Explosives kill Pakistan tribal official, 5 children
PAKISTAN - 27 DECEMBER 2009
PESHAWAR, Pakistan Militants on Sunday blew up the home of an official in a Pakistan tribal district rife with sectarian tensions, killing him and five children as they slept, officials said.
There was no claim of responsibility and it was unclear whether the Taliban, other extremists or radical Shiites were behind the attack on the edge of the Sunni-dominated Sadda town in the Shiite-dominated Kurram district.
The remote region is part of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border that US officials have dubbed the most dangerous place on Earth and a chief sanctuary of Al-Qaeda.
"Unknown miscreants planted dynamite around the house and exploded it between 2:00am (2100 GMT) and 3:00am and the house was destroyed," Abab Ali, an administration official in the main Kurram control room, told AFP by telephone.
"An administration official, one of his sons and four other relatives died, and three other relatives were wounded," he said.
"Besides the official, those killed were aged five to 11. We don't know whether the Taliban, terrorists or Shiites were responsible," he added.
A local resident confirmed the official and five children were killed as they slept in Mosu Zai village on the edge of Sadda more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) southwest of northwestern city Peshawar.
"Three rooms of the house, where these people were sleeping, were totally destroyed. A girl was also injured," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The attack came as Shiites commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680.
Shiites account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 167 million. More than 4,000 people have died in outbreaks of sectarian violence in Pakistan since the late 1980s.
Source: AFP
PAKISTAN - 27 DECEMBER 2009
PESHAWAR, Pakistan Militants on Sunday blew up the home of an official in a Pakistan tribal district rife with sectarian tensions, killing him and five children as they slept, officials said.
There was no claim of responsibility and it was unclear whether the Taliban, other extremists or radical Shiites were behind the attack on the edge of the Sunni-dominated Sadda town in the Shiite-dominated Kurram district.
The remote region is part of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border that US officials have dubbed the most dangerous place on Earth and a chief sanctuary of Al-Qaeda.
"Unknown miscreants planted dynamite around the house and exploded it between 2:00am (2100 GMT) and 3:00am and the house was destroyed," Abab Ali, an administration official in the main Kurram control room, told AFP by telephone.
"An administration official, one of his sons and four other relatives died, and three other relatives were wounded," he said.
"Besides the official, those killed were aged five to 11. We don't know whether the Taliban, terrorists or Shiites were responsible," he added.
A local resident confirmed the official and five children were killed as they slept in Mosu Zai village on the edge of Sadda more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) southwest of northwestern city Peshawar.
"Three rooms of the house, where these people were sleeping, were totally destroyed. A girl was also injured," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The attack came as Shiites commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680.
Shiites account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 167 million. More than 4,000 people have died in outbreaks of sectarian violence in Pakistan since the late 1980s.
Source: AFP
Last edited:
