Mehsud brother killed in NWFP

Islamabad, Oct. 26: Fifteen people, including the brother of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, were killed in violent incidents in the troubled North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Sunday.

Yahya Mehsud, the brother of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief who was reportedly not linked to jihadi or militant activities, was picked up by unidentified armed men from his village in Bannu district in NWFP.

Yahya’s body was later found by security forces in the Domail area near Bannu, officials told TV channels. The reasons behind Yahya’s killing were not immediately available. There was also no word on the issue from the Taliban.

In another incident in the restive Matta area of Swat valley in the NWFP, six Taliban militants were killed by followers of a cleric named Pir Samiullah. In retaliation, the Taliban executed eight followers of the cleric. The eight persons who were killed by the Taliban were part of a group of 80 followers of Pir Samiullah who were abducted by the militants earlier in the day. The killings sparked tension in the Matta area, a stronghold of the Taliban.

Meanwhile, Taliban insurgents tried to abduct the chief of a pro-government militia in north-western Pakistan on Sunday, prompting one of several battles that left 18 people dead. The government has hailed the emergence of anti-Taliban tribal militias as evidence that it can root out militants waging an insurgency in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The militias, known as lashkars, have been compared to the so-called awakening councils that have helped US forces turn the tables against Al Qaeda in Iraq. However, there are doubts that the Pakistani groups can stand up to heavily armed militants who have seized swaths of Pakistan’s border belt and are believed to have forged close ties to Al Qaeda.

Jamil Khan, a government representative in Bajaur, said eight insurgents died and several others were injured when helicopters and artillery shelled several areas on Sunday morning. Three more insurgents died in a gunbattle at a checkpoint in Tang Khata, a village supposedly under the control of security forces, Khan said. —PTI,AP