Grenade explosion kills two children in Buner

Another child has been critically wounded, says DC Buner

PESHAWAR: At least two children were killed and another critically wounded in a grenade explosion in Buner, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Sunday, officials said.

The children of a shepherd family were playing in a mountainous village when they found the hand grenade and accidentally set it off, DC Buner Zariful Maani said.

The two brothers aged nine and 10 died, while their seven-year-old female cousin is in a critical condition, Maani said.

Another local government official, Aizaz Ahmad, confirmed the details.



The village is close to the Swat Valley, where the army sent 30,000 troops in 2009 to battle militants of the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) led locally by Mullah Fazlullah. He had taken control of the valley and waged a campaign of violence, including beheadings and attacks on girls' schools.

Officials say that Fazlullah fled to Afghanistan during the offensive. In 2013 Fazlullah became chief of the TTP.