A senior Taliban commander has been killed in a clash with security forces in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where the military claims to have quelled an Islamist uprising, officials said yesterday.
Mohammad Alam Binouri, who had a 10-million-rupee (175,000-dollar) reward on his head, was killed with another militant in the gun battle in the town of Madyan in the mountainous northwestern region late Sunday, local police officer Islam Jan said.
Army and paramilitary soldiers acting on a tip-off surrounded a house in the town, but the men resisted and Binouri was killed in an exchange of fire, a military official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP.
"The bodies of the insurgents were placed in the main bazaar of Madyan, where the residents identified the pair," said the police officer, Jan. He said Binouri was a close aide of fugitive Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah.
Binouri was killed along with fellow-commander Shankoo Mullah, while three other wounded militants were captured alive, the military official said.
The bodies were taken to Swat's main town Mingora, where the wounded insurgents are being interrogated.
Earlier a Nato oil tanker was blown up by a group of heavily armed militants on Monday on the outskirts of Pakistan's north-western city Peshawar, police said.
A tanker carrying fuel through Pakistan for Nato troops based in neighbouring Afghanistan was targeted by several armed men who lobbed a rocket and then opened fire on the supply convoy, The News quoted senior police officer Imtiaz Ahmed as saying.
"The attack triggered a huge fire and destroyed one tanker. Its driver escaped unhurt but his helper was wounded," he said.
In a subsequent exchange of fire lasting up to an hour, Pakistani security forces killed a militant, police officer Karim Khan said.
While police did not immediately identify the assailants, the Taliban and members of local militant group regularly attack Nato supply vehicles on the main route through northwest Pakistan.
The picturesque Swat valley slipped out of government control after the radical cleric Fazlullah led an uprising in July 2007, beheading opponents, burning schools and fighting to enforce a harsh brand of Islamic law.
Pakistan launched a blistering air and ground offensive in the valley after militants marched out of Swat and advanced to within 100km of the capital Islamabad in April 2009.
The army says the area is now safe and most of the two million people who fled their homes have returned, but sporadic outbreaks of violence continue, while some fear the Swat Taliban are regrouping elsewhere in the northwest.
Fazlullah, who has a 50-million-rupee bounty on his head, remains at large.