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| India-Pakistan |
| 60 civilians killed in Tirah bombing |
| 2010-04-12 |
| [The News (Pak) Top Stories] Sixty civilians were killed and as many sustained injuries when fighter jets bombed Sra Vella in Jamrud Tehsil's Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency on Saturday, local sources said. However, official sources claimed 35 militants were killed when jets hit their hideouts in the valley. The injured were shifted to hospitals in Jamrud and Peshawar through the difficult hilly areas and most of them succumbed to their injuries on the way, the sources said. Tribal sources said two fighter jets dropped heavy bombs on the house of Hameed Gul in the Sra Vella area in Tirah Valley around 10:00am. As a result, the house was turned into rubble and three children and two women were killed. "After 10 minutes of the bombardment when the villagers and labourers working on nearby water channel approached the house to retrieve the bodies, the fighter jets again bombed the house killing and injuring more than 150 people," Sadiq Khan, an injured and eyewitness, told this scribe in the Civil Hospital Jamrud. He said all those killed and injured, including women, in the bombardment were from Kokikhel, a sub-tribe of Afridis and were innocent people having no links with the militants. Some of the slain tribesmen included a tribal elder, Said Noor, Khana Baan, Taweez Gul, Shaoor Baaz, Bismillah Khan, Amrat, Aman Shah, Tor Jan, Mahabat Khan, Daulat Khan, Khalid, Asadullah, Shakirullah, Khair Muhammad, Aziz, Umer Khan, Abid Khan, Khalid, Zahoor, Saeed, Qari Asadullah, Khanzeb, Waheel, Sabeel, Subedar Samandar Khan, Zahoor and Malik Jan. "We are neither associated with the Taliban nor the militant group Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) then why security forces killed my son," Ameen Jan, the father of Saeed, told this scribe while carrying a coffin for his son in Jamrud Bazaar. He said the house which was bombarded by fighter jets was owned by three brothers Sher Mat Khan, who is a soldier in the Pakistan Army, and Yarmat Khan and Qimat Khan, who are serving in the Shawal Rifles in the paramilitary Frontier Corps. He expressed surprise that the military authorities did not know that security forces pounded and destroyed the house of their own soldiers. Meanwhile, security forces claimed that 35 militants were killed when jets pounded their hideouts in Fasht Killay, Maharaba Tapo and Dowa areas in Tirah Valley early in the day. The sources said the area is considered to be the stronghold of the LI. Security forces had been carrying out airstrikes against the hideouts of militants of the Mangal Bagh-led LI and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency for the last seven months. It was the first time that fighter jets carried out bombardment in the Kokikhel area of Jamrud Tehsil. The residents of Jamrud Tehsil resented the bombardment and asked the government to bring to justice those responsible for the killing of innocent people. They said innocent people were killed and maimed but the authorities were claiming to have eliminated militants. |
| Posted by:Fred |