By M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, Karachi
Two militants have been killed in Pakistan after accidentally detonating explosives with which they planned to blow up a school, officials say.
The blast happened in the north-western region of Swat.
Meanwhile a close associate of Maulana Fazlullah, the leader of the Swat militants, was killed during Four die in Pakistan gun attack ...
Pakistani militants agree truce ... a raid on his home by security forces.
Elsewhere in the region, suspected militants also beheaded a bank employee kidnapped from Hangu a few days ago.
Swat and Hangu have been the scene of recent security operations against militants by the Pakistani army.
The militants want to enforce their version of strict Islamic law in the region.
Charred
They have threatened suicide bombings against government targets if the continuing operation in Swat is not stopped.
Militants there have destroyed more than 70 state-run schools in the area in recent months, affecting more than 17,000 students.
They have particularly targeted schools for girls, who they say should stay indoors instead of going out to get an education.
Police in the Kabal area of Swat told the BBC that the bodies of the suspected militants had been badly charred and their limbs blown away.
They said they found and defused two more bombs planted in other parts of the school, presumably by the same militants.
More than 130 people have been killed, most of them militants, since the security forces launched an operation in the area last week, an army spokesman said on Monday.
Beheaded
A Taleban spokesman in Swat confirmed to the BBC Urdu service that Ali Bakht Khan, a member of the militants' team that held talks with the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government in May, had been killed in a raid by the security forces.
He said that Mr Khan's house, in Deolai village, was demolished by the security forces.
The army said troops had come under fire while conducting a search operation in the Deolai area on Wednesday morning and two soldiers had been injured.
"The troops returned fire, in which we think three miscreants were killed," army spokesman Maj Murad said.
Many parts of Swat remain under night curfew.
In Hangu, police say they have found the body of a bank accountant who was among three bank employees kidnapped by suspected militants a few days ago.
Sarfraz Ali, a Shia Muslim from Parachinar region, was beheaded and his body thrown on a roadside, the police said.
Taleban militants consider Shia Muslims to be heretical and have often beheaded them.
(BBC)
<< Back