Daily Times

At least five people, including leader of the peace committee, were killed and two others wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast on Thursday in South Waziristan’s Sarwakai area.

Additional Political Agent (APA) Ashfaq Khan told Daily Times that Wali Jan Mehsud, leader of the peace committee, was traveling in a vehicle. “The vehicle was targeted near Siplatoi area with an IED blast on the main Sarwakai Road. He and his four colleagues died on the spot,” the official said.

The victims included a schoolteacher Ahmad Gul, Malik Mewa Khan, Malik Ardil and bodyguard Zaman.

Ahmed Jan, brother of Wali Jan Mehsud, and another person suffered grievous injuries who were rushed to a nearby Mualay Khan Sarai Hospital for initial treatment. “The explosion was so powerful that it completely destroyed the vehicle,” a local Sikander Hayat said. Khan said Wali Jan Mehsud had survived three similar attempts on his life in the past.

Khan said soon after the blast, security forces rushed to the scene and cordoned off the blast site after shifting the dead and injured to the nearest medical facility. “Security forces have started a search operation in the area,” he said.

According to a 2012 report by the FATA Research Center (FRC), a think-tank working on FATA region, the first military operation was launched in 2009, leaving an estimated two million people displaced from South Waziristan.

On repatriation of temporary displaced persons (TDPs), the APA said that South Waziristan Agency had now been opened except of Shaktoi area, where the security forces had launched operation some days back.

Published in Daily Times, December 1^st 2017.