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Taleban kill Pakistan tribal militia leader Published Date: July 30, 2009 PESHAWAR: Taleban stormed the home of a pro-government Pakistani militia leader and killed him yesterday as clashes between troops and Islamists flared in the Swat valley, officials said. More than 50 Taleban raided the residence of Khalilur Rehman and shot him dead in Shangla, which borders the region where the army three months ago launched an operation to crush militants, police and a local lawmaker said. Rehman, 60, formed a private tribal militia known as lashkar and used to provide logistic support t o groups fighting the Taleban, residents said. He was shot dead soon after he entered the meeting hall of his house," senior police officer Gul Wali said. Rehman's servant was wounded, he added. Security forces retaliated and killed two militants, Wali said. The Pakistani army launched an offensive to dislodge Taleban guerrillas from the northwestern districts Buner, Lower Dir and Swat after rebels flouted a peace deal and thrust further south towards the capital Islamabad in April. The military said troops killed four militants in Swat over the last 24 hours, 21 suspects were arrested and hideouts and militant houses demolished. Pakistan says more than 1,800 militants and 166 soldiers have been killed in the operations around Swat, but none of the death tolls are possible to confirm because the areas have been largely cut off from independent media coverage. Hundreds of Islamist fighters are believed to have fled Afghanistan into Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas to carve out safe havens after the US-led invasion in late 2001 toppled the hardline Taleban regime in Kabul. Gun battles killed three militants and wounded three paramilitary soldiers when Taleban attacked a military post in the tribal North Waziristan area, security and a local administration official said. Elsewhere in the northwest, police said a Shiite lawyer was wounded and his guard killed when a remote-controlled bomb exploded near his car in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, a notorious flashpoint for sectarian violence. The blast ripped through the local court car park, police officer Salahuddin Khan said. It was a targeted attack involving sectarian militants," he said. The bomb went off as lawyer Mastan Zaidi parked his car, the officer said. Zaidi and his two guards were rushed to the hospital where one guard died of his injuries, Khan said. Local hospital doctor Ashiq Saleem said the lawyer's condition was stable. Earlier this month, the government shored up a peace agreement reached by Sunni and Shiite leaders in Dera Ismail Khan, which neighbours the tribal belt. Pakistan can ill afford to fan the flames of sectarian violence as it strains to contain Islamist militants-largely Sunnis-during offensives against the Taleban in the tribal belt and pockets of the northwest. Shiites account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 167 million. More than 4,000 people have died in outbreaks of sectarian violence since the late 1980s. - AFP
