Militants retaliate: IED blast kills three, injures six

One woman wounded by stray rocket shell in Shamshadin.

HANGU/ JAMRUD: Three people were killed and another six were injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by a roadside in Zeridar area of Lower Orakzai Agency exploded on Friday.

An official of the political administration said that around 1:30pm an IED exploded near a passenger pickup van loaded with  passengers en route to Dourhanki from Kohat.

According to the official, the injured were taken to the Kohat Divisional Hospital, adding that all the passengers were from Mani Khel tribe in the agency. The deceased have been identified as Liaqat Ali, Umar Ali and Ghafoor Hussain. Zafar Ali, Noor Taj Ali, Gulshan Ali, Naib Ali and Kamal Hussain are among the injured.

Meanwhile, in another incident in Shamshadin area on the boundary of the troubled agency and Hangu district, a stray rocket landed on a house, severely injuring a woman, according to the political administration officer. “Both militants and security forces were exchanging gunfire at intervals in the area,” he said.  The official added that during the exchange of fire, rockets fired from an unknown direction landed on the house of Abdul Waris, injuring his wife. Two other houses belonging to Jalat Khan and Rashid were also destroyed.

Two Afghans injured

A mortar shell fired from an unknown direction landed on the house of an Afghan refugee, Atiqur Rehman, in Ghariza area of tehsil Jamrud in Khyber Agency. Rehman’s parents were injured in the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2012.