PESHAWAR - Pakistani troops have arrested six militants, including a suspected foreign Al Qaeda fighter, in a clash near the Afghan border that left one soldier dead, the military said Thursday. The troops had attempted to stop a vehicle at a check post in the restive North Waziristan region late Wednesday but the occupants opened fire and tried to flee towards Afghanistan, the regionâs top military commander said. | Normally it's the other way around |
âMy jawans (soldiers) chased them when they were fleeing towards the border area,â Lieutenant General Safdar Hussain told reporters. âWe arrested four militants but some of the vehicleâs occupants, may be four or five, escaped.â The troops tracked them down and in the ensuing clash a troop was killed and four more wounded, and two more militants were captured. One of the captured men was a foreigner who appeared to be an Arab or Uzbek, Hussain said. The identities of the detainees were being established. | You could cut them open and count the rings... |
The troops also recovered eight Russian-made machine guns, three hand grenades, four improvised explosive devices and a large quantity of medicines from the militantsâ vehicle, the military said. âThe arrests establish Pakistanâs earnest desire to help Afghanistan to return to complete normalcy,â Hussain said. |