Violence in Bara: Woman killed, children injured by stray mortar

Afridi says Baghwali’s family was asleep in their house when the shell hit the room.

BARA:

A woman was killed and her four children injured when a mortar shell fired from an unknown location landed on their house in Bara, Khyber Agency on Sunday.

Political administration official Arshid Afridi said Baghwali Afridi’s family was asleep in their house in the Yousaf Talab area of Sipah when the shell hit the room in which his spouse and their four children were sleeping.

Baghwali’s wife died in the attack while his four children, Ahmadullah, Zainab, Javeria and Habibullah were injured and rushed to Hayatabad Medical Complex with the help of locals.

In a separate incident, two bullet-riddled bodies were found in the Kohi Sher Haider area of Malik Din Khel. Arshid said the bodies were found in the nearby bushes after residents of the area informed the political administration.



The deceased were shifted to the tehsil office, where they were identified as Ijaz Ferozkhel and Najeebullah, residents of Malikdin Khel. Arshid said both men were relatives and had gone missing a few days earlier. “No one has yet accepted responsibility for the killings,” he said.

Security forces also demolished four houses belonging to suspected militants in Malik Din Khel and Sipah areas of Bara.

The political administration official said the houses were destroyed during a search operation in the area, but that no one has been arrested yet. “As the houses were empty, the militants must have fled,” he added.

Arshid added that security forces in Malik Din Khel had informed tribesmen to leave their houses before the operation.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2012.