No clue to four kidnapped soldiers

CHITRAL: Security forces on Tuesday launched search in Ursoon Valley after militants from across the border attacked a checkpost, killing one soldier and kidnapping four others on Monday. Official sources said the militants, based in Nuristan province of Afghanistan, stormed the checkpost early in the day. Officials said that a soldier, Abdul Ghafoor, was killed and four others went missing after the attack.

The sources said the Chitral Scouts and the police launched an operation in the area but no arrest or recovery was made till filing of this report. “The militants may have crossed the border back into Afghanistan after the attack along with the kidnapped soldiers,” an official said, requesting not to be named.

The official said the militants belonged to Dhog Darra area in Dir Upper district and had shifted to Nuristan after the Pakistani security forces and local anti-Taliban Lashkar ousted them from their native area two years back. They had kidnapped several labourers belonging to Dir from Chitral and later killed one of them and dumped the body on the Pakistan side of the border. The militants in Nuristan had also kidnapped a Greek national, Professor Athanasios, from Bamburet valley in Chitral almost two years ago and the Afghan Taliban had released him.

Posted in: Chitral,Pakistan