Militants on Saturday killed two close aides of an Islamist hardline cleric who negotiated a peace deal in the northwest between Taliban rebels and the Pakistani government, the military said. The militants ambushed a convoy of security forces carrying prisoners from Malakand to Peshawar. "Spokesman Ameer Izzat and Mohammad Alam, a deputy of Islamist cleric Soofi Mohammad, died in the terrorist attack," a military statement said. "The convoy was attacked by an improvised explosive device (IED) followed by firing by terrorists at 5:10 am (2310 GMT) at Sakhakot," the statement said. It added that "a non-commissioned officer embraced shahadat (martyrdom) while five others were injured." The dead aides were arrested on Thursday along with three Afghan nationals. The deal in February to put three million people under sharia law in exchange for peace in the Swat valley fell apart when Taliban fighters advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Islamabad in April. The terrorist ambush came a day after a suicide bomb ripped through a mosque packed with worshippers in the village of Hayagai Sharqai in Upper Dir, killing 42 people.