Blast kills TTP local commander in Mirali

Six of his bodyguardswere also killed a suicide attack on their vehicle.

MIRAMSHAH: A Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Bannu Zani Khel commander was killed along with six of his bodyguards in a suicide attack on their vehicle.

Sources within the security forces from the area told The Express Tribune that Commander Qari Saifuddin was on his way to Mirali Bazaar when an explosives-laden suicide bomber’s car collided with the militants’ vehicle.

Four guards died on the spot whereas Saifuddin and three of his guards were critically injured in the explosion. After the explosion, tribesmen living nearby rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and the injured to the DHQ hospital. Commander Saifuddin and two of the three wounded guards succumbed to their wounds before they could reach the hospital, the source said.

So far none of the militants groups have accepted responsibility for the incident.

TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said they are inquiring about the incident through their own sources.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2013.