The sources said unidentified miscreants blew up the Government Middle School at Malik Sher Killay in Utmanzai Shatai Kandao area in Pandyalai late Friday night and the personnel of the Khushal Scouts, a wing of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC), were on the way to the spot to carry out a search operation when their vehicle hit an IED planted on the road.
Four soldiers, including Habib Khan, Wajid Khan, Sabir and Hazrat Noor were killed on the spot and three others were injured in the explosion. The injured soldiers, including Sohail, Hameed Khan and another one whose name could not be known, were being shifted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Peshawar by a helicopter, but two of them succumbed to their injuries.
The third injured soldier was also stated to be in a critical condition. The vehicle was destroyed in the blast.
The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Mohmand Agency chapter’s spokesman Umar Khurasani claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to journalists in Ghallanai from an undisclosed location.
Most members of this group are based across the border in Afghanistan’s Kunar and Nangarhar provinces. Its head is Abdul Wali, who calls himself Omar Khalid Khurasani and has been living in Goshta district in the neighbouring Nangarhar province.
Meanwhile, a previously unheard of militant group, Lashkar-e-Jarrar, also claimed responsibility for the attack in Mohmand Agency. Its spokesman, Mohammadullah, phoned reporters in Kohat and other places to claim that their men had launched the attack to take revenge for the incident in Mir Ali in North Waziristan. He apparently referred to recent airstrikes in North Waziristan in which reportedly militants and civilians were killed. “We are an independent group and our attacks would continue until we kill 100 of our enemies to equal the death toll in the ongoing airstrikes in North Waziristan,” Mohammadullah stressed.
Soon after the attack, the security forces and the political administration in a joint search operation arrested 31 suspects, including the watchman of the bombed school under the collective responsibility section of the Frontier Crimes Regulation. Sniffer dogs were also used in the search operation.
The recent bombing raised the number of destroyed schools in Mohmand Agency to 126.
Meanwhile, the political administration imposed an indefinite curfew in Khwezai, Safi and Haleemzai tehsils for an indefinite period. The main road from Nahaqi in Mohmand to Bajaur Agency and the one from Hapah to Bhai Daag were put under curfew.
The curfew caused gridlock on the Peshawar-Bajaur road, leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded. The local people remained indoors due to the curfew. They were concerned that the indefinite curfew could cause shortage of food items in the areas placed under curfew.
Online adds from Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Saturday strongly condemned the Mohmand Agency blast.
In his message, the prime minister expressed deep sorrow over the loss of precious lives in the blast.
He prayed that Almighty Allah rest the departed souls in eternal peace and grant courage to the bereaved families to bear the loss with equanimity.
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