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| India-Pakistan |
| Six killed as shell hits house in Bajaur |
| 2008-08-24 |
| Six civilians, including a woman and four children, were killed when an artillery shell hit the house of a government employee in Khar town, the headquarters of the Bajaur Agency. Sources told The News that a shell fired by the paramilitary troops from Torghundai Frontier Corps camp on Khar-Munda Road hit the house of Qasim Jan, killing his wife, son Ayaz, daughter and two other children. The residents said the attack also injured 10 people, one of whom later succumbed to his injuries at the Agency Headquarters Hospital. Qasim, a driver in the local government department, had been living in an official residential colony near the paramilitary Bajaur Scouts headquarters in Khar. Local people said three more houses, inhabited by government servants, were also damaged in the indiscriminate artillery shelling. It was baffling for area residents as to what prompted the troops stationed in a remote area like Torghundai in Dir district to fire artillery shells on an area, which was comparatively nearer to the security forces based in Khar town. Some of the injured were identified as Qasim Jan, Sher Khan, Abdur Rahman, Abdur Rahim, Tahir Khan and Mir Ali Khan. Later, hundreds of people staged a protest demonstration in front of the FC headquarters in Khar and condemned what they termed indiscriminate mortar and artillery shelling on residential areas instead of targeting militant positions. The protesting tribesmen complained that on the one hand the government and military authorities were asking them to return to their homes and start routine business activities and on the other the security forces were shelling their houses. Military authorities said the security forces wanted to target a group of militants planning to attack the law-enforcement agencies and the government installations. They argued the artillery shell could have possibly missed its target and hit a house. Earlier, people in Khar town opened markets and shops in the morning after several days of closure, giving an impression as if normalcy had returned to the militancy-stricken tribal region. |
| Posted by:Fred |