KHAAR (Bajaur Agency), Oct 14: A remote-controlled explosive device ripped through the offices of a non-governmental organization, which was being run in cooperation with the European Union in the Bajaur tribal agency, partially damaging it on Thursday night.

The political authorities have arrested two tribesmen suspected of involvement in the attack on the NGO office in the Siddiqabad area, some two kilometres from the Agency Headquarters town of Khaar.

Sources said that NGO officials were inside the office building at the time of the attack, which badly damaged its boundary wall.

The NGO is functioning in the Bajaur Agency for the last four years. Initially, the EU-assisted NGO worked in the refugee camps but after the repatriation of Afghans from the agency and the closure of the camps, it started working for the welfare of the local tribesmen.

Sources said that NGO officials had received many written warnings during the past four weeks from fundamental religious elements to wind the offices and leave the agency.

It must be mentioned here that non-governmental and welfare organizations are facing problems in operating in the Bajaur Agency due to hurdles being put up by religious fanatics in the path of their work.

GIRL KILLED: An eleven-year-old girl, Khadija Bibi, was killed when she stepped on an anti-personnel mine in the Nawakilli area on Thursday night.

The mine was planted outside the house of one Haji Mohammad Khan by unidentified men. When Mr Khan’s daughter stepped on the mine she was fatally injured. The girl was taken to a hospital where she died.