WANA, Sept 20: A soldier and a tribal elder were killed and eight others wounded in two separate bomb blasts in the remote valley of Shakai in South Waziristan Agency, officials said here.

On Monday night, an army vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in Shakai valley, 25 kilometres west of Wana.

Officials said the vehicle was part of an army convoy which was on its way to Wana from Shakai. Miscreants had planted the device on a dirt track.

The soldier identified as Fida Mohammad died on the spot, and another four servicemen sustained serious injuries. The vehicle was damaged. The wounded soldiers were shifted to a military hospital in the area.

An army spokesman told Dawn that security forces had laid siege to Shakai-Landinoor and had arrested four militants.

“Computers, weapons and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have also been recovered from the area,” the spokesman said.

On Tuesday, a pro-government tribal elder was killed and his four companions wounded when their vehicle struck a landmine in the valley.

At the time of the incident, the chief of the tribal volunteers, Sher Dil Khan, was returning with four men from a peace jirga, eyewitnesses said.

The injured men — Shad Khan, Meshal Khan, Dil Zar Khan and Khan Wali — are receiving treatment in a local hospital.

The jirga was convened in Shakai with the purpose of constituting a 40-member peace committee for areas dominated by the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe.