LANDI KOTAL, April 9: A ten-year-old boy was critically wounded when he picked up a toy bomb in Bara on Tuesday.

Sources said Asmat Khan picked up a toy bomb in Alamgudar area from a roadside and started playing with it when the device exploded. The explosion injured him critically. He was later shifted to hospital. Local people said some more toy bombs were also spotted in the nearby localities and demanded of the security forces to clear the area of the dangerous devices.

Meanwhile, the house of a local resident in Shalobar area was badly damaged when a stray mortar fell on the house.

Sources said the mortar fired by unidentified men landed at the house of Haji Mohammad Salim, general secretary of Khyber Union, a local political organisation. The mortar caused damage to most parts of the house but luckily no one was hurt.

COMPENSATION SOUGHT: A suspended official of Khyber Levies has demanded compensation against the occupation of his house by security forces in Akkakhel area of Bara.

In an appeal to the IG FC and political administration of Khyber, Mohammad Nabi contended that his house situated in Sial Khan Kali in Akkakhel was occupied by the security forces on December 27 last year without his approval or a written agreement. He said later a check post had been established at his house.

He said his family had long moved out of Akkakhel due to insecurity and had also registered himself as an IDP. He said security forces had now started digging up trenches inside his house which he apprehended could weaken the foundations of his house.He appealed to the IG Frontier Corps and political agent Khyber to compensate him for the occupation of his house.

The Khyber Agency administration suspended the services of Mohammad Nabi in September 2009 after he along with nearly 700 khasadar and levies personnel resigned en bloc after they were threatened by a Bara based militant group.

Mohammad Nabi has also approached the Peshawar High Court after the Khyber administration refused to reinstate him despite reinstatement of all the other khasadar and levies personnel two months back.