Several seminaries were destroyed in the aerial attacks. — File

KOHAT At least 47 people, women, children as well as militants among them, were killed in shelling by helicopter gunships and planes on seminaries and militants' camps in Hangu district and Orakzai Agency on Thursday. A religious leader was among 14 people killed in three areas of Hangu.

District Nazim Khan Afzal said Maulana Mohammad Amin, deputy chairman of the Sunni Supreme Council, and his 12-year-old nephew were killed by shelling on the Jamia Yousufia seminary in Wam area.

Three women were killed when their house was hit during an attack on another seminary in Shahukhel. The body of a six-year-old girl was found in the debris of the seminary.

(News agencies and BBC Urdu quoted a military official as saying that the seminary in Shahukhel was being used by militants for attacks on security forces.

He said that the seminary was also used for sectarian attacks and to shelter miscreants involved in kidnapping for ransom. The officer also said that the military never attacked any place without concrete information about a place.

He said there was information that innocent people were being slaughtered in the seminary. He also alleged that there were about 40 terrorists in the seminary at the time of the attack. The officer also said that Maulana Amin had close links with several militant commanders.)

Five women and two children of the family of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam's district chief Maulana Din Asghar were killed when a house was shelled in Zargari.

In the same area, a student was killed and two others injured in an attack on a school.

Maulana Amin was buried in his ancestral graveyard.

The killing of the religious leader and women and children has enraged local people and the nazim told Dawn that policemen remained confined in police stations and even withdrew from the local hospital.

Police also left all checkpoints and stopped patrolling fearing a violent reaction to the killings.

Markets in the district were closed in protest against the killing of Maulana Amin and relatives of the JUI leader.

It may be mentioned that leaders of the Sunni Supreme Council had issued a statement last week urging the government not to launch an operation in the area.

Planes pounded suspected militant positions in Dabori and attacked the camp of militant 'commander' Gul Zaman. Taliban hideouts in Mullahkhel, Sheikhan, Mishti bazaar, Sultanzai and Ghiljo also came under attack.

At least 33 tribesmen and militants were killed in the air strikes.