PESHAWAR, Dec 4: Political authorities have summoned the owner of a house in Mirali tehsil of the North Waziristan Agency where an Al Qaeda commander and four others was killed reportedly in a missile attack on Wednesday night.

Sources said that Mohammad Siddiq, the house-owner, was given the notice on Saturday and directed to appear in the office of the political administration.

Normally, notices are served through maliks, but in this case elders declined to do the job, an official said. The authorities then directed the Muharrir to serve the summons on Siddiq.

Official sources said that the bodies of Al Qaeda’s operational commander Hamza Rabia and his two comrades, who were killed in Siddiq’s house on Wednesday night, had not been found.

Hamza and four others were killed in the house in Asoray village, east of Miramshah.

Villagers said that Siddiq’s house had been hit by the missiles fired by unmanned air vehicles and added that fragments of missiles had been found in the rubble of the mud-house.

A witness denied the occurrence of any explosion, saying the attack was so precise that it hit only the targeted place and did not cause damage to surroundings.

The provincial chief of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Maulana Amanullah, MNA, visited the damaged house on Sunday.

Villagers showed pieces of the exploded missiles, some were marked with words ‘US-made’. They contradicted the government’s claim about the killing of foreigners inside the house or stockpiles of explosives that had caused the blast.

Reuters adds: Sat amid the ruins of his house, Siddiq denied there were any militants present in the house at the time of the attack.

“I don’t know anything about them — there were no foreigners in my house,” Siddiq said. “I have nothing to do with foreigners or Al Qaeda.

“We were sleeping when I heard two explosions in my guest room. When I went there I saw my son, Abdul Wasit, and my eight-year-old nephew, Noor Aziz, were dead,” said the tall tribesman as he received condolences from relatives and neighbours.

“I heard more explosions and went out to the courtyard, and when I looked up at the sky, I saw a white drone,” said Siddiq. “I saw a flash of light come from the drone followed by explosions.”

Officials say Hamza’s corpse, along with those of two comrades, was removed by other fighters and buried secretly.

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