Fighters in Pakistan have killed two aides of a Muslim religious leader as they were being transported to Peshawar by a military convoy, Pakistani army reports say.
The convoy was ambushed by fighters on Saturday as it was carrying the two men from Malakand town to Peshawar in the country's northwest.
One soldier was also killed in the attack.
The two detained men were aides to Sufi Muhammad, the Swat religious leader who had negotiated a failed peace agreement between the government and the Taliban in Swat.
"Spokesman Ameer Izzat and Mohammad Alam, a deputy of Islamist cleric Sufi Muhammad, died in the terrorist attack," a military statement said.
The dead men had been arrested by the military on Thursday, along with three Afghan nationals.
Sufi Muhammad had brokered a deal that allowed the Taliban to enforce its strict interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law, in Malakand district, in return for its fighter laying down their arms, but the deal fell apart in April, soon after it was instated.
Suicide blast
The convoy attack comes just one day after a suicide bombing at a mosque in Upper Dir, which borders Swat, killed at least 30 people.
"People tried to intercept him because he looked like an outsider, someone who does not belong to this area,'' Khan said.
The incident was the latest in a surge of violent episodes thought to be in response to the military's campaign against the Taliban in Swat.
Since late April, the military has focused a concerted air and ground assault against Taliban fighters in Swat.
General Ashfaq Kayani, the Pakistan army chief, was quoted in a statement as saying the military had succeeded in clearing much of the area.
"The tide in Swat has decisively turned . Major population centres and roads leading to the valley have been largely cleared of organised resistance by the terrorists," he said.
But his words come against a backdrop of attacks on civilian targets in retaliation for the military offensive.
Pakistan has been rocked by more than a dozen bomb blasts that have killed over 100 people since the end of April, with Peshawar, the main city in the northwest, and the cultural capital, Lahore, both hit.
The United States has strongly supported the Pakistani military operation.
Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, was in Islamabad on Friday to consult the country's leaders on what needs to be done after confronting the Taliban in the Swat valley.
