At least four Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were martyred and three others injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in the Kharlachi area of Kurram Agency near the Pak-Afghan border on Sunday.

An Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) handout said the troops targeted by the blast "were part of a search party for handlers of the rescued foreigners", Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle, who were recovered by the army near Kohat.

ISPR identified the martrys as Captain Husnain, Sepoy Saeed Baz, Sepoy Qadir and Sepoy Jumma Gul. The injured were identified as Naik Anwar, Sepoy Zahir and Lance Naik Sher Afzal.

Earlier, security sources told DawnNews that three small blasts had occurred in the area ─ the first when a bomb disposal squad team was conducting a routine search in the area, and two others as security forces reached the site of the blast to aid a rescue operation.

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.

Following the blasts, security officials cordoned off the area and launched a search operation, while all those injured were shifted to nearby hospitals for treatment.

The funeral processions of the martyred soldiers were held at FC Headquarters in Parachinar.

Kurram is one of the most sensitive tribal areas as it borders three Afghan provinces and at one point was one of the key routes for militant movement across the border.

The region was claimed by the military to have been cleared of insurgents during an operation a few years ago. However, militants still carry out sectarian attacks and also target security forces occasionally.

Opinion

Editorial

More desecration
Updated 27 Sep, 2023

More desecration

Attacks on the Islamic faith are not motivated by an attachment to free speech but by raw hatred.
Worrying remarks
27 Sep, 2023

Worrying remarks

THESE are ominous words from Gwadar. Maulana Hidayatur Rehman, chairman of the Gwadar Haq Do Tehreek, has warned ...
Justice or vendetta?
Updated 27 Sep, 2023

Justice or vendetta?

ONE wonders whether all pretence of the state as a democracy has been whittled down to a point where it has simply...
Free and fair?
Updated 26 Sep, 2023

Free and fair?

It is disingenuous to suggest the fairness of any polling exercise should be considered without regard to all that has preceded it.
Unto darkness
26 Sep, 2023

Unto darkness

YET another case of medical malpractice has come to light in Punjab. The eyesight of several diabetic patients has...
Unions on campus
26 Sep, 2023

Unions on campus

DEPOLITICISED youth unfamiliar with democratic norms cannot be good for the future of representative rule in...