KHYBER AGENCY - At least seven suspected militants were killed and several others were injured in an explosion occurred in a stronghold of outfit faction in Sandana area of Sipah Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency, official and local sources said on Friday.
The sources said the blast took place in the Khyber hideout of Bara-based Lashkar-e-Islam group in Sipah area of Tirah Valley, killing seven militants on the spot while wounding some others. However, the reasons behind the blast could not be found till the filing of the story.
After the launching of "Khyber 1" operation on October, 16, 2014 in most areas of Bara tehsil and Tirah Valley, a sizeable numbers of militants of Lashkar-e-Islam and banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan were killed and some of them also put down weapons to security forces officials.
On the other side, hundreds and thousands of displaced persons of Bara Khyber Agency have left their hometowns and migrated to safer areas to reside. According to security forces officials, most of the area of Bara tehsil has been cleared of militants while the air strikes on some parts of Tirah Valley are still going on to eliminate the rest of the militants.  
Lashkar-e-Islam and Tehreek-e-Taliban factions are still present in some parts of Tirah Valley, bordering areas with Afghanistan.
AFGHAN IMAMS TO BE REMOVED FROM KHYBER MOSQUES
INP adds: The political administration of Khyber Agency has decided to remove Afghan Pesh Imams from the mosques and replace them with local clerics.
The administration has issued notices in this regard to the check post commanders and political moharrars of three tehsils of Khyber Agency and asked them to tell the local elders to remove Afghan Pesh Imams forthwith. The notice says action will be taken against local people if they hired foreigners as Pesh Imams in their mosques.
The government has swung into action against unregistered Afghan refugees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA after the terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has also demanded the Federal government to repatriate Afghan refugees to their country without any delay.
The provincial government shifted all the Afghan refugees from Azakhel camp in Nowshera district to Shamshatoo camp in Peshawar last week. These refugees will be sent to Afghanistan in the next phase.