35 Pakistan troops missing after militant attack

Hundreds of Islamist militants have attacked a checkpoint on Pakistan’s Afghan border, and nearly three dozen Pakistani paramilitary troops are missing, security officials said today.

The Frontier Corps troops disappeared from the Mohmand tribal region, said the two Pakistani officials.

They blamed the Afghan Taliban for the attack, but a similar report from Afghanistan raised questions about the identity of the culprits.

The border is lengthy and porous and skirmishes between security forces and militants are common.

Afghan officials said yesterday that nine Pakistani militiamen had been apprehended in Kunar province, which is across the border from Mohmand. It was not clear if the nine were among the 35 reported missing today, but Afghan police said the Pakistanis claimed they were fleeing the Pakistani Taliban.

Though linked to the Afghan Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban is a different militant network. Both groups are dominated by the Pashtun ethnic group that straddles the Afghan-Pakistan border.

The Frontier Corps is also heavily Pashtun. Civilian militias set up by Pashtun tribes – known as lashkars – also operate in Pakistan’s tribal regions, where they take on Islamist extremists.