Three militants were killed when they attacked the house of an anti-Taliban councillor in Peshawar's Bazidkhel village on Sunday, police said.
Karim Khan, a senior police official in Peshawar, confirmed the attack and said three militants were killed in the clash with Rehman's militia.
Bazidkhel Union Council Nazim Fahimur Rehman told Daily Times villagers informed him at 7:30am that three armed men, who were wearing burqas, had entered the village.
Rehman said members of a local lashkar asked the men to stop for inspection outside his house, but the gunmen attacked the militiamen. "There were around 50 attackers. Three of them, wearing burqas managed to reach my house. My men stopped them and asked for identification, but they started firing after flinging off the burqas," Rehman told AFP. "It is 100 percent sure that these people came to kill me. They left behind grenades and Kalashnikovs," he said.
He said the attackers' accomplices, who were waiting in a car outside the village, escaped after the gunmen were killed. The nazim said he suspected Bara-based Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) of launching the attack. Rehman asked the people to help the government identify terrorists, adding that terrorisms could not be eliminated without public support. The nazim has been at odds with LI ever since villagers killed seven LI men when they tried to abduct Rehman last year. He has also survived two earlier attempts on his life by the militants. LI, which has loose ties to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement, enforces prayers five times a day and punishes people accused of prostitution, gambling and other vices.
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