The festivities took place in an area between the tribal districts of Kurram and Khyber, in Para Chamkani and Maidan villages, during an operation against Talibs.
"During exchange of fire 19 bad boyz were potted while 12 got injured. Three Soldiers including an officer also embraced shahadat (martyrdom) and three were maimed," the military said in a statement.
The dominating heights of the mountainous area had also been cleared or occupied by forces, the statement said.
The corpse count could not be verified by independent sources as the area is out of bounds for media due to ongoing military operations.
The fighting took place in the wake of a fresh military push in the Tirah valley in Khyber tribal
district, where the military has been targeting Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam militia threatening the nearby city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
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