PARACHINAR, April 21: The bodies of eight kidnapped passengers, found in Shahidano Dhand area of lower Kurram, were handed over by the political authorities to elders of Turi tribe on Thursday.

Militants had attacked a convoy in Beggan area of Kurram Agency on March 25. Three people were killed and two other injured in the attack. The attackers also kidnapped 35 passengers.

A tribal jirga that met in Islamabad on Tuesday were told about the killing of some of the captives. The jirga was convened to discuss ways and means for the release of kidnapped persons and salvage peace agreement in the restive area.

MNA Sajid Turi said that political administration handed over bodies of eight kidnapped passengers to them. They were identified as Irfan Hussain, Ghulam Ali, Laiq Hussain, Irshad Hussain, Nasir Hussain, Khalid Anwar, Nowroz Hussain while name of the eighth passenger could not be ascertained, he said.

Mr Turi said that all the bodies were headless and identified by the documents with them. He said that militants and their local supporters in Beggan were responsible for the incident. He demanded of the government to start action against them.

Meanwhile, military helicopters bombed Lashkar-i-Islam hideouts in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency on Thursday, official sources said.

They said that the action was necessitated after intelligence information about the presence of large number of LI activists in Khar Ghat and surrounding areas of Bazaar-Zakhakhel. Number of casualties could not be immediately known.

Meanwhile, officials of political administration claimed to have established offices for the first time in Jarhobi area of Bazaar-Zkhakhel after a tribal lashkar expelled activists of LI from there. They said that security checkposts were also set up at Ziyarhai top and Mangal Bagh Kandao.

Officials claimed to have completely cleared the area of LI activists and were now concentrating on initiating development schemes for the collective benefits of area residents.

On the other hand unidentified persons blew up a government primary school for boys in Mandathu Kuthee area of Ghundi in Jamrud tehsil on Wednesday night. Officials said the explosion completely damaged the school building.

In Jamrud, militants targeted two oil tankers and a vehicle of Khasadar Force on Thursday morning in two separate incidents.

The first incident took place near TD bazaar where a time device planted at a roadside went off when an oil tanker and a vehicle of khasadars were passing through the area. The explosion caused minor damage to an abandoned checkpost in the area while the vehicles remained undamaged.

In the other incident at Sur Kamar area in Jamrud, masked armed men fired at an oil tanker taking fuel to Nato forces in Afghanistan. The firing could not cause any damage to the tanker.

The Khasadar force also detonated on Thursday a time device planted along the road near Sakhi Pul area in Jamrud.

In Dera Ismail Khan, two policemen were killed when armed motorcyclists opened firing on them on Multan Road in the limits of Cantt police station on Thursday.

Sources said that two personnel of police Eagle Squad signalled two suspected motorcyclists in Zamirabad locality to stop. The bikers opened indiscriminate firing on them, killing both policemen identified as Asif and Naimat on the spot.

The assailants managed to escape after the incident. They also took the guns of the policemen. The bodies of the killed policemen were taken to district headquarters hospital for postmortem and later handed over to their relatives.

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