0
MIRAMSHAH: Security forces resorted to indiscriminate firing and shelling in North Waziristan Agency on Sunday, killing five innocent people, one of them a child, after two military convoys were attacked.
According to sources, the security personnel began shelling some villages in Mirali tehsil in retaliation against an attack by militants on a military convoy.
Local people said the forces pounded Embraksha, Nowrek and Hakimkhel villages in Mirali tehsil with heavy artillery pieces after militants attacked the convoy with machine guns. One soldier died in the attack and several others were injured.
The shelling was continuing till the filing of this report. The heavy shelling claimed the life of a child and injured several other people.
The sources said the villagers have been forced to flee to safe places. “People are running towards Haiderkhel village for shelter,” a villager told Dawn by telephone.
A roadside bomb ripped through another military convoy, injuring several soldiers.
Local people said that two women were killed and another injured when security personnel resorted to indiscriminate firing after the bomb explosion.
The soldiers also fired mortar shells, one of which hit a house, killing a woman and injuring two others. Later, one of the injured women died in a hospital in Miramshah, according to doctors.
The political administration imposed a curfew in towns and villages along the main road after the bomb attack on the military convoy. Interestingly, the security personnel were targeted despite a warning against such attacks by the Shura-i-Muraqiba (observation council) of the Taliban. The five-member council has representation from major Taliban groups, including the faction led by Commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur.
Gul Bahadur and elders of the Uthmankhel tribe have signed a peace agreement with the government.
Meanwhile, a man and a woman were injured when an anti-personnel mine exploded in Ghulam Khan tehsil near the Afghan border.
Local people said that security forces had planted the mines to protect them from militant attacks.
A camel was hit by a mine. When the woman ran towards the camel to save it, she too was hit by a mine. A man was hit by a mine when he tried to rescue the woman.
The animal died on the spot while the injured people were taken to the government hospital in Miramshah.
