LAKKI MARWAT, Aug 4: Sixteen people, four of them foreigners, received injuries when a pick-up rammed into a coach in Ghaznikhel here on Sunday.

The pick-up (IDG-4299), which was carrying the foreigners, hit the coach (BUC-1296), going to Dera Ismail Khan from Bannu, near the village of Matora, some 25km of here.

All the 11 passengers of the coach and its driver were injured. Two of them had their arms fractured. They were taken to the Titterkhel Rural Health Centre.

The injured were identified by hospital sources as coach driver Mir Zakam Khan, Aftab Ali, Hidayatullah, Suhail, Mir Qadir, Mir Abaas Khan, Hamidullah, Sardar, Wahidullah, Mohammad Sher Ajam, his wife, Mir Saddaf Janna, and daughter, Dil Fida.

According to intelligence agencies’ sources, the foreigners were the agents of a US secret agency and were possibly on their way to a special mission in the area. They were airlifted to some unknown place by a helicopter.

Earlier, the Ghaznikhel police and law-enforcement agencies cordoned off the area soon after coming to know about the involvement of foreigners in the accident, and blocked the Indus Highway to avert any untoward situation.

Two of the foreigners, believed to be FBI operatives, driver Wayne and Caveis, had sustained minor injuries, the sources said, adding that the foreigners had deliberately told them wrong names.

The sources maintained that the foreigners had had a wireless system in their vehicle, which meant that they had been on a mission.

Officials of law-enforcement agencies said the agents of the US secret agency had refused to give any detail about themselves, except the two, who had only divulged their identity.

The foreigners informed someone by the wireless and soon a helicopter arrived there and took them to some unspecified destination.

The police lodged a preliminary report under sections 289/337-G/427 of the PPC.

Meanwhile, religious leaders expressed concern over the growing presence of foreign operatives in the southern districts of the NWFP.