New Delhi: Two top leaders of a banned pro-Taliban group, which brokered the controversial Swat peace deal, were killed in Pakistan's restive northwest when militants ambushed a security forces' convoy transporting the detained extremists to a prison in Peshawar.
Pakistan army claimed on Saturday that the deputy chief of rebel outfit Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi Mohammad Aalam and its spokesman Amir Izzat were killed in the crossfire when a group of militants ambushed their convoy in an attempt to free them.
According to the army, Aalam and Izzat were being shifted from Malakand to Peshawar prison when militants stormed the convoy in Sakhakot in a bid to free them.
The army said Aalam and Izzat were killed in the crossfire that followed.
Three TNSM leaders, including Khan and Alam, were arrested on Thursday along with three Afghan militants when troops raided a seminary at Amandarra, the headquarters of the banned organisation. Khan and Alam were among those being transported to the Peshawar prison.
The two leaders played a crucial role in the Swat peace deal.
With no sign of TNSM chief Sufi Mohammad and now two of the outfit's top leaders killed, the army says TNSM has become a defunct outfit.
Sufi Muhammed represented the Swat Valley Taliban in the recent failed peace efforts between the Pakistani Taliban and the local government.
However, the Taliban did not observe the terms of the peace agreement and began intimidating and killing people in nearby districts.
Sufi Muhammad also sparked a controversy by announcing at a rally that democracy, the judiciary and parliament were "un-Islamic."
Sufi Muhammed is also the father-in-law of Maulana Fazlullah, leader of the Pakistan Taliban in the Swat Valley.
Also on Thursday, militants and local law enforcement fought a fierce battle in the North West Frontier Province. Militants attacked a police convoy with a roadside bomb, starting an eight-hour gunbattle, according to Waqif Khan, Mardan District police chief.
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