Taliban bomb kills 14 people in Lower Dir

TTP spokesperson says attack launched in revenge after villagers formed a pro-government militia.

PESHAWAR: A roadside bomb planted by the Taliban killed 14 people in Lower Dir on Sunday, police officials said, when it blew up under a truck carrying villagers to a market near the border with Afghanistan.

A spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan said the attack, in the Jandool area of Lower Dir, was launched in revenge after villagers formed a pro-government militia. He said such attacks would continue.

“We have informed them of the repercussions of supporting the government but they didn’t stop backing the armed forces,” Taliban spokesman Sirajuddin Ahmad said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

A government official from the area said those killed were all civilians and none was a member of either the militia or the armed forces.

Police said three women and three children were among the dead and seven people were wounded.

Support for the Taliban has fallen in some areas in the north, analysts say, in part because their bloody bombing campaigns have claimed so many civilian lives.

Since 2009, the army has increased its control in much of Pakistan’s tribal areas but insurgent attacks remain common.