36 Pakistani soldiers killed

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/36-Pakistani-soldiers-killed/articleshow/9759737.cms

PESHAWAR: At least 36 Pakistani security personnel were killed and dozens of others injured when hundreds of Taliban insurgents from Afghanistan attacked border checkpoints in Pakistan's north western Chitral district on Saturday.

This was the latest in a series of attacks that militants carried out inside Pakistan from their bases in Afghanistan's Nuristan and Kunar provinces, bordering Chitral. Since the US pulled out its troops from eastern Afghanistan, the Taliban insurgents and the Hizb-i-Islami militia of former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hikmatyar re-established their bases in the two provinces. Pakistani Taliban on the run from military offensives in the country's north west also sneaked into Nuristan and Kunar which they use now as a launching pad against Pakistani forces stationed in Chitral, Dir and Swat regions.

According to security officials, hundreds of militants attacked Pakistan's paramilitary posts and civilian settlements in Arandhi and Drosht areas of Chitral before dawn on Saturday.

"Twenty-six soldiers and 10 border police were killed. About a dozen militants were also killed in retaliatory attacks," said colonel Haroon Rasheed, Chitral's FC commandant. He said that militants attacked some posts with heavy weapons while firing mortar bombs on others causing the casualties.