The fighting took place as Pak troops, backed by helicopter gunships, carried out a search operation around the town of Bara in the lawless Khyber tribal
district bordering Afghanistan."Four paramilitary soldiers were martyred and seven others were maimed in today's fighting," a security bigshot told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"At least 39 gunnies were also killed," he said.
Four civilians also died when a mortar shell hit a house, a government official said.
"Four non-combatants were killed in the day-long shootout when a mortar shell hit their house," Khyber's deputy administration chief Syed Ahmed Jan told AFP.
It was not immediately clear who fired the mortar shell, he said.
A senior paramilitary official said the gunnies belonged to the Taliban-linked Laskhar-e-Islam group that is led by warlord Mangal Bagh.
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
Independent verification of the incident is not possible as access to the area is restricted by the military.