Peshawar, 7 Nov. (AKI/DAWN) - Four suspected foreign militants and four members of their family were killed when an explosive device they were making went off on Saturday in a tribal area of the North Waziristan Agency, on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, officials told the Pakistani daily Dawn. A local resident was also injured in the blast. The incident took place at Mosaka village, about 200 kilometres from Miramshah, at around 1:30am, said an official. He said the four militants, apparently Arabs, were making a bomb which exploded, blowing up the room of their mud house and killing everyone inside - four men, a woman, and three girls.An official with Pakistan's army Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) in Peshawar said that a woman named Misbah had rented out the house to the Arab family. Misbah lived next door and was injured in the explosion, he said, adding that the owner escaped soon after the incident.
| "Curly toed slippers, don't fail me now!" |
A political official said they had asked tribal elders to hand over Misbah to the authorities. They had been warned that if they failed to hand over the woman, they would be punished under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crime Regulation, he added.
Most of tribesmen in the area live in fortified mud houses and adhere to Islamic traditions.
| Killing folk, blowing stuff up, beating their wives, etc.. |
North and South Waziristan have been at the centre of prolonged confrontations between the army and militant groups which include suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Hundreds of militants and more than 250 Pakistani soldiers have died in the tribal areas. Thousands of troops have been deployed to tackle militants in the Afghan border region.