrator.
Khan said about 250 families have moved out of the troubled areas of Bazai and surroundings over the weekend to relief camps established by the government.
No independent verification of events is possible because movement of reporters is restricted in the tribal regions.
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