Scores of militants were killed early Sunday morning when security forces launched operation against suspected militants' hideouts in northwestern Pakistan, said the military.

According to the Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR), one security forces personnel was also killed and four others were injured in the operation launched on request of the government and the people of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

"On the request of the provincial government and people of Dir, frontier corps started operation early this morning against suspected militant hideouts in Lower Dir," the military said in a statement.

It said that heavy exchange of fire took place at Kala Dag and "an important local commander" was among the scores killed.

Intense exchange of fire was going on at Lal Qila, the statement added.

The military offensive was launched a day after a toy bomb killed 12 children in the Dir district.

A Taliban spokesman in the area also confirmed troop deployment, and said that they had also taken positions and ready to resist with full force "if war was imposed on them".

Earlier Sunday, Interior Advisor to Prime Minister Rahman Malik said that Taliban conducted the bombing in the northwestern Pakistani town of Lower Dir and they, by taking the innocent children's lives, had unveiled their real face.

Malik said that the people could not tolerate elements perpetrating such dastardly acts and the government was being forced to take stern action. He also claimed that Taliban were taking the lives of the children through child suicide bombers.

Malik said that officials of the North West Frontier Province had been ordered to investigate into the Lower Dir incident on the directives of the president and prime minister especially, from the angle of finding out whether the children of the victim family were killed on their refusal to turn into suicide bomber.

(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2009)