KHAAR, Sept 4: Four timber merchants of the same family of Bajaur Agency were killed and another man was injured seriously when they were ambushed near the Pakistan-Afghan border in Kunar province of Afghanistan , sources and eyewitnesses told Dawn here on Saturday.

A group of four Pakistani timber merchants, belonging to Mamund area of the Bajaur Agency, went to Asadabad, the capital of Kunar province, for a deal with Afghan traders a few days ago.

They completed the deal with Afghans and were returning from Asadabad on Friday. But when they reached near Pakistan-Afghan border in Chenar Shagai area inside Afghanistan, some unidentified Afghans ambushed their vehicle.

As a result, Haji Zrawar Khan and his brother Basur Khan, Bazun Gul and Haji Akbar Khan, all of the same family, were killed on the spot, while the driver of the vehicle received serious bullet injuries. The driver was rushed to the Asadabad Hospital, the sources maintained.

Bodies of the four victims were brought to Bajaur Agency on Saturday where they were buried at their ancestral graveyard in Bar Khlozo area.

Meanwhile, the people of Bajaur Agency have demanded of the Kunar government to arrest those Afghans involved in the killing of the timber merchants.

It is pertinent to mention here that some 40 days ago, Salarzai tribesmen of Bajaur Agency exchanged gunfire with Afghan troops of Kunar province over the issue of timber tax collection from Pakistani timber merchants, in which eight persons were killed.

The Salarzai tribesmen had also kidnapped eight Afghan soldiers and released them after an assurance from the Kunar provincial authorities that they would not raise the tax issue again.