World | Pakistan
Police officers killed in gunbattle
Police raided a suspected militant hide-out in the northwest early on Saturday, triggering a shootout that killed at least three officers and wounded another, police said.
- AP
- Published: 00:44 February 3, 2008
Peshawar: Police raided a suspected militant hide-out in the northwest early on Saturday, triggering a shootout that killed at least three officers and wounded another, police said.
The gunbattle occurred in Mardan town, about 50 kilometres northeast of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, when officers surrounded a house and asked the occupants to surrender, according to Abdul Qayyum, a local police official.
"The militants are using assault rifles. They have killed three of our policemen, while we killed at least one militant," he said.
Abdullah Khan, another police official, claimed the militants were using residents - including women and children - as human shields and fired without regard for the civilians.
Khan would not say who the militants were.
The firefight was the latest in a series of increasingly bloody clashes between pro-Taliban militants and security forces in areas near the Afghan border. In recent months fighting has spread to other parts of the country, including major urban centres such as Karachi.
About 380 people died across Pakistan in January, according to figures provided by the government and military.
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