KOHAT, Sept 12: Unidentified masked armed persons killed a tribesman and injured three others in Marai area here on Monday.

Sources said that gunmen stopped a passenger coach going to Orakzai Agency and forced the commuters to get off the vehicle. They shot dead a passenger and injured three others, they added.

The injured were shifted to a local hospital in Ustarzai village. The Ustarzai police, when contacted, said that things were not clear yet and they were investigating the incident to register a case.

Sources said that the passenger coach bearing registration number 1085-Peshawar was carrying commuters from Hangu via Kohat to Tirah in lower Orakzai Agency when two motorcyclists intercepted it and forced the passengers to disembark from the vehicle for identification.

“There were also families in the vehicle. One of the passengers exchanged hot words with the masked men, who opened fire at them,” they added. Arsala Khan, a resident of Orakzai Agency, was killed while Sakhiullah, his seven-year-old daughter Ayesha and Said Khan were injured in the firing. All the victims belong to Mishti Mela tribe of Orakzai Agency.

The child was referred to KDA headquarter hospital from Ustarzai hospital.

Sources said that the attackers disappeared on their motorcycle after committing the crime into the nearby mountainous area, infested with thick jungles. The Marai village is situated near the border of the troubled Orakzai Agency where security forces had launched operation against militants in March 2010.

Officials claimed that the lower part of the tribal region was safe as it was cleared of militants in September last with the help of tribesmen.

However, local sources said that militants were still present in some areas.

Militants were still attacking convoys of security forces and passenger coaches on Hangu-Parachinar Highway and in tribal area, they said. —Abdul Sami Paracha