Four soldiers were killed and another two injured on Saturday when suspected militants opened fire on a small military convoy in Kohistan district, army said. “Yes, some militants attacked the army convoy near the Sazeen area in Kohistan district, martyring four jawans and injuring two others,” military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told Daily Times on the telephone from Rawalpindi. It was the first attack on the army in the conservative Kohistan district in the NWFP. Kohistan district was devastated by the October 2005 earthquake and the army troops were the first to reach there to help the affected people. The two-vehicle convoy was on its way to Skardu in the Northern Areas, close to Pakistan’s border with China, when they were attacked. Gen Arshad said it was premature to say which group was involved in the attack.
On the release of the kidnapped soldiers in South Waziristan, the military spokesman said a tribal jirga was continuing negotiations with the captors. He, however, did not say when the soldiersÂ’ release was expected. Meanwhile, two paramilitary soldiers were injured when militants fired rockets on a Levies checkpost in the Loi Sam area in Khar, Bajaur Agency. Officials said that the militants fired two missiles and one of them hit the checkpost, injuring Levies subedar Muno Khan and soldier Yar Khan. Militants also blew up a checkpost in Khat Khur, but there were no casualties. The attacks come as a clerics-led jirga is holding talks with the militants to broker a peace deal in Bajaur Agency.