LANDI KOTAL: Four members of the Akkakhel peace committee and a Levies force’s man were martyred in a roadside blast in lower Tirah, Khyber Agency, on Monday.

Officials of the Khyber Agency’s political administration confirmed the incident.

They said in a brief statement that a vehicle of the peace committee was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED).

According to the statement, Zar Wali of the Akkakhel tribe along with his colleagues Noor Khan, Gul Nawaz and Tamrez and Levies force man Abdul Manan was travelling in the vehicle when the IED placed by assailants on the roadside near Mr Wali’s house in Dars Jummat locality exploded at around 9.30am. All the five men died on the spot.

Soon after the blast security personnel rushed to the site and took the bodies out from the badly damaged vehicle.

They also conducted a search operation in the area for possible involvement of a local resident in the incident.

According to sources, security officials believed that the IED was detonated by remote control.

Meanwhile, the banned Lashkar-i-Islam (LI) claimed responsibility for the bomb attack.

The Dars Jummat area of Akkakhel was a stronghold of the LI before security forces launched Khyber 1 military operation there in 2014 and successfully evicted LI militants from the area during the four-month-long operation which involved both ground forces’ actions and air strikes.

After being driven out from the area, LI chief Mangal Bagh and his close associates took refuge in the bordering areas of Afghanistan from where they launch attacks in Khyber Agency and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Monday’s attack is the second such incident since the return of displaced people in different parts of Tirah in November last year.

A soldier of the army embraced martyrdom in the other attack took place in Bagh-Maidan area of Malakadin Khel in Tirah in December last year.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2017