Xe officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Saturday.
The US has signed a contract worth up to US$18.3 million with DynCorp International, another US-based security firm, federal online records showed.
Some analysts say Islamist and other opposition groups may be planting the stories in the Pakistani press and blogs to portray Pakistan’s government as a lackey of the US.
Pakistani political analyst Talat Masood said Inter-Risk’s association with the US “will increase the apprehensions that existed that the Americans are engaged in clandestine activities,” and that the raid shows “the Pakistan government is asserting itself.”
The US considers stability in Pakistan critical to helping the faltering war effort in neighboring Afghanistan and has pressed Pakistan to crack down on extremism on its soil.
Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are believed to use Pakistan’s northwestern regions as hideouts from which to plan attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.
MILITIAS
Pakistan has launched offensives against militants, but has also relied on some local militias to help fend off the Pakistani Taliban. Some of these militias share the same aims as the Taliban in Afghanistan, but disagree with targeting the Pakistani government.
On Saturday, the leader of a pro-government militia said the army had asked him to stop fighting the Pakistani Taliban.
Turkistan Bhitani said he and 24 aides surrendered their weapons to the army in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan and that he had asked 350 of his men to do so as well.
Pakistani army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas, however, said he knew nothing of any such arrangement.
Also on Saturday, a bomb at a security checkpoint in the northwestern region of Dara Adam Khel killed at least two people, local government official Aslam Khan said.
He said police were investigating whether it was a suicide attack and were trying to determine the identity of the victims.
Taliban fighters in Pakistan’s northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan frequently target security checkpoints.
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