Three killed in rocket attack near Peshawar

Chief of local peace lashkar says the assault by Taliban targeted his house

PESHAWAR: At least three person, including a woman and a child, were killed and two others were injured on Thursday after a rocket landed on a house during a clash between militants and volunteers of a local lashkar in Adezai village on the outskirts of the city.

The area where this clash occurred is situated some 25 kilometres south of the provincial capital and is close to the semi-tribal Darra Adamkhel region of Kohat.

An official of Mattani police station told The Express Tribune that two person were killed and two others were injured when a rocket landed on the house of a local named Raj Wali. Mattani Lashkar chief Dilawar Khan said that a large number of suspected militants attacked the village and clashed with local volunteers.

Dilawar said that Taliban militants had fired four rockets at his house, one of which hit a house of a local tribesman Raj Wali. As a result, three members of Wali’s family, including his wife, were killed and two others were injured. He said that the rest of those who died were children of the same family.

He said that three other rockets hit another house and two landed on clear ground and did not cause any damage. Dilawar claimed that the militants had attacked the village from Darra Adamkhel, Bara and Frontier Region (FR) Peshawar.

The suicide attack that killed more than 70 people and injured around 80 after a Friday prayers congregation in the Darra Adamkhel region was reportedly aimed at an anti-Taliban lashkar in the area, where the military drove out militants after an operation in early 2008.

Former chief of Adezai lashkar Haji Abdul Malik was also killed in a suicide attack on November 8, 2009, when a bomber blew himself up in a local market. Taliban militants belonging to Darra Adamkhel claimed responsibility for his killing.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2010.