Explosion: Khyber Agency blast claims minor’s life

Eight-year-old Jibrail had stepped out to buy some sweets .

LANDIKOTAL: A bomb blast outside a hujra in Ashraf Khel, Landikotal on Sunday, killed a minor boy.

Landikotal Assistant Political Agent Azmat Wazir said the explosion occurred at around 2:30pm outside Yousaf Afridi’s hujra. Eight-year-old Jibrail was killed on the spot, while a passerby identified as Hafizullah fainted by the impact of the blast.

Mairaj Khan, an official of the political administration, told The Express Tribune that a nearby mosque and four houses were partially damaged. According to the bomb disposal squad, the explosive was planted in a pressure cooker, he informed.



Khan presumed that unidentified militants had planted the bomb to target local tribesmen who had gathered in the hujra to discuss the election campaign. “Over 50 people were present in the room. If the bomb had exploded an hour earlier there would have been further devastation,” he stated.

Following the explosion, political administration officials as well as Khasadar and Khyber Rifles personnel rushed to the site and cordoned off the area.



They arrested 20 suspects under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and shifted them to the political administration’s office for interrogation.

The pedestrian, Hafizullah, was taken to the agency’s headquarters hospital where doctors administered first aid and then discharged him. “He only fainted due to the blast, he did not sustain any injuries,” Khan maintained.

Azeem Afridi, uncle of the deceased, said he had given money to Jibrail to go and buy sweets from a shop nearby. The child was near the hujra when the bomb exploded.

Jibrail had been visiting Azeem’s house with his mother and was a student of grade three. “They were preparing to go back to their house in Bara as Jibrail had school on Monday,” Azeem said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2013.