Khyber op: Two soldiers die in mine blast

LANDIKOTAL: Two soldiers were killed and three injured when a vehicle they were travelling in hit a landmine in Rajgul Valley of Khyber Agency where the military launched an air and ground offensive on Wednesday.

A patrol vehicle of the security forces hit the landmine planted by terrorists early in the morning, a security official told The Express Tribune. Five soldiers were travelling in the vehicle -- two of them were fatally injured and died before they could be evacuated to hospital.

The landmine could not be detected by sappers in an earlier sanitisation operation, the official said, suggesting that it was not planted recently.

The funeral prayers of the slain soldiers were offered in the Corps Headquarters in Peshawar, according to the ISPR. Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Corps Commander Lt Gen Hidayatur Rehman and other civil and military officials attended the funeral. The bodies were later flown to the native towns of the soldiers in Sindh for burial.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th, 2016.