Daily Times

SHABQADAR: Two USAID officials were killed and two others, including a tehsildar, sustained injuries when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off in Ambar Tehsil of Mohmand Agency on Tuesday, official sources said.

According to the political administration officials, Tehsildar Faramosh Khan was on an anti-poppy drive in Ambar tehsil area along with Anti-Narcotics Force officials and USAID campaigners when an IED device planted on the roadside exploded. As a result of the explosion, the USAID campaigners were killed, while Faramosh and an ANF official sustained injuries. They were shifted to Ghalanai District Headquarters hospital for treatment. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.

US Secretary of State John Kerry told an audience at State Department that he had awakened to news that two Pakistani employees of the US consulate have been killed when an improvised explosive device detonated while they were on a mission to eradicate drug fields. Kerry says the Pakistani troops were guarding the mission. He lamented the deaths as senseless and denounced the perpetrators. Mohmand is one of Pakistan’s seven tribal agencies near the Afghan border where the military has been battling al Qaeda and Taliban-linked militants for over a decade.

An indefinite dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed across Mohmand Agency last month as security forces stepped up operations in the restive region. Residents were asked to stay home indefinitely via loudspeakers before the launching of an operation against the militants. According to the political administration, the measure was taken after two separate attacks in the agency which left nine security officials dead.