Mortar attack kills six in Hangu on Ashura

Mortar fired from Orakzai hits two houses in Hangu, killing six people, including two children and a woman.

HANGU: A mortar attack killed at least six people, including women and children, in Hangu on Friday as Shia Muslims marked Ashura, police said.

The attack also wounded eight others, police said. Mortars slammed into two houses in Hangu, a town that has been a flashpoint for sectarian clashes between Pakistan's Shia and Sunni Muslim communities.

They were fired from the neighbouring district of Orakzai.

"Mortars were fired from Orakzai and hit two houses in Hangu. Six people were killed and eight injured," Gul Jamal, a local police official, told AFP.

Fazal Naeem, a police spokesman, confirmed the attack and the toll. "There were two children and a women (among the dead). The dead include both Shiites and Sunnis," he told AFP.