KOHAT, April 6: In a heart-rending incident, four children of a family were killed in suburban Jarma area of Kohat on Wednesday when an explosive device they had found in a dry pond went off.

Police said that the children were playing when something sticking out of the muddy part of the pond attracted their attention. Not knowing that it was a deadly grenade, they pulled out the pin of the grenade in their curiosity and were blown up by the explosion that followed. Three of them were real brothers and the fourth a cousin – aged between 8 and 13.

Local people said the father of the three brothers Sajid Khan (8), Sultan Khan (10) and Daud Khan (12) had died just two months back of a stroke. Their cousin was identified as Hassan Khan (13).

Volunteers and police shifted the bodies to the KDA divisional hospital where Hayat Khan, father of Hassan Khan, collapsed after seeing them. Mothers of the deceased went into shock while the whole neighbourhood mourned the lively children.

The children were laid to rest in the graveyard of Mohallah Miangan in Jarma, 12 kilometers south of Kohat city.

The Jarma police registered a case and have started investigations.

Kohat district is just 15 kilometers away from Darra Adam Khel where automatic and semi-automatic weapons and explosives are easily available and smuggled to other parts of the country.

Business in illegal arms goes on in spite of the crackdowns conducted occasionally by the security forces in Darra Adamkhel since 2008.

NEW CADET COLLEGE: The GOC of IXth division, Kohat, Maj-Gen Rizwan Akhtar has said that a new cadet college has been established in Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan Agency, on the demand of local elders. The institution would be administered by the army's IXth division, headquartered in Kohat.

The general officer commanding (GOC) said in a statement that the college had been initially started in the building of degree college for boys in Wana and soon the students would be shifted to own building. He hoped that the college building would be completed by next year.

The college was inaugurated the other day as had been promised by Chief of Army Chief of Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani with the grand jirga from Wana on February 25, 2011. The first batch of 50 students had been selected and more admissions would be announced soon.

A few years ago, hundreds of students of Razmak Cadet College in the North Waziristan Agency were shifted to Peshawar after militants kidnapped its principal and students. The students were still studying in Peshawar.