By: Munir Ahmed and Riaz Khan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan took a key step on Thursday to bring the country's remote northwestern tribal areas into its mainstream judicial and political system, as a U.S. drone strike in the lawless region killed two suspected militants from a Taliban-allied faction, officials said.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan took a key step on Thursday to bring the country's remote northwestern tribal areas into its mainstream judicial and political system, as a U.S. drone strike in the lawless region killed two suspected militants from a Taliban-allied faction, officials said.
Later in the evening, the military said troops killed four militants in a gunbattle in the area of Bannu, near the North Waziristan tribal region, and that the exchange also left two soldiers dead.
Under the five-year plan adopted by the Cabinet, the tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan will be merged with Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, making the residents equal in the eyes of law for the first time since 1947, when Pakistan gained independence from Britain.
The tribal regions have been the scene of CIA drone strikes and Pakistani army operations in recent years as militants fleeing from Afghanistan set up sanctuaries there. Thousands of foreign and domestic militants have also been killed there since Islamabad became any ally of Washington in the war on terror.
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