Pakistan security forces say they have captured two top pro-Taliban commanders and five militants of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Press TV reported.
One of the commanders, Maulana Rafi Uddin, is considered to be the right-hand man of TTP commander Hakeemullah Mehsud.
Rafi Uddin was swapped in July last year in exchange for ten kidnapped government officials.
The other militant commander captured was Haji Gulzar, who was running training camps along the area bordering Hangu, Orakzai, and the Kurram Agency, according to security forces, a Press TV correspondent reported late on Saturday.
A large quantity of arms and ammunition was also seized by security forces during the operations.
All the seven were arrested at the Shawa military checkpoint in the Spin Thall area of North West Frontier Province after they managed to cross over into Waziristan from Hangu.
Meanwhile, in the ongoing fighting between the Pakistani army and pro-Taliban militants, at least 13 militants have been killed.
Security forces said they used helicopter gunships to pound the militants' hideouts in central Kurram tribal region, the Orakzai Agency, and South Waziristan, a Press TV correspondent reported, quoting local sources.
Five hideouts and three vehicles of the militants were also destroyed when security forces launched ground and air assaults in the Shekhan, Mashti, Ghaljo, and Dabori areas of the Kurram Agency.
One Pakistani soldier was killed when up to 40 militants attacked an army checkpoint in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.
Pakistani fighter jets retaliated by bombarding the militants' hideouts, killing at least six suspected militants in the Makeen and Ladha areas of South Waziristan.
Two pro-Taliban commanders captured in Pakistan
