By The South Asia Times

PESHAWAR - At least seven Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were martyred and 13 others injured during a search-and-strike operation against militants in the Sar Banda area of Maidan, Lower Dir, on Thursday, officials said on Friday. One FC soldier was also reported missing after a fierce gunbattle in the mountainous terrain within the jurisdiction of Lal Qila police station, according to daily Dawn.

According to officials, militants had taken up positions and opened fire on a security convoy, triggering an intense exchange of fire. The wounded were first shifted to Lal Qila Hospital and were later referred to the District Headquarters Hospital in Timergara for further treatment. Authorities said a heavy contingent of police, Elite Force units and Dir Scouts remained deployed in the area as the operation continued.

Security sources claimed that the operation inflicted “significant losses” on the militants, but they did not immediately provide details to substantiate the assertion. Investigations were under way to determine the identity and affiliation of the attackers and whether they had received cross-border support.

Lal Qila and surrounding parts of Maidan have a fraught history of militancy. The locality was once a stronghold of the proscribed Tehreek-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM) led by Maulana Sufi Muhammad. His son-in-law, Mullah Fazlullah, later became a senior commander of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and fled to Afghanistan during the 2009 military offensive in Malakand; he was subsequently killed in an air strike there. While Sufi Muhammd also died in 2019.

Maidan — a scenic valley in Lower Dir that saw large-scale military operations in 2009 — was home to thousands of families who were displaced then, many spending the hot summer months in Mardan and other districts in tents and rented accommodation. The return of militants to the area, apparently from across the Afghan border, has rekindled fears of renewed displacement.

But this time local residents say they will not abandon their homes. Community elders and residents interviewed by reporters vowed not to vacate their houses and said they would resist the militants “to wipe them out from Maidan” if security forces failed to do so. Many questioned how militants were able to reach the valley despite border fencing and the presence of Pakistani forces along the frontier.

Officials have promised to intensify operations to secure the area and investigate gaps in border security.