ISLAMABAD/KOHAT, 31 January 2008 — Bodies of 13 Pakistani paramilitary soldiers kidnapped by militants last week have been found in an abandoned vehicle, officials and police in northwest Pakistan said yesterday.

The bodies were recovered in Darra Adam Khel, a tribal area near the city of Peshawar in North West Frontier Province, where fighting broke out on Friday after militants seized four trucks carrying ammunition and other supplies for soldiers.

“Ten bodies have been identified while the remaining three are difficult to recognize,” said a police official, who declined to be named. “They were apparently killed last week but their bodies were found today,” the official said yesterday.

Blast Kills Three Militants

Three suspected militants were killed yesterday when explosives they were handling went off accidentally near Peshawar, police said. The pre-dawn blast occurred on the outskirts of the capital of North West Frontier Province where a recent wave of violence, blamed on Al-Qaeda-linked militants based in the tribal belt along the Afghan border, has killed hundreds of people.

“They were probably handling explosives at a house when it detonated prematurely, leading to the death of three men on the spot,” Tahir Khan, a senior police official, told Reuters.

“Police have recovered explosives and arrested the owner of the rented house.” Violence has escalated in northwestern Pakistan in recent weeks with militants targeting security forces with suicide bombs and attacking military bases. Most of the violence has been concentrated in the Waziristan region.

At least 10 people, most of them believed to be of Arab origin according to intelligence officials, were killed in North Waziristan late on Monday by a missile residents said was fired from a US drone aircraft at a house near Mir Ali, the region’s main town.

In a separate incident, two soldiers were killed and another was injured yesterday after militants launched rockets at their positions in the tribal area.

The military called in helicopters after pro-Taleban insurgents fired small arms and rockets at troops based near the town of Razmak in North Waziristan, a security official told AFP.

“Two soldiers were killed and another was injured when rockets fired by miscreants hit them,” the official said.

In Karachi, authorities said one of the militants arrested a day earlier after a shootout in the city was a leading member of an Al-Qaeda-linked group.

Qasim Toori, a member of the Jundullah group, was arrested late on Tuesday following a raid by police and paramilitary troops, Akhtar Zamin, home minister of Sindh province, told Reuters.

Two policemen and three militants were killed during the gunbattle, while Toori and two wounded militants were arrested. “We have also recovered a large quantity of weapons and ammunition, including rocket launchers, C4 plastic explosive as well as suicide jackets,” Zamin said.

“The recovery of such a large quantity of arms and ammunition also indicates that they were planning more attacks in Karachi.” Jundullah was blamed for an attack on a convoy escorting Karachi Corps Commander Lt. Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hayat in June 2004, in which 10 people were killed.

Zamin said Toori was involved in that attack, as well as other acts of violence.

“The links go to Wana,” he said, referring to the main town in South Waziristan, a tribal region on the Afghan border where the Pakistan military is fighting Taleban and Al-Qaeda.

“This very group intended to attack election rallies and put the whole election process into jeopardy in the province,” Sindh Home Secretary Arif Ahmed Khan told reporters.

Benazir Cleared of All Graft Charges

Slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been cleared of all corruption cases after an accountability court yesterday deleted her name from the final references. Two courts yesterday heard cases against Benazir’s husband Asif Ali Zardari.