MARDAN, April 16 A former women councillor and a woman employee of an NGO were killed in separate incidents here on Thursday.

According to sources, an explosion caused by a home-made bomb planted in the office of the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) in the Hattian village killed Mumtaz Begum.

The NGO's office was located in building belonging to a former MPA of the Awami National Party.

Local Taliban leader Habibur Rehman claimed responsibility for the attack. He accused NGOs of propagating obscenity and vulgarity and threatened further attacks.

In the other incident, armed men gunned down Shaheen Bibi, a former councillor of the Union Council Gujjar Garhi.

A number of terrorist attacks have taken place in Hattian, Shergarh, Lund Khwar and Takhtbai areas of Mardan in recent days and a number of girl schools, police stations, security posts, music centres and cellphone towers have been targeted.

Abdul Sami Paracha adds from Kohat Three employees of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) were kidnapped on Thursday.

Police said that armed men intercepted an OGDCL vehicle near a camp set up by the company for soil testing and whisked the three away to the nearby mountains.

The kidnappers left behind their van and drove away in the company vehicle which was later found abandoned near the Nakband village. Those kidnapped were identified as Mohammad Arif, Qamar Hasnain Naqvi and their driver Mohammad Khan.

Police mounted a search but by that time the kidnappers had reportedly crossed over into the tribal areas.