Pakistan soldier dies in attack as peace talks falter

Militants in a restive tribal area of northwest Pakistan attacked an army checkpoint and killed a soldier just hours after the government cancelled a round of talks with the Taleban, a security official said Tuesday.

The peace talks are in crisis two weeks after they began following a claim from a Taleban faction on Sunday that they had executed 23 soldiers who were kidnapped in June 2010.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called the deaths “heinous” on Monday and warned they would impact attempts at reconciliation, while government peace negotiators pulled out of scheduled talks.

The checkpoint attack came overnight Monday in the Ladha area of South Waziristan.

“A soldier embraced shahdat (martyrdom) due to terrorist fire last night on a security forces checkpost in Ladha,” a senior security official said.

South Waziristan is one of the semi-autonomous tribal regions where Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants have carved out their hideouts leading to a series of military offensives.

A faction of the Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) from the northwestern district of Mohmand claimed on Sunday night they had killed the 23 paramilitaries whom they seized nearly four years ago near the Afghan border.

The paramilitary soldiers from the Frontier Corps (FC) vanished after the Taleban attacked their checkpoint in Mohmand tribal district on June 17, 2010.