GHALANAI/LANDI KOTAL: Eight security personnel, nine militants and a peace committee volunteer were killed in roadside blasts and clashes in Mohmand, Khyber and Bajaur agencies on Saturday.

Six security personnel were killed and three others injured when an explosive device planted along the roadside went off in Pandyali tehsil of Mohmand Agency.

Officials said personnel of Khushhal Scouts were going to inspect the place where a school was blown up by militants in Tamanzai area recently. When they were within a stone’s throw of the place, an improvised explosive device planted by suspected militants went off.

Four personnel were killed on the spot while three others suffered injuries. The injured were airlifted to Peshawar, but two of them died on way to hospital.

The dead were identified as Habib, Wajid Khan, Sabir Khan, Hazrat Noor, Sohail and Hameed.

Funeral prayers for four of them were held at the headquarters of Mohmand Rifles in Ghalanai and later the bodies were dispatched to their native villages.

Khasadar and Levies personnel rushed to the site, cordoned off the area and started a search operation.

Sources said that 31 tribesmen were arrested under the collective territorial responsibility clause of the FCR. The detained persons were sent to Ghalanai lock-up for interrogation.

The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban, Mohmand chapter, claimed responsibility for the attack on security forces and blowing up of the school in Tamanzai.

The emir of the TTP Mohmand Agency Ijrai Commission, Umar Khurrassani, told newsmen by phone from an undisclosed place that the attack was a revenge for air strikes in North Waziristan. “It is a routine activity as we have boycotted the peace negotiations. The government has already started military operation in North Waziristan.”

Earlier, miscreants blew up the Government Middle School, Malik Sher Tamanzai, in Pandiali Tehsil by planting an IED in the building.

Said Mohammad Khan, Mohmand Agency’s education officer, said that 126 schools had been destroyed in the agency, depriving over 20,000 children of basic education.

LANDI KOTAL: Two security men and eight militants, including a key `commander’, were killed in an armed clash in Landi Kotal near Hamza Baba mausoleum when a security vehicle was ambushed by militants.

Sources said that in the gunfire that ensued after the attack, two FC men were killed while another three were injured.

They said one assailant was killed and another was arrested. The motorcycle used by terrorists in the attack was seized. The attackers are said to be affiliated with Tamanche Mula group which is allegedly involved in some deadly attacks against Nato vehicles and security forces in the area.

According a press release issued by the ISPR, eight militants were killed during the exchange of fire with militants in the area.

BAJAUR: A volunteer of a local peace committee was killed and an official of Levies force and another man were injured in two roadside blasts in Bajaur Agency.

Officials of the tribal administration said that two volunteers of the village defence committee in Ghakhi area of Mamond tehsil were returning to their home from bazaar when a landmine went off. Khan Zeb, volunteer of the peace committee, was killed on the spot while Matiullah suffered critical wounds.

The locals took the injured to the agency’s headquarters hospital in Khar.

In another incident, an official of Bajaur Levies force was injured when a remote-controlled bomb went off in Kamar Sar area of Mamond tehsil.

Officials said that the incident took place when Abdul Wali, hawaldar in Bajaur Levies force, was on his way to a nearby check-post on the main Inayat Killi-Laghari road.

He suffered critical wounds and was taken to AHQ hospital in Khar.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2014