Orakzai Agency: IED explosion kills two students
TTP claims responsibility, says it targeted pro-govt elder.
HANGU:
As Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts increase in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), another blast in the lower part of Orakzai Agency killed two students on Thursday.
Nauman Khan, an official of the political administration in Lower Orakzai, said that an IED planted at a roadside near Ferozkhel Bazar in the Jhalaka Mela area went off around 11 am, killing the students on the spot and injuring seven people, including a pro-government tribal elder and his son.
The students had just left school during their break and were on the way to the Ferozkhel Bazar when the IED exploded, the official said.
The official identified the deceased as Abidullah and Muhammad Shafi, saying that they were both eight graders and belonged to Ferozkhel.
“The tribal elder, Malik Muhammad Sharif, who was injured in the explosion, was on the hit list of militants,” the official added, saying that they were on the way to a bazaar when the IED exploded near them. They were both rushed to the Liaqat Memorial Hospital in Kohat where their condition was stated to be serious.
Levies personnel reached the area and started a search operation. “They closed all the entry and exit routes for more than an hour,” the official said, adding that no arrests have been made so far.
Talking to journalists from an undisclosed location, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Orakzai spokesperson Hafiz Saeed claimed responsibility for the blast and said that their target was Malik Muhammad Sharif.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2012.
As Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts increase in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), another blast in the lower part of Orakzai Agency killed two students on Thursday.
Nauman Khan, an official of the political administration in Lower Orakzai, said that an IED planted at a roadside near Ferozkhel Bazar in the Jhalaka Mela area went off around 11 am, killing the students on the spot and injuring seven people, including a pro-government tribal elder and his son.
The students had just left school during their break and were on the way to the Ferozkhel Bazar when the IED exploded, the official said.
The official identified the deceased as Abidullah and Muhammad Shafi, saying that they were both eight graders and belonged to Ferozkhel.
“The tribal elder, Malik Muhammad Sharif, who was injured in the explosion, was on the hit list of militants,” the official added, saying that they were on the way to a bazaar when the IED exploded near them. They were both rushed to the Liaqat Memorial Hospital in Kohat where their condition was stated to be serious.
Levies personnel reached the area and started a search operation. “They closed all the entry and exit routes for more than an hour,” the official said, adding that no arrests have been made so far.
Talking to journalists from an undisclosed location, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Orakzai spokesperson Hafiz Saeed claimed responsibility for the blast and said that their target was Malik Muhammad Sharif.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2012.