Islamabad- At least 24 Islamic militants, including al-Qaeda-linked Uzbek fighters, were killed as Pakistani jets and artillery pounded their hideouts in the restive north-western tribal district of Bajaur, an intelligence official said Thursday.

The shelling that started late Wednesday and continued Thursday in four areas of the district, which borders Afghanistan, also destroyed half a dozen bunkers and an ammunition depot belonging to the militants, the Pakistani official said.

Landikotal (Pakistan), Nov 20 : Due the ongoing military operations in Bajaur and Mohmand tribal agencies, people fleeing from here are coming to Peshawar through Afghanistan, an official at the Torkham border reportedly said.

The official said over 200 people have crossed the border in a single day.

“We had to cross into the bordering areas of Afghanistan and cover a long distance to reach the border because security forces have blocked roads leading from the two agencies to Peshawar,” the Daily Times quoted a senior citizen from Mohmand Agency as saying.

Ghalanai (Pakistan), Nov 20 : The Pakistan is learnt to have asked the tribesmen in Mohmand Agency to either oust the Taliban, else leave the area.

According to the Daily Times, Pakistani aircraft dropped pamphlets in various areas of Safi tehsil falling under in Mohmand Agency on Wednesday urging the tribesmen to expel the Taliban from the area.

Islamabad, Nov. 20 : Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif''s led party Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) has been accused of stooping too low in politics after Rana Sanaullah, the PML-N law minister in the Punjab, flashed two controversial pictures on the steps of Punjab Assembly.

Islamabad - US airstrikes inside Pakistan are unacceptable, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said Thursday, a day after a suspected US drone carried out the first US airstrike on a militant hideout outside Pakistan's tribal region.

"Such attacks will not be tolerated," Gilani told the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament. "We will not allow anyone to harm our national sovereignty."

US forces deployed in Afghanistan have conducted dozens of air raids in recent months on Taliban and al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan's tribal region.

Kabul , Nov. 20 : At least six insurgent fighters have been killed and several others wounded following a suspected U. S. airstrike deep inside Pakistani territory on Wednesday, the Washington Post quoted a Pakistani security official as saying.

An unmanned U. S. Predator aircraft fired at least two missiles early Wednesday at a house near north Waziristan, one of seven semi-autonomous tribal territories that line Pakistan''s border with Afghanistan.