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Peshawar, Dec 25 (ANI): The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor has blamed “mischievous elements” from across the border for the simultaneous attacks launched by Taliban militants on five security checkpoints in Mohmand, in which eleven members of Pakistan’s Frontier Corps were killed, and ten others wounded.

24 insurgents were also killed in the gunbattles that went on for several hours on Friday, as the FC repulsed the terror attacks, the Daily Times reported.

A handout from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor’s House in Peshawar read that three FC soldiers had died in the simultaneous attacks, however, eight others died when an “ammunition store collapsed”.

KP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani termed the strikes as “attacks on the sovereignty of Pakistan and its people”, and saluted the bravery of the FC soldiers.

“This incident proves that mischievous elements are being tasked from across the border to create an anarchic situation in Pakistan and carry out terrorist acts here to spread terror and uncertainty,” the governor was quoted, as saying in his handout.

Ghani warned that such eventualities from across the western borders would not be tolerated anymore and would be retaliated against.

He also questioned as to “who was providing sanctuaries to these anti-Pakistan elements across the border and why action was not being taken against these elements”?

A Taliban spokesman- Sajjad Mohmand- accepted responsibility for the attacks, and gave his own figures of casualties inflicted on the FC in his telephone call to tribal journalists.

Three checkposts in Baizai and two in Safi were attacked, with official sources claiming that terrorists from Afghanistan had also participated in the attacks.

The Taliban spokesman also hinted that terrorists from “many places” had launched the attacks.

The attacks on the checkpoints in Baizai and Safi began in the early hours of Friday and continued until the afternoon, with around 150 Taliban involved in the attacks, Amjad Ali, political agent of Mohmand, told a rare media briefing in Ghalanai.

“Our brave soldiers repulsed these attacks and control these posts,” said Amjad, adding, “Twenty four terrorists were killed and 10 others wounded. We have eight dead bodies of terrorists in our custody.” (ANI)