As many as 17 people, suspected of being armed foreigners, were killed and four others injured during a military action in the village Datakhel, close to the Afghanistan border, reports the Pakistani daily The Nation. The operation started at around midnight and continued until 4 a.m. on Sunday.
The people killed all belonged to two families and they also included women and children. “All of them are foreigners,” said a high-ranking military officer.
Officials from the armed forces told The Nation that on prior information, the troops cordoned off the village Datakhel, which is situated some 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Islamabad. In the meantime, two trucks came out of the area and when the military forces signaled them to stop the occupants started firing at the troops. As a result one soldier was also killed.
“They also lobbed a hand-grenade at the troops, which exploded with a big bang,” said an official on site.
Sources said that before starting retaliatory action the security forces tried to convince the occupants of the two vehicles to surrender, but they insisted to be allowed towards Pak-Afghan border. However, following failure of the talks that also involved local administration officials, the security forces started action against the alleged militants and as a result, 17 of them were killed, four injured and one was captured alive.
“One vehicle was loaded with modern weapons that sparked a series of explosions and fire as a result of the troops’ retaliatory firing,” said an official. The officer said that one of two vehicles was loaded with modern and sophisticated weapons and the occupants were trying to escape towards Afghanistan.
He said that some of them seemed to be from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and their passports and other documents had been taken into custody.