KOHAT, Dec 5: At least seven tribesmen were killed and several others injured when a suicide bomber blew up an explosive-laden vehicle near a jirga between Baramadkhel and Utmankhel tribes in Kalaya, the headquarters of Orakzai Agency, on Friday.

The Kalaya and Ferozekhel bazaars were closed after the blast for fear of sectarian violence.

Security personnel had stopped the vehicle on a bridge but the driver rushed towards the jirga and detonated the explosives.

According to officials, the jirga was held to resolve a dispute which erupted when a girl of Utmankhel ran away with a Baramadkhel boy. The boy and the girl are in the custody of the Baramadkhels.

Sources said that the local Taliban had demanded that the two be handed over to them so that they could be punished in accordance with local customs.

AFP adds: Taliban militants shot dead a tribesman in the Mir Ali town of North Waziristan near the Afghan border, accusing him of spying for the United States, officials said on Friday.

The body of the 30-year-old man was dumped on a roadside.

A note found on the victim’s body warned that anyone “found spying against mujahideen will face the same fate,” a security official said.

Local officials said the man’s body had been handed over to his family for burial.—AFP