Pakistan forces kill 7 militants in northwest

At least seven pro-Taliban militants have been killed in two separate attacks by Pakistani security forces on their hideouts in the volatile northwest.

In the first incident on Saturday, police and paramilitary soldiers attacked militant hideouts in the town Shabqadar, located around 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of the city of Peshawar.

Local police official, Wilayat Khan, said two militants belonging to Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were killed in the assault, adding that a soldier of the Frontier Corps and a policeman were also killed “in an exchange of fire with militants in Mechani neighborhood of Shabqadar.”

According to other Pakistani officials, the gunmen opened fire when the police and paramilitary troops raided their hideouts.

In another incident, five militants with the TTP, including a local commander, were killed.

“Five members of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were killed in a raid on their hideout in Gujjar Gadi neighborhood of Matni, around 16 miles south of Peshawar,” a senior security official said.

The killings came after TTP carried out a massacre at a military-run school in Peshawar on Tuesday.

In one of the bloodiest attacks in Pakistan’s history, a group of gunmen stormed the Army Public School in the city, going from classroom to classroom, shooting students and teachers.

The Pakistani military said at least 141 people, 132 of them children, lost their lives in the attack. More than 100 others were injured.

The militant group said the massacre was conducted in retaliation for an ongoing Pakistani military offensive against the militants.