Tribesmen urged to attend funerals of militants

Islamabad: The bodies of 25 militants killed in a fierce battle with Nato-led troops in Afghanistan were repatriated on Friday to their tribal villages in Pakistan, where Taliban activists urged mass attendance at their funerals, residents said.

Nato on Thursday reported killing or wounding 130 suspected Taliban who had crossed from Pakistan to mount attacks in eastern Afghanistan. Pakistan's army also said it attacked militant supply trucks on its side of the border in North Waziristan.

Yesterday, the bodies of 25 guerrillas killed in the fighting were brought to Miran Shah, the main North Waziristan region. Funerals were to be held in different villages in the region later in the day, according to local intelligence officials and residents.

"Taliban asked everyone to attend the funerals of these martyrs," said a local resident who refused to be named because he feared reprisals.

Several residents said the dead men were Pakistanis. About 25 other militants wounded in the fighting were being treated at private clinics in Miran Shah and another 25 were being treated elsewhere in the region, the residents said.

Pakistan has often been criticised by Afghan and US officials for not doing enough to prevent cross-border attacks into Afghanistan, where the Taliban-led insurgency has surged in the past year. Pakistan routinely rejects such accusations.

Islamabad says the violence is due to dissatisfaction among ethnic Pashtuns in Afghanistan over the US-backed government.