KURRAM / SOUTH WAZIRI­STAN: Four security personnel were injured in a cross-border attack on checkpoints in Kurram district on Monday, sources said, adding that 12 alleged attackers were reportedly killed in retaliation.

The checkpoints in the Teri Mangal area of Kurram, which borders Afghanistan’s Khost, Paktia and Nangarhar provinces, were fired upon from across the border.

The attack, launched with heavy weapons late into the night, targeted security installations within a 10km radius, sources claimed. The situation was tense, and the Pak-Afghan border was also closed following the attack.

Four of a family killed in South Waziristan explosion

South Waziristan blast

Four members of a family were killed and another was injured in an explosion in Ladha tehsil of Upper South Waziristan district on Tuesday, according to a senior district official.

Two current and former National Assembly members from the area and a local activist have disputed the official account, claiming that it was not an explosion, but a drone attack.

The explosion took place in the remote Tangi Bandizai village of Ladha tehsil at around 5am, according to officials and local tribesmen.

A senior official of the district administration confirmed the incident, claiming that the blast occurred inside a house where explosives were stored. Upper South Waziristan DPO Malik Habib said further investigation was underway.

The deceased were identified as Banat Khan, his wife and their children, 17-year-old Shahzeb and four-year-old Rajma Bibi. The 13-year-old girl injured in the blast was shifted to a D.I. Khan hospital.

Maulana Jamaluddin Mehsud, a former MNA from the area, claimed that it was a drone attack. In a video message, he said the family had shifted to the area to avoid the hot weather in their native village and was “caught in a drone strike”.

Incumbent South Waziristan MNA Zubair Khan Wazir condemned the incident, saying the “drone attack” in the area “showed the situation was deliberately being allowed to deteriorate”.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2024