KOHAT, Nov 21: In the first drone attack in an area outside the tribal region in several years, a suspected unmanned US plane struck a seminary in Hangu district on Thursday morning, killing six people, among them senior commanders of the Haqqani network.

The news stunned the country as only a day earlier Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz informed a Senate committee that the United States had expressed its willingness to suspend drone attacks during peace talks with Taliban.

Major political parties severely criticised the government for its failure to get the attacks stopped and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, which has already planned to hold protests on Saturday to block Nato supply routes, announced that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would come up with its response to the new attack after an emergency meeting of the cabinet, particularly because the US had expanded the area of attack beyond Fata.

According to security officials, missiles fired by the drone shortly before dawn hit Darul Uloom Miftahul Quran in Tall, adjoining the Kurram tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

An official in Peshawar said the seminary belonged to Qari Noor Mohammad who had affiliation with the Haqqani network.

A security official said five prominent Afghan militant commanders were among those killed — Maulvi Ghazi Marjan, Ahmad Jan, Hameedullah Haqqani, Maulvi Kaleemullah and Sheikh Abdur Rehman. Another official said the sixth man killed and some who were injured were students of the seminary situated in Tandora in a small Afghan refugee camp.

Local people said drones had been flying over the area since Monday.

The official said Maulvi Ahmad was the financial chief of the Haqqani network and Hameedullah was a senior ‘commander’.

“The Americans had been after Ahmad Jan for some time,” the sources said.

This was the first drone strike on a fully settled district. Two drone strikes, one in 2008 and the other in 2009, had taken place in Bannu Frontier Region, a semi-autonomous tribal region.

It is not clear if Hangu was within the box in which Pakistan was reported to have previously allowed the Americans to operate. The government publicly and officially condemns all drone strikes.

The expansion of the drone strikes to settled areas should trigger alarm bells in Islamabad.

“The question is: where will Pakistan draw the red line to the Americans,” a security analyst said.

Our Peshawar Bureau adds: Tall police registered an initial report of the incident against unidentified persons.According to the report, shells fired from an unknown location hit Darul Uloom Miftahul Quran, which killed six people and injured eight others.

“We don’t know exactly whether it was a drone strike, missile or mortar attack,” an official said.

The report was registered under Sections 302 (murder) and 427 (mischief to destroy property) of Pakistan Penal Code, Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and Sections 3 and 4 of the Explosive Substance Act.

The sources said Maulana Ahmad Jan was a close associate of Sirajuddin Haqqani.

According to witnesses, some bodies were shifted to Afghanistan while the coffin of Hameedullah was taken to Sadda town in Kurram Agency where it was buried.