Militancy in FATA: Car bomb kills three in Khyber

PESHAWAR: A bomb planted in a car exploded on Saturday, killing three passengers and wounding two pedestrians in the Barqambarkhel village in the Khyber tribal region, officials said.

The bomb, which was on a timer, exploded in a moving car, they said.

“Three people were killed and two pedestrians were wounded when the time bomb planted in a car exploded,” Political Agent of Khyber Agency Shafirullah Khan told AFP. The wounded were in stable condition, he added.

Local intelligence officials confirmed the incident and the death toll.

Taliban insurgents repeatedly attack trucks carrying military hardware and oil supplies for hundreds of thousands of US-led Nato troops stationed in Afghanistan.

The fabled Khyber Pass in Khyber Agency is the main land route for Nato supplies while the agency is home to Taliban insurgents and militants from the extremist group Lashkar-e-Islam, led by local warlord Mangal Bagh.

Meanwhile, militants shot dead four men for alleged spying and dumped their bodies outside Karak, a northwestern town near North Waziristan tribal district.

Police said they found four bullet-riddled bodies with notes from militants in their pockets outside.

“We found bodies of four men, they had been killed by shooting and notes in their pockets said they were spying for Indian and Jewish intelligence agencies,” district police chief Sajid Mohmand told AFP.

“We are trying to ascertain the identities of the dead men,” he said, adding that it was the first such incident in Karak.

The victims were aged between 20 and 40, Mohmand said. A local intelligence official also confirmed the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2011.