KHYBER AGENCY, June 11: The security forces claimed to have killed fifteen militants and destroyed nine of their hideouts in aerial strikes conducted by the forces’ jet fighters in Mehraban Kalley of Tirah valley of Khyber Agency here on Tuesday, FRC learnt.
Mehraban village in Tirah valley is mostly inhabited by Koki Khel tribe of Afridi clan and is quite away from the central Bagh Maidan area of Tirah valley.
The aerial bombardment started during early hours of Tuesday targeting suspected hideout of militants that inflicted, according to security forces, heavy human losses upon them. However, the locals of the area have said that six civilians died and three others sustained critical injuries when the war planes pounded bombs in the area during sleeping hours.
“House of a tribesman, Malik Dilawar Khan, was targeted in the aerial strike that killed six persons of a single family including four women and two children. In the attack also a woman and two men in Mehraban Kalley, the bordering area of Tirah valley, received injuries. The house was razed to ground in the attack.
However, the toll of casualties’ in Mehraban kalley in Tirah valley being quoted by sources of security forces and the locals varies widely. The forces claimed to have killed suspected militants acting upon a tip off after Taliban brazen attack on Karachi Airport two days ago while the local on other hand have out rightly rejected the forces claim adding that all the killed were members of a single family including children and women.
The Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Mehtab Khan also flew to Tirah Bagh Maidan on Tuesday.
While during his visit to the area the governor address a Jirga of elders and said that the era of terrorism and destruction has come to an end and it’s the development schemes to take off all over the tribal belt particularly Tirah valley.
The Governor announced a development package for the uplift of Tirah and also announced construction of a Governor Model School, category D hospital, 90 kilometer long road and a power supply scheme.
It is to be mention here that the central Tirrah valley had been cleared off militants in year 2013 through a military offensive while in the past few months the peripheries of Tirah came under the influence of miscreants and the government thought it imperative to take initiative for its elimination through targeted military offensives.
