6 children who took a grenade for a ball

HANGU:
Six children of the same family were killed on Sunday when a hand grenade exploded while they were playing with it.

Iftikhar Ahmad, the district police officer (DPO) of Hangu, said the children were playing with the grenade assuming that it was a ball when it exploded, killing all of them on the spot. The incident took place in Baber Mela, on the outskirts of Hangu, around 4pm, he added.

Three of the six children were Karim Khan’s sons, while the other two boys and one girl were children of his brother Muhammad Din.

Karim, an internally displaced person (IDP) from Orakzai Agency, said the children went outside to play in the afternoon when one of them spotted a hand grenade in the garbage dump.

The five boys and one girl started playing with it when it suddenly exploded, he said, which is when Muhammad Din rushed out of his house and saw his children and nephews and niece in a pool of blood.

They were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital where doctors said that all the children had died instantly as they were hit by shrapnel at a close range.

The victims were identified as Asif, Ashiq, Ishaq, Hazrat Gul, Mohib and Zakia. They were all under the age of 10.  A case has been filed at the city police station.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2014.