19 dead as guns blaze

MOHMAND AGENCY - At least 19 people, most of them militants, were killed in shootouts in different parts of NWFP and Mohmand Agency, where the Army has been engaged in battles against the Taliban militants, officials said Sunday.
According to the officials, one of the clashes, which continued for more than three hours, started at 2:00am in Khawazi village of Mohmand Agency when Taliban attacked the home of Malik Ajmal Khan, head of Shah Sahib group and chief of local peace committee.
Shah Sahib group is religious outfit of Ahl-e-Hadith school of thought.
The officials said that Ajmal Khan and one of his close aides had been killed in the clash. They further informed that around 10 Taliban militants had also been killed and several others injured when the supporters of Ajmal Khan and activists of Shah Sahib group returned the fire.
According to local tribal sources, the security forces after the attack on Ajmal Khan’s house targeted the militants with artillery and mortar shells.
Some independent sources have informed that around 14 persons had been killed in the clash, 10 militants and four members of the peace committee headed by Ajmal Khan.
Shah Sahib group was named after its founder Shah Sahib whom Taliban, headed by Omar Khalid, had killed two years ago along with several others. After his death the group became ineffective. Recently Ajmal Khan had reorganised the Shah Sahib group.
Agencies add: “At least 10 militants and four tribesmen including the chief of the local peace committee were killed during an exchange of fire in Mohmand’s Khawazi village late on Saturday,” Ghafoor Khan, a local official said.