KOHAT, Dec 18: Six people were killed and nine others injured when rockets fired from Orakzai Agency exploded in residential areas of Hangu district during Ashura activities on Friday.

Officials said on Saturday the target was the main Ashura procession which was passing through a bazaar in Hangu. About 10 rockets were fired from the mountains in Orakzai, but they missed the target.

More than two rockets exploded outside an imambargah in Malakabad area. Constable Bahadar Ali and a man identified as Asif Ali were killed.

Two rockets hit a house in Kurram-i-Wala, a Sunni-dominated area. Four people, identified as Wahid Ali, Zeeshan Ali, Qadir Ali and Qudoos Ali, were killed.

The rockets were allegedly fired by the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi group, which had in the past claimed responsibility for a number of suicide attacks on imambargahs in the region.—Abdul Sami Paracha