Taliban militants kill eight Pakistan police: officials

Taliban militants on Sunday shot dead eight police officers in a restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

Taliban militants on Sunday shot dead eight police officers in a restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

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The officers were captured by militants after a clash with security forces in the Mohmand tribal region on Saturday in which 12 Taliban were killed, a senior government official said.

"We have recovered eight bodies so far from different places," the official told AFP by telephone on condition of anonymity.

A security official said the bodies of four tribal police officers were dumped on a road in Mohmand.

Pakistan's rugged tribal belt has become a stronghold for hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.

It was not possible to confirm the death toll independently.