WANA, Dec 8: At least 12 people were killed and 50 others wounded when a powerful explosion ripped through the Jandola Bazaar in the Tank tribal area of the Frontier Region on Thursday, witnesses said. In a separate development, suspected militants killed two of the four militiamen kidnapped from the Wana Bazaar in South Waziristan. Their decapitated bodies were found by residents in the Karikot village in Wana, who turned them over to political authorities.

Witnesses said that a powerful bomb placed in a roadside hotel close to the Frontier Corps’ Jandola Fort went off with a big bang at around 9.30am on Thursday morning.

Tank borders the restive South Waziristan tribal region.

The explosion triggered a chain of small explosions in the adjoining arms shops. As a result, five shops were completely gutted while several others were damaged.

Paramilitary militiamen who man the Jandola Fort together with local volunteers pulled out the mutilated bodies and shifted the injured to a hospital.

Locals put the death toll at 12 but a government statement issued later in the evening said eight people had died in the blast.

“Officials feared more casualties,” the short statement by the Governor’s Fata secretariat said.

The hotel is the property of the Frontier Corps but had been rented out. Locals suspected the explosion could be the handiwork of militants who have renewed attacks on security forces in recent weeks.

The government, however, did not offer any explanation as to the cause of the blast. It said the political administration in F.R. Tank had been directed to probe the incident from all aspects.

The explosion has come in the wake of fast deteriorating law and order situation in neighbouring South and North Waziristan.

In Wana, locals in Karikot spotted and turned over to the authorities bodies of the two militiamen who along with two other fellow soldiers were kidnapped from the Wana Bazaar on Wednesday.

The deceased soldiers of the Frontier Corps have been identified as Omar Ali Khattak and Akhtar Zaman Bhittani.

The fate of the two other militiamen remained unknown.

Political Agent of South Waziristan Laiq Hussain said action would be taken under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation against the tribe in whose territory the murders took place.