Fighting between security forces and Taliban militants Monday left 13 non-combatants and one soldier dead in Pakistan's troubled north-western region, where a Polish engineer was beheaded by rebels two days ago, an official said, dpa reported.
Islamist militants fired several rockets on a checkpoint of government troops near Darra Adam Khel, a small town just outside Peshawar, the capital of militancy-plagued North West Frontier Province (NWFP), in the afternoon, killing one soldier and injuring another two, said a local intelligence official.
The rocket attack triggered an exchange of mortar fire, and some stray rounds hit a thinly populated area.
One mortar round struck a house, and as the locals gathered to rescue the victims and assess the damage another shell hit the site, causing most of the casualties, the official said on condition of anonymity.
"Initial reports say 13 people, including children, were killed and 15 more were injured," according to the official.
Some of the seriously wounded people were transported to the hospitals in Peshawar.
It was not immediately clear who had fired the mortars that did the damage.
After the incident, hundreds of enraged people blocked the Indus Highway, the main road linking Peshawar with the central and southern Pakistan. They were carrying the bodies of the victims and chanted slogans against the government.
Darra Adam Khel is known for illegal arms manufacturing but recently it has also turned into a hotbed of Taliban militants, who released on Sunday evening the video showing the beheading of a Polish oil worker kidnapped in Pakistan's central province of Punjab.
Selective shots broadcast by various news channels showed the Polish national, Peter Stanczak, squatting on the floor with two masked gunmen standing on either side.
A banner in the background identified the abductors as militants from the Darra Adam Khel chapter of the Taliban movement.
Stanzack blamed Pakistani authorities for not doing enough to secure his release, and asked his government not to send troops to Muslim countries, including, Afghanistan where Western forces have been fighting the Taliban since 2001.
The video also showed the militants slaying the Pole, but the TV channels did not broadcast these images.
Stanczak was seized by militants who ambushed his vehicle in Pakistan's Attock district, about 85 kilometres from capital Islamabad, on September 28.
He was executed at the weekend after Pakistani government refused to fulfil their demands for the release of their detained colleagues.