Police raided a suspected militant hideout in a city in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, triggering a shootout that wounded one police driver and one militant, AP reported. Local police chief Akhtar Ali Shah said an unspecified number of militants later managed to flee when police halted fire to avoid civilian casualties in Nowshera, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province. «We are trying to trace and arrest them,» Shah said. Shah said shooting broke out when officers surrounded a house in a congested residential district and asked the suspects to surrender. He said police recovered arms including grenades and an assault rifle. Shah said the injured driver and the wounded gunman had been transported to a hospital. He provided no details about the alleged militants.
