Bomb targeting madrassa administrator injures three

KHYBER AGENCY/ PESHAWAR: A roadside bomb targeting the vehicle of an Afghan madrassa administrator wounded three people in the Chamkani area on Sunday.

Police said Qari Salahuddin, who runs a religious seminary in the area, was travelling with two other men in a jeep on Inqilab Road when an improvised explosive device planted on a pushcart exploded.

Salahuddin survived with bruises, while his gunman Shakoor and a passerby suffered serious injuries. The condition of two of the injured was said to be critical. Police said the explosive device weighed around three kilograms.

Unconfirmed reports suggest Qari Salahuddin was associated with the Afghan Taliban.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has witnessed a spike in violence since the start of the new year. On January 20, at least 21 people, including students and staff members of the Bacha Khan University, were killed in an attack that bore a chilling resemblance to the December 2014 massacre of schoolchildren in Peshawar’s Army Public School.

A day earlier, 11 people had died and 31 more were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a security checkpoint in Karkhano Market, in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency.

Eight militants killed

As operations against terrorists continue, the military claimed to have killed at least eight militants in latest air raids in North Waziristan Agency.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said fighter jets targeted several hideouts of militants in Data Khel and Shawal areas, killing at least eight terrorists.

This was the second such air raid since terrorists struck at the Charsadda university last Wednesday. A couple of days, airstrikes were launched in the far-flung Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency.

Contractors warned

In the border town of Torkham, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has warned contractors of taxi stands with dire consequences if the militants’ demands are not met.

A Levies officer, who was not authorised to talk to the media, said the proscribed outfit pasted warning posters outside the houses of two contractors Jalal Khan and Rahum Gul Shinwari in Ashraf Khel and Khuga Khel areas, respectively.

The contractors have been asked to meet the demands or they would be responsible for their ‘massive losses’.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th,  2016.