A passenger van hit a landmine in Godar area of Kurram Agency on Tuesday, killing 14 passengers including five women and four children, and injuring nine others, among them two census workers.

The vehicle was on its way from Godar to Sadda, Parachinar when it hit a mine, injuring two census workers on board, security sources told DawnNews.

The nine critical injured including four officials of Khasadar militia of the blast were flown to Peshawar by an army helicopter for further medical treatment.

The injured were shifted to a hospital where they are being treated for injuries.

The funeral prayer of the dead was offered at Markazi Imambargah Parachinar from where their bodies were sent to native towns for burial.

The army dispatched an MI-17 helicopter to Parachinar to assist in transferring the injured victims of the blast to CMH Peshawar, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) reported.

The security forces started search operation in the area soon after the incident.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but Shahid Ali Khan, the assistant political agent for Kurram Agency, told Reuters that militants planted a roadside bomb in the Kurram Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

“Among them is a baby and another nine-year-old child. Two women were also killed,” Doctor Mujahid Khan, a senior health official in the district told AFP.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office said the premier had “directed relevant authorities to extend maximum support for treatment of the injured”.

Initial reports suggested that only one woman was killed in the attack, but the death toll climbed to 14 after the injured succumbed to their wounds.

Census workers have been the target of many attacks since the national enumeration exercise kicked off on March 15.

After an attack targeting census workers in Lahore claimed the lives seven people — four army soldiers, an employee of the air force and two other passers-by — and injured 18 others, Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa declared that the sixth population and housing census would be completed at all costs.

Read more: Census to cover 87 districts in final phase

The latest attack on Monday saw a security official lay down his life while another suffered injuries in the line of duty in Kallag Kolanch, an area near the coastal town of Pasni in Gwadar district. The two personnel were deputed to provide security to a census team.