KHAR/LANDI KOTAL, Sept 14: A member of a local peace committee was killed and five others were injured in a remote-controlled blast in Salarzai tehsil of Bajaur Agency on Saturday.

The officials of political administration and local people said that the incident took place in the mountainous area of Darra, some 28 kilometres northeast of Khar, the administrative headquarters of Bajaur Agency.

Political Tehsildar Haji Sardar Yousaf Khan told journalists that several volunteers of the local peace committee were gathered to excavate an archaeological site in the area when a remote-controlled explosive device, planted by unidentified miscreants went off with a bang.

Sher Mohammad, a member of the local peace committee, was killed on the spot while five others sustained injuries in the blast, he added.

“The volunteers along with experts of archaeology were busy in excavation to search antiquities but all of sudden a remote-controlled bomb went off,” he said.

Four of the injured volunteers were identified as Gul Zair Shah, Mohammad Rahim, Mohammad Haleem and Gul Khan.

The members of the various peace committees and local people rushed to the area and shifted injured to agency headquarters hospital in Khar.

Hospital sources said that two of the injured were in critical condition.

The local administration with the help of village defence committees launched a search operation and arrested several suspected persons.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

“We have started investigation about the incident but according to initial reports militants can be responsible for the attack,” an official of the administration said.In Khyber Agency, members of a banned militant group on Saturday put on fire houses of three peace activists in Takhtaki area of Tirah.

Sources said a group of militants entered the locked houses of Latif Khan, Yar Matshah and Mashrang Khan, all members of Kamarkhel Peace Committee, in Takhtaki area and torched their houses after sprinkling kerosene oil on the two-story buildings.

Household items and wooden logs worth millions of rupees were turned into ashes as militants barred local people from extinguishing the fire.

Militants have so far torched more than 50 houses of peace volunteers in Kamarkhel area. The residents of the area started vacating their houses in the end of March after banned Lashkar-i-Islam attacked Takhtaki village.

Meanwhile, unidentified armed persons shot dead an Afghan national in Alamgudar area of Bara on Saturday.

Khasadar officials said that the incident was result of an old enmity. The assailants managed to escape after committing the crime, they said. —Dawn Report