Landmine kills Children in NW Pakistan; Two Die by Sui Blast
'Pakistan Times' NWFP Bureau

KHAR: A land mine exploded in a village in Inayat Qala, a village about 10 kilometres north of Khar Bajaur Agency, killing three young girls who were playing in a field, an official said.

Security in a retaliatory strike accidentally killed a civilian after a bomb blast hit their convoy in North Waziristan.

In the first incident one of the girls apparently stepped on the land mine triggering it to explode in Inayat Qala, a village about 10 kilometres north of Khar, the main town in Bajaur tribal region, local government official Amir Zaman Khan said.

The girls, whose bodies were badly mutilated in the explosion, were cousins and between 7 and 10 years old, Amir Zaman Khan said. It was not known who might have planted the explosive but Amir Zaman Khan and other security officials inspected the scene and started an investigation.

Local tribesmen are sometimes blamed for planting land mines around their fields to ward off stray cattle.

Two killed in Mach, Sui blasts

And a report from Quetta says that a minor girl was killed and five members of her family were injured, three of them seriously, when a powerful explosive device into a house in Mach town of Bolan district Monday night while a man was killed in a landmine blast in Sui.

Police said unknown terrorists lobbed an explosive device into the house of one Abdul Jabbar in Mekrani Mohallah of Mach town.

The device went off with a loud bang, injuring six members of the ill-fated family.

A seven years old girl, who sustained serious injuries, died on way to hospital.
The explosion was so powerful that it smashed windowpanes of nearby buildings.

Neighbours of Abdul Jabbar rushed the injured to a local hospital for medical assistance. Condition of three injured was stated to be precarious, according to hospital sources.

Online adds: In Sui, a person was killed and another injured in a landmine blast while seven rockets were fired on security checkposts. T
he rocket firing incidents were reported from Ghori Nala, Chashma and Sangsila in Dera Bugti.

In Kohlu, intense firing was exchanged by security forces and miscreants during clashes while in Dera Bugti security forces foiled an attempt by unknown persons to target the Loti Gas Field by recovering missiles, rockets and other ammunition. No arrest was made.●