Increasing militancy: Two killed, three injured in IED blasts

Toheedul Islam peace militia members among victims.

NOWSHERA: Two people were killed and three were injured in three separate incidents of improvised explosive device (IEDs) blasts in the Khyber Agency, South Waziristan Agency and Nowshera on Thursday.

Landikotal political administration official Shahid Afridi said that a peace volunteer of Touheedul Islam was killed and two were injured when an IED planted near their check-point in the remote Bukarh area exploded early Thursday morning. The official said that the injured were shifted to Agency Headquarters Hospital.

The deceased peace militia volunteer was identified as Sala Gul. The official said that according to the militia members, the IED was planted by Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) who are constantly targeting peace militia volunteers to gain control of the area.

In another incident, an IED exploded on GT Road near Akora Khattak killing a worker of the National Highway Authority (NHA). SHO Fazal Subhan said that around 7:30am, an NHA worker Sajid was patrolling the area near Sorya Khel when he came across a black bag by the road side. When he picked it up, the bag exploded killing the worker on the spot. According to the Bomb Disposal Squad, the bomb weighed three kilogrammes.

In the third such incident, a security official was injured when an IED planted by the roadside exploded near him in the Sararogha area of South Waziristan Agency. According to a security forces official, the victim was patrolling the area when the low intensity bomb detonated near him. The injured personnel was shifted to a hospital and a search operation was launched to find the culprits.

With additional reporting by Our Correspondents in DI Khan and Landikotal.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2012.